Facing Windows (2003)

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Facing windows is the story of Giovanna, a woman that has grown dissatisfied with her marriage and her husband. She secretly watches the apartment that faces hers and the handsome bachelor Lorenzo that lives there. Her life suddenly becomes more interesting when her husband brings home an elderly man named Simone, that cannot remember where he is from or who he is. As the search for Simone's home and past continues, she finds help from her handsome neighbor Lorenzo. Will she fall in love with Lorenzo? What is the secret behind Simone's past?While this may sound like a steamy story of a dissatisfied housewife (the type that has become so overused in film), it is actually a very unique story that may not play out exactly as you are used to. All of these characters are brought to life wonderfully on screen and linger with you long after the film ends. It has a gentle message, something to chew on after the film is done, but it is more concerned with telling a beautiful story.Great acting, cinematography, and a unique story make this a film that even the most cynical film-goer will enjoy.

Facing Windows is about Giovanna,a bookkeeper in a company which packs chickens. She is married to a man who has a precarious job. First she starts being curious about a young man who lives in the block opposite hers, and then she falls in love with him.The relationship between the two becomes much stronger when she starts to find out more about him from an old man who bursts into their lives.The old man, obsessed with the memories of some things that happened n the long past autumn of 1943,has lost his memory and finds refuge in her. The movie stars Giovanna Mezzogiorno,Raoul Bova and Massimo Girotti together with Filippo Nigro,Serra Yilmaz, and Maria Grazia Bon.It was co-written and directed by Ferzan Özpetek.In the film that touches marriage,sexuality and holocaust,young married couple Giovanna and Filippo have been married long enough to have become almost completely jaded by their lots in life, with most of their individual aspirations having been set aside some time ago. As their marriage begins to fall apart, the two encounter a strange old man who calls himself Simone since he can't seem to recall his real name or much about his past history. Filippo brings the man home to stay with them, which initially irritates Giovanna. Over time, she gradually befriends the confused old man and eventually notices a tattoo on his arm indicative of his being a WWII Holocaust survivor. Taking "Simone" to an old Roman ghetto, she helps him remember his name and his time spent in that very ghetto -- which includes recalling the very painful memory of his lover Simone's capture and murder at the hands of the Nazis. Meanwhile, Giovanna has been spending her free time impulsively peeping across the street at her attractive neighbor Lorenzo -- who in turn has been spying on her. Giovanna is thus forced to decide between Filippo and Lorenzo, as well as possibly realizing a long dormant professional dream that her new friend Davide may be able to help her undertake.This Italian film is one great one that it has many characteristics that would satisfy the viewer.The characters are compelling enough to make it worth the view.Aside from that,the brilliant cast generated fine performances and the screenplay was absorbing as well as it blends romance, mystery and fantasy to in telling the narrative from beginning to end.The only thing that would probably considered the film's weakness is its tendency to be melodramatic in some scenes that it needs to be.Overall,this is one great Italian film that would gives off a lot of pleasure to the viewer.

One of the better films I've seen recently, Facing Windows (La Finestra di Fronte, an Italian gem is often elegant and sometimes poignant. It shouldn't be surprising that this foreign effort trounces anything Hollywood has coughed up recently. There are several noticeable elements that flow together well including an opening mystery and the interwoven romance, both of events past and present. I enjoyed the provocativeness of the forbidden affair that the main character Giovanna fantasized about and sort of intertwined with the mystery of the stranger at hand. Simone was a well done character as was her neighbor Lorenzo. As the mystery of the man is resolved, we still are unsure of what's going on with Giovanna - the movie takes the practical approach to the situation, and (spoiler) there is a short magnificent monologue concluding the movie. Although a few years old, one of the better movie's I've seen in awhile.

This is the best film I've seen in perhaps six months or more. The direction by Turkish/Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek is consistently interesting, intriguing, beguiling and ultimately satisfying both emotionally and intellectually. The film is beautifully cut, and the acting, particularly by the fascinating Giovanna Mezzogiorno who plays the young mother of two whose name is also Giovanna, is first rate.The story begins in a bakery during World War II when Davide Veroli (Massimo Girotti) is a baker's apprentice. We see him among the great earthen ovens and the warm loaves as he makes what appears to be a sprint out of the cave-like establishment. But he is pounced upon by the baker. They wrestle, a knife is grabbed and apparently the baker falls and there is blood on Davide's hands as he runs out into the streets.Cut to modern times as Giovanna and her working-class husband, Filippo (Filippo Nigro) are crossing a bridge in the city. They meet an old man who seems lost and disoriented. He can't remember his name and he has no identification. Filippo takes pity on him and against his wife's wishes takes him home with them to their apartment. We know because of the man's age that the mystery of who he is has something to do with the men in the bakery scene from World War II.But his story is only tangential to the central story of the film which is about Giovanna's brief affair with the man next door, Lorenzo (Raoul Bova), whose apartment window faces hers. This is a love story, a bitter-sweet one--which all great love stories should be in some sense, since life itself is bittersweet. It is framed by, and contrasted with, another love story, that involving the older man from many years ago.The tension in the film revolves around the resolution of the affair between the married Giovanna and the handsome man who will soon be leaving the city. Will she abandon her marriage and her family for the excitement of a new man? Because the police can find out nothing about the old man, and because Giovanna's heart softens toward him, and because he is an elegant man of refinement, especially in the pastry arts--Giovanna's dream is to be a pastry chef--the man is allowed to stay for a while and the two are drawn together into friendship, the old man and the young woman.That's enough of the plot--the development, the denouement, and the resolution of which are beautifully realized in both an artistic and an emotional sense. Instead let me say that the feel of modern Italy with its racial tensions and its old world versus new world differences are nicely expressed as the past makes itself felt on the present. The dialogue is wonderfully expressive and gives us the sense of authenticity and the kind of realistic effect seen only in the very best films. This is the first film directed by Ozpetek that I have seen, but it won't be the last.But see this for Giovanna Mezzogiorno whose beautiful and expressive eyes and natural demeanor will hold you to the screen.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)