Facing Windows (2003)

There is no accident that Facing Window (aka La finestra di fronte) was nominated for 11 Davids. It was the best Italian film that year and, in fact, the best Italian film in years. It only took a Greek director in the person of Ferzan Ozpetek to achieve this! However, Italians can rest quietly now that the epic Best of Youth (aka La meglio gioventù), also nominated for 11 Davids, who won the following year along with Italian Marco Tullio Giordana as best director, established itself as the height of modern Italian cinema.Giovanna Mezzogiorno is also something to be proud of for any finger-waving, chest-pumping Italian. She wins her first and currently only David in what will eventually be 7 nominations from 1999 to 2010. She may not be Monica Belluci beautiful, but her charisma in front of the camera and acting skills are undeniable. She shines here with a role with relatively few dialogues. She captured the World film-going's imagination with nominations in Czech Republic and at European Film Awards and a win at the Bangkok International Film Festival for Facing Window. As for Massimo Girotti, he will end a long acting career with a Best Actor David, although he regrettably passed away the month before the film was released in his country. His character oozes wisdom and sharing of life's essence and vivacity while accepting ones fate and helping future generations build a better humanity. I hope the actor had the same peaceful mindset in his last days.The film has a rather simple story and does not tackle something of Goliath proportion. It remains grounded and focused on daily life but brings dreams, feelings, past and hope for a better future in a very contemplative way. The voyeurism cinematography and outstanding music brings it all together. Family, love, work and helping other human beings are themes that are explored without giving much conclusions if any. The final scene, however sums up the short glimpse into someone's imperfect life and leaves you with a positive outlook on loss, life and continuity.Recommended for a thinking, slightly poetic, audience.

'La finestra di fronte' is a movie about discovering what you really want in life and finding the courage to follow this dream. The movie transmits a lot of mixed of emotions by means of two parallel stories, seeming similar at first, but which in the end prove to be each different and unique.Giovanna is a married woman in her 30s with two children and finding herself in a confusing time of her life, having to deal with frustrations and disappointments. Her marriage seems to be falling apart while she starts fantasising about the neighbour she sees every day through her window. At this time a new event comes to influence her life: meeting an old man having lost his memory whom she takes for a few days in her house.As the story unfolds, two forbidden love stories seem to come into shape. As Giovanna and Lorenzo, her neighbour, try to help the old man find his home, the passion they had created for each other while peering through each other's windows grows by each moment. At the same time, they start putting together the pieces to the puzzle of the old man's life and his forbidden uncompleted love for another man during the war.Giovanna is oscilating between her passion for the mysterious neighbour and the responsibilities for her family, but in the end the old man proves to be the one holding the key to her confusion: "Don't be content to merely survive. You must demand to live in a better world not just dream about it". By discovering herself in his personality, Giovanna manages to realise what her real frustrations were and what was truly missing from her life. Through the metaphor of the window the movie describes the difficult attempt to understand our own frustrations and desires which might not always be what we think they are.

One of the greatest Turkish directors ever, Ferzan Ozpetek has long proved himself as a director who doesn't only make good films but also makes them his own. With the elegant cast, the wonderful soundtrack and a cleverly knit story, La Finestra di Fronte is no exception to his brilliant movie-making.Beginning with the suffocatingly ordinary life of a young couple in Rome and developing as the couple host a stranger, an old man in their house and the lead actress' "improper" attraction to a stranger about whom she knows nothing; the story unfolds into the impossibility of two parallel love stories. The story of two young men during the Nazi suppression; and that of a man and a married woman; two relations both of which are considered highly immoral in their respective environments.Through the flashbacks, we are taken back to how love finds a way in a country under occupation and we see how the young woman sees her own love's fate in the old man's sad story.Worth seeing, and seeing again.

Many people note the similarity to Rear Window. But except for some peeping there is no comparison to be drawn. This is more subdued Schindler's List as a back tale in another tale of self-discovery and fulfillment of personal interests and love. One evokes the other, as Giovanna learns bit by bit about the horror stories of razzias in Rome and she starts changing her life. By far the best and most emotional shot comes when Giovanna looks from her friend and neighbor Lorenzo's home to her own home and life. Effective use of doors and windows.But that's it. There are no deeper layers, complex film-making or any other cinematic efforts at work here. It moves somewhat predictable to its end. To set it up as a mystery was still an interesting choice.Massimo Girotti fits here perfectly. But it lacks some coherence, an almost trademark weakness of current Italian cinema.