Desertman84 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.

pc95 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.

Ozlem Direk 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.

Tilly Gokbudak I have seen 3 of the 4 Ferzan Ozpetek films available in the USA, and I hope too see "Harem Suare" very soon. Between "His Secret Life/The Ignorant Fairies" and "Hamam/Steam," I think this is his most complete and well-directed film. Ozpetek is a unique international phenom because he is a Turkish director in Italy and an open homosexual. There is only one other Turkish director of the later distinction, Kutlug Ataman (the German film Lola and Billithekid). But, those unique characteristics are really secondary because Ozpetek is above everything else, a solid director. I don't think his other films quite achieved their full objectives, but this one does. For starters, the film is well cast. Giovanni Mezzogiorno, one of the world's sexiest actresses ( as in whoa! baby), has shined in films like "The Last Kiss" and she does here too. Then, there is Massimo Girotti of "Last Tango in Paris" fame in his very last film giving a moving performance as a homosexual Holoaust survivor. Lastly, Turkish actress Serra Yilmaz, who has made films in some 3 or 4 countries with the likes of the late legendary Turkish comic actor Kemal Sunal (1944-2000), is quite splendid in a supporting role here as the friend who gives heart-felt, but perhaps unwise advice to Mezzogiorno. The film shows the influences of Hitchcock (Rear Window- of course), Visconti, and even a hint of the Turkish melodrama but it is its own unique moving film. There are plenty of surprises along the way. Ozpetek has been known as the Turkish Almodovar, for his provacativeness, but this film will prove he is not a mere novelty but rather a solid up and coming director on the world stage.