| | |  | PORTUGAL | Home » » Facing Windows | | | | | | | Description: | | A young working-class wife and mother unlocks a freedom within her heart that she never expected. Don't miss this critically-acclaimed, award-winning romance. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova, Filippo Nigro, Serra Yilmaz | | Format:
| AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| Italian | | Subtitle:
| English, French | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Sony Pictures | | Run Time:
| 102 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 02, 2004 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 38 reviews |
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Average Customer Review:
 ( 38 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 64 found the following review helpful:
 Friends and loversOct 19, 2004
By E. A Solinas
"ea_solinas"
"Facing Windows" is without a doubt the most beautiful film of last year... that nobody got to see. Despite winning the Italian Best Film Award in 2003, the movie went virtually unseen in the US. But it's a haunting, lush tale that, once seen, is virtually impossible to forget.
Kindhearted and scatterbrained Filippo (Filippo Nigro) encounters a befuddled old man in the streets, and takes him home to be cared for by his young wife Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). It's the last thing Giovanna needs -- aside from two young children, she has a rotten job and a fraying marriage that has lost its spark. She also is falling in love with the handsome young man (Raoul Bova) in the window facing hers.
But the old man, Simone (Massimo Girotti), has problems of his own, including flashbacks to a violent murder in 1943. He and Giovanna start to become friends, as he teaches her how to bake pastry like a true chef. The old man's memories start to unfold in a tragic story during the Holocaust, giving guidance to what Giovanna wishes to do with her life.
"Facing Windows" is a heavy movie -- it tackles marital problems, responsibility, Alzheimer's disease, homophobia, infidelity the Holocaust, and having your passions as the center of your life. But at its heart, it's about a woman waking up from a half-life, and reshaping things to the way they should be. Not to mention that the mountains of pastry will make viewers drool.
Ferzan Ozpetek draws viewers in as the movie becomes ever more mysterious and intriguing -- it starts off mundanely, with a flashback and a vision of a couple bickering. But the dramatic intensity begins to build, Ozpetek weaves a spiderweb of tension around the four people -- the old man, and the love triangle. His use of enigmatic flashbacks doesn't spoil the mysteries of old Simone/David's past, but rather enhances them.
Giovanna Mezzogiorno is superb as the same-named character -- she has that rare presence that fills up the screen and spills over. Her restrained performance is worshiped by the camera, which lingers all over her face. Massimo Girotti gives a subtler, but equally good performance as the old man, kindly and haunted by his tragic past.
"Don't be content to merely survive" -- nobody knows that lesson more than someone who never really got to live his life. Passionate and poignant, "Facing Windows" is a lush, beautiful look through the soul's window.
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Facing WestAug 26, 2004
By MICHAEL ACUNA
"Facing Windows" (La Finestra Di Fronte) is about the mis-connections, the social and personal things that keep us apart, keep us from loving how and whom we really want and doing what we really want to do.
Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) is living a life that she doesn't want: she loves her children and her job pays well but her husband Filippo is irresponsible; jumping from one job to the next: he's the proverbial child-man never accepting responsibility for his actions.
One night when Giovanna and Filippo are out for the evening they come upon an old man, obviously not a bum, who is disoriented and speaking of things long gone by. Over Giovanna's objections, Filippo takes the man Davide (Massimo Girotti) home with them. However grudgingly she does, Giovanna comes to realize, through the course of the film, that it is fate and good luck really that has brought she and Davide together. And more to the point it is Davide who snaps Giovanna out of her self-imposed ennui by telling her: "Your problem is that you've turned your passion (making pastry) into a hobby when it should have been the foremost thing in your life."
"Facing Windows" operates on several levels: as a detective story, as a love story and as a story of family and of marriage. But more importantly, it is about Giovanna waking up and realizing her potential and her dreams of fulfilling it; things like many of us, she has squandered and suppressed for a thousand "good" reasons.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Contemplative Drama of High Caliber...Jun 17, 2005
By Kim Anehall
"www.cinematica.org"
Windows have often have a symbolic value that some connect with looking towards the future, curiosity, opportunities, hope, and much more. This means that the title Facing Windows could suggest a number of different allegorical interpretations, which is for the audience's own analysis. Nonetheless, the title also proposes that a person who is looking through the window must take initiative by facing the window, or a symbolic interpretation would be futile. The Italian film Facing Window presents a visual experience that plays with the notion of dreaming and taking the initiative when opportunity presents itself.
On the way home, Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her husband Filippo (Filippo Nigro) come across an old disoriented man who wants to give Filippo some money. Sympathetically Giovanna expresses that the man should put the money away and she tells her husband to leave the man alone. Despite Giovanna's plead to leave the man alone Filippo insists on helping the man, as they bring him to their home. Under Giovanna's protest, her husband lets the man stay at their home overnight without consideration of the children at home. The following day Filippo promises to bring the old man, who they learn goes by the name Simone, to the police station, but to Giovanna's irritation, the old man is still at home when she returns from work. However, there is the second scene in the film while the initial scene will make more sense after the end credits.
During the stay, Simone sits and observes the family, as if he is trying to recognize something. On one occasion, he watches Giovanna bake some pastries while giving her some good pointers. This is the first time she makes a connection with Simone who she is supposed to bring to the police station after she has sold her pastries at a local bar. She leaves Simone in the car while dropping off the pastries when her neighbor Lorenzo (Raoul Bova), whom she has been secretively studying from her window, informs her that the Simone has wandered off. With the help of Lorenzo, she finds him, but she is more interested in Lorenzo. Her connection with Lorenzo explores another more figurative meaning of what windows can produce through voyeurism, which is something Hitchcock dwelled over in Rear Window (1954).
