Facing Windows

In Rome, Giovanna is tired, has two children and a marriage that has run out; she wanted to be a pastry chef and does the books at a poultry plant. One day her husband brings home an old man he found in the street who has lost his memory. The only thing he remembers is the autumn of 1943. Giovanna starts trying to find out who he is, and at the same time meets the man she watches from the window opposite. Ferzan Özpetek directed. Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Giovanna and Massimo Girotti plays the old man, Davide, with Raoul Bova, Filippo Nigro and Serra Yılmaz in the cast. The past sections are set in Rome in 1943, in the days when the Jews were rounded up and deported, and what Davide is hiding comes from there. Massimo Girotti died of a heart attack in Rome on 6 January 2003, shortly after finishing the film, at the age of eighty-four. It was his last role and the film is dedicated to his memory. It won four David di Donatello awards: Best Film, Best Actor for Girotti, Best Actress for Mezzogiorno and Best Music for Andrea Guerra. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian drama that ties the present to the past. Who it is not for: anyone expecting both strands to be equally strong. The 1943 material is the best thing in the film and the present-day story is weak beside it.