Synopsis
There is no privacy... there is no safety... the terror will follow you home.
Emily Hollander becomes the subject of a lesbian obsession at the hands of Andrea Glassen, her next-door neighbour.
1980 Directed by Gordon Willis
Emily Hollander becomes the subject of a lesbian obsession at the hands of Andrea Glassen, her next-door neighbour.
Ventanas, Maldita Paixao, Ikkunat, Fenetres sur New York, Emily's Window, Pasion indiscreta, Okna, Angustia... e Obsessao, Finestres, Mannen i Mörkret, Pencereler, L ist nicht nur Liebe, Corky, Maldita Paixão, Fenêtres sur New York
The only directorial effort from Gordon Willis looks great (naturally) and I love Talia Shire to death, but this definitely meanders around a bit in a very 70’s way, which I usually like but I can’t help but feel like Willis was a bit out of his element here.
The Morricone score doesn’t show up often, but when it does it’s rather haunting (the cab/phone booth scene), and the suspenseful scenes in this (few and far between) are done well but it feels like Willis had all the pieces for a very solid 70’s hangover 1980 suspense thriller but didn’t figure out how to piece them all together. It happens, and Windows ends up being a middle of the road affair. The cat was adorable and what happened to it was fucking terrible.
Also... that ‘evil queer’ trope... oof.
Cinematographer Gordon Willis (Annie Hall, The Godfather,) directed only one film, this lesbian panic oddity that hit theaters at the very start of the Reagan era in January of 1980. Despite knowing what I was in for, the first half of the film had me fully on board. The blocking, cutting and pacing were solid and carefully considered.
I loved the way everyone in Talia Shire's environment suddenly seemed menacing after her assault. It's a very real, lived-in response to trauma which the film makes great use of; even poor Kay Medford isn't spared.
The reveal of Elizabeth Ashley listening to the tape in the cab didn't come too early for me. It felt bold and confident, teasing the promise…
this was beautifully shot but wow, the story just really isn't there. if there's any reason to watch this, it's for the visuals and nothing else.
Gordon Willis made a mean, cynical movie about mean, cynical early 80s NYC and the meanest, most cynical motherfucker in the movie is a big orange cat (who is shot so beautifully).
Gordon Willis bridge porn.
Surely you know who Gordon Willis is, right? The cinematographer who worked on Woody Allen's Manhattan? Oh, I suppose he also worked with Coppola on that trilogy of mafia movies (the name eludes me at the moment). Anyway, I'm not really into Woody Allen and his whole neurotic pedophile schtick, but I loved Manhattan for all the gorgeous black and white cinematography. Actually, I wouldn't mind a cut of that which removes all the scenes where people are talking and shit, so I can focus on all the visual splendor.
Ok, back to this movie. So, this is the one and only time that Willis decided to see if his skills translated to directing a film.…
can just as easily be read as a cautionary tale about the ruthless power of repressed desire as it can be read as a "homophobic" "psycho lesbian" story. in a homophobic society where one knows nothing but rejection as Andrea presumably does the extreme acts she commits feel slightly more reasonable then the actions of a lot of voyeuristic straight men in cinema (and this is coming from somebody who likes a lot of voyeuristic straight guy movies). if people on this site can reclaim the likes of Cruising or Dressed to Kill then this being reclaimed doesn't seem too far fetched.
obviously this movie is gorgeous as well but you don't need me to tell you that because it's literally directed by the guy who shot The Godfather
Legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis directs his only feature here that, as you might expect, is visually stunning but an otherwise ponderous thriller about an obsessional relationship.
Talia Shire plays shy and retiring woman Emily. She's attacked in her apartment one night by a man who molests her and forces her to moan on tape for him. Rather than eek out this mystery as to who attacked her and why, it's bizarrely revealed very early on that her rich friend and neighbour Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley) is behind the attack, paying a taxi driver to accrue the recording for her and hoping the incident will make Emily fall into her arms. This backfires when Emily moves to another part of the city…
The true Prince of Darkness, Gordon Willis could harness negative space and the absence of light better than any cinematographer in history. For a film so focused on the mental unknown, Willis' silhouettes and lengthy sequences of shadowed faces cut out from the New York City skyline expertly show the paradox of loneliness in the big city of bright lights. This proto-SINGLE WHITE FEMALE was lambasted for insinuating homosexuality was a byproduct of mental disorder, but it's pretty clear Andrea's infatuation is less about lust and more a coping strategy to deal with her own sexual torment. The implication at the end is that she dealt with a sexual assault of her own in the past, and watching and baiting…
My #lesbianvillain tag is alive and well tonight. It's frustrating, because if this film were made in a world of equal representation, I'd consider it a memorable and beautifully-directed thriller. Instead, I can't shake the pain of seeing yet *another* demonization of queer people in a 20th century film. Another LeSbiAn PaNiC! One of my favorite films, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, uses this device, but at least it doesn't hone in on it, in a way that makes me feel the film say "queerness is evil."
Some may think I'm taking this way too seriously, but I'm talking about this story in the context of when Windows was made. The average theater-goer would've thought, "Those people are sick.” Their…
Well, I guess that's one way to pass the Bechdel test.
Gordon Willis died almost two months ago, but I'm just now getting to this, his only directorial effort. Unfortunately, even though it (naturally) looks fantastic, there's little to recommend it apart from that, except maybe a good lead performance by Talia Shire. Despite its ostensible existence as a "suspense thriller," it never really delivers any solid tension, and the climax is so hermetically hysterical that it ends in the only way such a scene could end, with Shire getting fed up with her costar Elizabeth Ashley's overacting and slapping her in the face.