Instead of bringing Simone to the police station she brings him back home, which is Giovanna's first initiative that will affect her future. She learns that Simone is a survivor of a concentration camp, as he has tattooed numbers on his forearm and she wants to help find someone who knows him. Simultaneously, Lorenzo intrigues her while her friend encourages her on to have an affair with him. Her marriage with Filippo also seems to hit rock bottom, as her husband is nothing like Lorenzo. On top of this, she has to take care of two children and work at a poultry factory as an accountant due to her husband's inability to keep a job, which has hampered her from pursuing her dream of being a pastry chef. Despite all her obstacles, Simone will help put things in perspective, as he becomes the catalyst that ushers her over the hurdles that obstruct her full potential.
Facing Windows displays several symbolic ideas through terrific mise-en-scene and cinematography that visually suggest hope, opportunity, and dreams. In addition, the cast performs with genuine emotions that brings out the individuality in each character. All of these intangibles are tied together in a fantastic script that cleverly produces authentic highs and lows. Through the ride in between these highs and lows the audience will find a captivating story that offers both contemplation and drama at a very high caliber.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
The Miracle of SerendipityNov 07, 2004
By Grady Harp
FACING WINDOWS is a quiet little Masterpiece of a film. Director Ferszan Ozpetek and writer Gianni Romoli have plucked a bit of everyday life in a non-descript Roman sector, found ordinary people at the usual discontent with their static lives and then introduces moments of serendipity that awaken them to the meaning of being Alive.
Two apartments on the same level of neighboring buildings share window views that suggest the lack of privacy created by contemporary living styles in the cities - this city being Rome. In one apartment lives a family of four: two children usurp to waking lives of the mother Giovanna (the radiantly gifted Giavanna Mezzogiorno) and father Filippo (Filippo Nigro, an actor of presence and depth). Both are employed in menial jobs: Filippo works the night shift unable to progress in the work place, Giovanna is an accountant in a coarse and somewhat demeaning chicken packing plant. Their stretch to survive leaves little room for the magic that was once romance. The facing window of the apartment across the way is the home of the elegant, somewhat mysteriously desirable Lorenzo (Raoul Bova, as beautiful as Italian men come!).
Serendipity #1: the couple encounter an amnesiac Simone (Massimo Girotti, in his last and finest role) in the street who Filippo befriends and ultimately brings home, much to Giovanna's chagrin. Serendipity #2: Giovanna notices the man across the way (Lorenzo) who appears to have a genteel life that Giovanna secretly covets. It is the way these two incidents intertwine and reveal the identity of Simone (who becomes known as Davide, a casualty of the concentration camps of WW II who is seen in the opening of the film in a flashback to 1943, stabbing a fellow baker who has discovered his precious love secret and leads to choices that have haunted him until his encounter with Filippo and Giovanna) that bring about the self discovery of every character in ways that will alter your views of unfounded prejudices and thwarted dreams in a way few films have.
The pacing of this mesmerizing story, the sumptuous photography, the consistently high standard of acting, and the fearless and subtle manner in which homophobia is addressed make this a landmark movie. When released in 2003 it won Italy's best picture, best actress, and best actor (Girotti) for very good reasons. This graceful film deserves a very wide audience: this film is one of the great ones! In Italian with English subtitles. Grady Harp, November 2004
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
ChoicesMay 08, 2005
By Rebecca Johnson
"The Rebecca Review"
The opening scenes of a bakery and the violence that ensues draws you into a tangled tale of lust and survival. Not only does the director deal with difficult decisions, he seeks to draw on your sympathy for all humans caught in the clutches of love.
As a young man runs from a bakery in fear of his life, a bloody handprint starts to fade into the future. We are taken into the present day as a woman and her husband walk home, arguing about life and seemingly insurmountable problems. Instantly you can recognize Giovanna's desire to be protected, loved and desired. She is unfulfilled and seeking adventure. To be honest, she is ripe for an affair mostly because her husband is not meeting her needs and seems to be lost in his own world of employment hell.
Suddenly she is talking to the sidewalk, because Filippo is talking to an elderly gentleman (Davide) who is suffering memory loss. After taking him to the police station, they all end up back and the noisy apartment complex where people hang their clothing out the window. It is all so romantic.
Then, we notice the facing windows. This becomes a focal point throughout the movie and is where most of the action occurs. Giovanna distrusts her husband's ability to look after the family, but it actually turns out she distrust herself and must meet Davide who will lead her to her destiny. He shows her how to transform her hobby into her life.
The entire plot seems centered around choices people make to survive emotionally and physically. We see flashbacks of Davide's life and he also has many hallucinations due to his past experiences.
The eyes in this movie are especially revealing. The director focuses on the eyes in many instances and the results are almost a terrifying intensity that I've never seen in any movie. The actors convey their emotions so well, it was stunning. There is one scene where Filippo is feeling his life is completely inadequate and the look on his face almost made me cry because you could imagine a man feeling that inadequate and desperate to not only please his woman, but provide for his family.
The cooking is especially wonderful and kitchen scenes and chocolate cakes dripping with dark chocolate icing are delicious moments in the movie.
In the end, we can see this is a movie about two individuals trapped by circumstance and overwhelming choices. Do they make the right choices in the end? Oh, the torment...and the beauty. I watched this four times in two days because this movie will take hold of your heart and I loved the kitchen scenes and Giovanna lurking about in her dark kitchen looking into a life she wanted to live.
~The Rebecca Review
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