One of my all time favorites.

Lack of good storyline.

Instant Favorite.

A Disappointing Continuation

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.

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.

This extraordinary work manages to turn an account of "une femme coincee" and her constricted working-class life into a towering statement about existence. It seems impossible that the story of a few weeks in the life of a book-keeper in a chicken "factory" and a man who checks the oil in a fleet of trucks at night could become a grand drama, but this is what Facing Windows achieves. How many times does this film give you a frisson of emotion, a shudder of insight? When most films can barely achieve one at all. Giovanna Mezzogiorno is remarkable in the lead role, balancing all the facets of her life, which has been a difficult one, because she plays an orphan, and triumphing over both herself and her relationship as the result of an unexpected friendship. One of those films, watchable again and again, that were made under a favorable moon.

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+)