Windows

First of all I have never heard of this movie ever.. Talia Shire we know her from the "God Father " movies and "Rocky" franchise.. She is the sister of director Francis Ford Coppola and the aunt of actor Nicholas Cage..That awful hair cut she wore in Rocky is back on display..the opening scene is rather predictable because you know ...walking out that late in a darken area.. Wandering your hall way with out any light's is really risky. The rape scene was really original... a rapist who record's an assault ? The script was pretty good.. but there wasn't any link to describe the friendship between actress Elizabeth Ashley and Talia Shire.. except for the therapist ? The ex hubby never showed his face during or after the tragic event's to lend support.. The elderly neighbor played by veteran actress Kay Medford who is taken to the hospital ..was her last appearance on film.. as she had ovarian cancer . Also the taxi driver who was the rapist and how she caught on during the ride to the children's museum that he was the joker ,,who assaulted her ?! I don't want to spoil the rest of the film.. The director is also a famous cinematographer ...which brings the locations and the scenes into play..the ending was a surprise...By the way since the 1950's to the 1980's there were many films made that depicted a fascination with "Telescopes" ....

I'm glad no one has mentioned this was the first theatrical release by a major studio in 1980. There were lots of commercials for it on TV for a couple of weeks, and then the movie just vanished. Either the studio (Warner Brothers) denounced it for the terrible reviews it received, or it was banned for its content. I don't remember what the reason was for the film's disappearance.I do know this version on Amazon is NOT the version I saw, which was fantastic because the ending was a surprise. Windows was undoubtedly cut when I saw it, benefitting the outcome and overall pace of the movie. The current version has no surprises, and you'll know who's doing what in the first 15 minutes. It drastically reduces the film's impact, unfortunately. The acting is, for the most, good, with Elizabeth Ashley really standing out. The theme was relatively original for its time.

Never released on home video and rarely seen after its theatrical release, THE GODFATHER cinematographer Gordon Willis’ sole directorial effort WINDOWS makes its digital bow courtesy of MGM’s manufactured-on-demand DVD program.Recently separated but still working in close confines with her husband (Russell Horton, ANNIE HALL), Emily (Talia Shire, THE GODFATHER) is viciously assaulted in her apartment one night after work by a switchblade-wielding pervert. The trauma brings back her childhood stuttering problem and she is unable to even describe what little she remembers of the attack to investigating officer Luffrano (Joseph Cortese, EVILSPEAK). Unable to remain in her old Brownstone apartment, she quickly picks up and moves across the Brooklyn Bridge to an apartment building. Unfortunately, this doesn’t sit well with her former neighbor Andrea (the sexy Elizabeth Ashley, the sinister nurse of COMA) with whom she also shares an almost-negligently disinterested shrink (Michael Lipton, NETWORK) who proves ineffective in addressing Emily’s issues and Andrea’s tendency towards obsessive attachments. Soon enough, Andrea has taken a loft on the river and is spying on poor Emily with a massive phallic telescope (sorry - it's wildly unsubtle), and she violently disapproves of the budding relationship between Emily and Luffrano.Photographed and directed by two-time Academy Award-nominated – for ZELIG and THE GODFATHER, PART III – cinematographer Gordon Willis, WINDOWS is either a psychological drama with emphasis on the wrong character or a thriller that shoots itself in the foot early on. Had it been a psychological drama following Andrea’s psychological problems and her obsession with cypher Emily, then it might not have mattered it is entirely obvious from her very first scene that Andrea is wacko. Since it is revealed extremely early on that Andrea has set up Emily’s assault at the hands of a sketchy cab driver (Rick Petrucelli) – I’m sorry, it’s not a spoiler, look at the poster image, any synopsis of the film (including the single sentence on the back of MGM’s cover), and you know the film isn’t about an unknown stalker terrorizing the heroine but specifically a woman terrorizing another woman, and we see that Andrea is behind every unnerving thing that happens to Emily along the way, there is more suspense coming from wondering how the script will contrive to create clues for Luffrano to suspect Andrea than from how long it will take Emily to wise up about her friend’s strange behavior. The scenario – such as it is in Barry Siegel’s sole writing credit – would perhaps have worked more effectively as a piece of 1970s or 1980s Italian giallo. Or a 90s direct to video.Shire is supposed to be mousy here, but underplays her role so meekly and pathetically that it even seems as if Cortese’s detective is taking advantage by striking up a romantic relationship with the victim of a traumatic assault; that said, her character is uninteresting and her performance uneven. The script is tone deaf. Ashley is pretty unsubtle from the start and not given a lot to work with in terms of character depth, but she really takes advantage of her scenes in the therapist’s office to eke out some sympathy by conveying the palpable emotional pain caused to herself by her obsession. She then goes effectively overboard for the climax, but manages to transcend chewing the scenery and become genuinely unnerving (until Emily spoils things). I'll recommend Elizabeth Ashley's groundbreaking autobiography, ACTRESS, here. A must read.Before Woody Allen forged his collaboration with cinematographer Carlo DiPalma (TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE), Willis was his cinematographer of choice, having photographed INTERIORS, MANHATTAN, STARDUST MEMORIES, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S SEX COMEDY, ZELIG and THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO. From the Allen films, he brought with him to the film production designer Mel Bourne (THE FISHER KING), art director Les Bloom (TAXI DRIVER), costume designer Clifford Capone (AMITYVILLE 3-D), and associate producer/production manager John Nicolella (THE FAN 1980 - equally controversial and thematically similar to WINDOWS), as well as, of course, Shire from THE GODFATHER films (Petrucelli had bit parts in THE GODFATHER and ANNIE HALL and would later appear in PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO). Willis’ own cinematography emphasizes neon signs and artwork in the night exteriors, backlighting and rim-lighting in the shadowy interiors, and bathes the New York daytime exteriors in a perpetual autumnal afternoon glow. The late, great Ennio Morricone phones in a score that is slick but often buried in the mix and adding nothing to the scenes it underlines (the soundtrack was never issued on LP - not his best moment. All due respect, RIP)It might be said that slickness is a problem with this film, which manages to come across as more sleazy than if the same idea had been filmed on a lower budget with more exploitative nudity and bloodshed (Andrea’s smoking, lip-licking, groaning and grunting suggests that she’s doing something more out of frame than simply watching Emily through the telescope); if WINDOWS were a product of the grindhouse, then the whole “murderously possessive lesbian” aspect of the script would feel less retrograde than it does in a studio pic that thinks itself too classy to include insert close-ups of Shire’s (or a body double’s) torso – once again not conflating the viewer’s gaze with that of the victim’s assailant – and elides the violence, sexual or otherwise, through slow dissolves or cutting away as if there was any ambiguity to be created about the outcome of these sequences. Despite the politically incorrect obsessive lesbian depiction, one is more apt to draw comparisons to FATAL ATTRACTION – one almost wonders if Glenn Close (or director Adrian Lyne) had Elizabeth Ashley’s performance in mind – than BASIC INSTINCT or SINGLE WHITE FEMALE. The setup of WINDOWS itself may even have been inspired by “The Telephone” episode of Mario Bava’s BLACK SABBATH.Willis can light beautiful images, but he is not much of a director and shows little affinity for the genre (in fact, he was nominated for “Worst Director” for the film at the 1981 Razzies). A Brian De Palma would have kept an eye on establishing rhyming images and forging relationships between people and objects with the movement of the camera, while a John Carpenter – who had recently directed the similarly-themed SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME for television – would have made the viewer complicit in the voyeuristic stalking of the heroine. The film’s POV shots – whether through the telescope or representing Andrea’s eyes – are always clearly delineated from the camera’s own gaze. Even another contemporary cinematographer/director Peter Hyams (BUSTING, OUTLAND) might have kept created a more visually interesting picture with the same low-key lighting. Willis went back to working solely as a cinematographer after this with the aforementioned 1980s Woody Allen pics, Herbert Ross’ PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY, THE PICK-UP ARTIST, THE GODFATHER PART III, and the underrated thriller: the Aaron Sorkin-scripted MALICE. WINDOWS was the second producer credit for Mike Lobell who went on to produce the godawful STRIPTEASE.MGM’s single-layer manufactured-on-demand DVD presents windows in a progressive, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer (the poster artwork states that it is in Panavision, but it’s a spherical film and Panavision would later distinguish between anamorphic movies “Filmed in Panavision” and flat movies “Filmed with Panavision cameras and lenses”). The presentation starts without a modern MGM logo (the stereo roaring one with the MGM website address beneath); instead, it opens with a vintage Transamerica United Artists logo. The transfer appears to be new with neon colors leaping off the screen during the opening credits and well-defined blacks in the silhouetted and rimlit chiaroscuro setups; however, the master has not undergone the type of clean-up one expects of MGM’s HD restorations, and there are several intermittent passages of white speckling (usually at the reel-changes). It still looks good, but not what one expects of a studio title. MGM’s cover art reproduces the original theatrical poster faithfully, only cropping away the credits list at the bottom and reprinting this information on the back instead. As with other MGM MOD discs, there is only a main menu screen and the film has been divided up into chapters at ten minute intervals. Sadly, no trailer has been included. No optional (much needed here) subtitles either.

