Facing Windows (2003)

Touches You

How sad is this?

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This is a film that ticks all the boxes in the genre. There's romance, mystery, laughs and sadness, atmosphere, a very good story, social comment, and great cinematography and acting. Not a wasted moment; everything is right and in the right place. Facing Windows is a pleasure to watch and then reflect on and discuss afterwards. It's always good to have entertainment that is a pleasure per se while offering some more intellectual enjoyment as well. And yet you cannot help feeling that these are ordinary people's unglamorous lives, that this could be me, or someone I know; these could be, or are, my problems too, my uncertainties, my difficult decisions. Özpetek has been a good director from the beginning, but gets better with each film.

Several story lines are woven together in this movie. All are about making choice's. About having dreams and being pragmatic. And in most situations there is little time to think before one decides. The movie combines the big events of history with the small events of daily life. Perhaps the small daily things appear to have important consequences. And important events can change your life entirely. After all, the best option is to follow your dreams in a sensitive way. To have confidence in yourself, and in other people. It is filmed in a beautiful way and that close to reality, that you feel like being part of the it. Do you want to sense, feel and taste life ? .. this will impress you.

If your culture invents the campest art form (opera) you would think it has little trouble with deviant sex. But no, Italy is hardly known for a fantastically open out of the closet queer culture. To the contrary, gay culture seems to be one of the most closeted I have come across for a country that has been part of the liberal west for a long time. The men may walk arm in arm along the street there, but you cannot presume they are anything else but friends. Last time friends of mine visited Italy they had huge trouble finding any gay clubs or saunas. Do I have to blame that church organization in Rome again for this? In contrast, queer representation in Italian art, be it cinema, literature or the plastic arts, has huge abundance: Fellini, Pasolini, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Caravaggio, Versace... But when it comes to day-to-day Italian boys getting it on together, lovingly approved by La Mamma and patronized by La Famiglia, it's a totally different situation from, say, in Spain where the boys can get married and people like Almodovar have made a lifetime film career out of it. We watched a wonderfully romantic Italian film last night called "La Finestra di Fronte", which has a terribly sad gay side story of a young pastry chef who saved a lot of people during the war from deportation but had to sacrifice his secret lover to the Nazi round-up. If you have working gaydar you deduce that his secret hidden love is not heterosexual really soon but it takes almost until the end of the film for this to become explicit. Highly recommended and the totty award goes to Filippo Negri (husband of the film's main character, and doesn't appear enough times shirtless for my liking)

In "Facing Windows", a young mother's marriage is tested by economic woes as two men complicate her life. One is a handsome young banker with whom she becomes voyeuristically involved via facing windows across an alleyway. The other is a senile walk-away whom she takes in temporarily. As her divided affections become increasingly a challenge, she finds comfort and support as the old man teaches her about love, sacrifice, and pastry making."Facing Windows" is beautifully filmed and augmented with Giovanna Mezzogiorno's lovely visage filling the screen much of the time. However, as the plot thickens, it becomes so complex that empathy gives way to analysis and some of the lyric beauty is buried in assorted character convulsions. Still a worthwhile watch for anyone interested in Italian romantic melodrama. (B+)