Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.

January 2005 activity

Total Log Entries: 58

Total Comments: 19

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Facing Windows / La Finestra di fronte / Italy/UK/Turkey/Portugal / 2003

Although the film’s title is a less-than-subtle nod to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, director Ferzan Ozpetek is less interested in crafting a multi-layered tale of voyeurism and suspense than he is in exploring the mislaid hopes and dreams of young woman named Giovanna. Trapped in a dead end job and an unfulfilling marriage that has saddled her with two young children, Giovanna often finds herself peering at the apartment across the way, hoping for glimpses of the handsome, carefree man who lives there. Things change, however, when Giovanna and her husband encounter an elderly man who has lost his memory. Despite Giovanna’s heavy protests, her husband insists on letting the old man stay with them until his family comes to claim him. As the man’s memory slowly begins to return, Giovanna discovers she has more in common with him than meets the eye, and subsequently begins to reevaluate her own life.

Despite feeling somewhat slight overall, Facing Windows is at times unexpectedly moving, largely thanks to strong performances by Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Giovanna and Massimo Girotti as the old man. Sadly, this was Giorotti’s last film before his death. A veteran of Italian cinema, he appeared in over a hundred films throughout the course of his career, most famously Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Columbia Tristar DVD
25 Jan 2005 2:08 PM | Submit Comment

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