Beautiful shots of 1980 New York. Woman obsessing about another woman who overcomes an attack orchestrated by the first woman. Victim has a stammer and is withdrawn. But now lives in fear.It was actually well played by all. Bit weird near the end. However, not a bad look at obsessive love taken to extremes. And as I said. Beautiful shot of the Twin Towers at the beginning.

Talia Shire, Elizabeth Ashley and Joe Cortese are all very good in this entertaining, creepy erotic thriller about a woman stalked by an obsessed, psychotic peeping tom. Caused a bit of controversy at the time it was released back in 1980 due to the nature of the victim/stalker relationship.

Gordon Willis-the Academy Award winning cinematographer of "The Godfather", made his directorial debut with this much maligned thriller about a homicidal lesbian in pursuit of Talia Shire. Though much is revealed way to soon in the film-it is still an interesting and beautifully shot piece of filmmaking. The MOD transfer presented by MGM is terrific. 2012 is the first time this movie has been available in the US in any format. Now available on Blu Ray as of 7/4/17 from Scream Factory.

From the MGM limited edition collection from the archives Windows appears on the DVD-R made to order format similar to the Warner archives collection titles. Happy to say that this is a decent transfer with the source material being in good condition. Indeed the opening sequence in the corridor with the neon tube lighting and deep blacks almost looks hi -def.SPOLIERAs for the movie itself it starts and ends strongly unfortunately the middle hour is a laborious drag. A supposed friend and neighbour who is really an obsessive psychopath pays a thug to attack a woman in her flat to the point just short of rape in a sick attempt to bond them closer. It backfires when the victim decides to move out of the tenement. There are a couple of creepy moments including the stalker listening to a tape recording of the initial assault which itself is nicely shot while also being disturbing. Two things however really undermine the film, namely -- the poor quality acting from the support cast and the dreadfully slow pace of the movie- the score by renown composer Ennio Morricone On several occasions slushy romantic movie plays over scenes when it does not correspond to the action on screen - when our female psychopath meets with her shrink were her unstable persona is revealed and during the final stalking/terror scene. I don't know if this was intended to evoke sympathy for the stalker but that also backfires laughably.