50 Years of SIFF: Facing Windows
November 13 - 17, 2023
Overburdened and stuck in a greying marriage, Giovanna takes to caring for the Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. As she begins to reflect on her life, she turns to the man who lives across from her…
The story begins on the street when a confused old man who calls himself Simone approaches Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), a frustrated young mother who aspires to open a pastry shop, and her husband Filippo (Filippo Nigro). Spotting a number tattooed on Simone’s arm, the young couple realizes he must be a concentration camp survivor. While her husband focuses on the mysterious elderly gentleman, who turns out to have sublime skill as a baker, Giovanna finds herself growing obsessed with the attractive neighbor she sees through her window every night. Eventually the disparate strands of the story begin to overlap and the suppressed events of the past start to emerge and overwhelm the present. As the miracle of chance intervenes to create completely new relationships in the lives of the central trio, the elusiveness of the film provides both its attraction and its power. With the carefully constructed Facing Windows, Festival favorite director Ferzan Ozpetek broadens his focus beyond gay-themed films, weaving together ordinary lives, eccentric relationships and mysterious love affairs into an unsettling and beautifully directed film. The movie features the final role of the late Massimo Girotti (star of Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione and Senso).
- Original Language Title: La finestra di fronte
- Director: Ferzan Özpetek
- Principal Cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova, Filippo Nigro, Serra Yılmaz, Massimo Poggio
- Country: Italy
- Year: 2004
- Running Time: 102 min.
- Producer: Tilde Corsi, Gianni Romoli
- Screenplay: Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli
- Music: Andrea Guerra
- Filmography: The Goddess of Fortune (2019), Naples in Veils (2017), Istanbul Kirmizisi (2017), Fasten Your Seatbelts (2014), A Magnificent Haunting (2012), Mine vaganti (2010), A Perfect Day (2008), Saturn in Opposition (2007), Sacred Heart (2005), Facing Window (2003), The Ignorant Fairies (2001), Harem Suare (1999), Steam: The Turkish Bath (1997)
- Language: Italian