Windows

1980 "There is no privacy... there is no safety... the terror will follow you home."
4.8| 1h36m| R| en
Details

Emily Hollander becomes the subject of a lesbian obsession at the hands of Andrea Glassen, her next-door neighbour.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Ploydsge just watch it!
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Rodrigo Amaro So silly that it's almost intelligent, and so bad that it's almost good. Explaining "Windows" is so embarrassing that everything about it sounds so unbelievable, so marvelous and so insane that one might think I'm inventing this film with such a nonsense plot. Brief details of the event: Talia Shire is having a fine day, walks back home and then she's assaulted by this mysterious man who threatened with a knife. The police is called, investigates and her dedicated neighbor Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley) comes to support her. Next thing we know is that she's the one who arranged for this attack so she could hear Talia screams and moans. Why? Because she's obsessed with her, she desperately loves her. That's what we're led to believe. The rest of the movie is just showing Andrea's failed attempts to get near her friend/neighbor, the analysis she has with her psychiatrist (should I feed you with more info or the picture is already formed in your head on who Andrea is), Shire's involvement with the detective (Joseph Cortese) following her case and interested in her as well. The screenplay by Barry Siegel (so far his only work) is pitiful, mildly gripping, prejudiced by its meanders. It's entirely limited to clichés from psycho films but also trying to make a drama that's isn't inquisitive nor fully interesting, and even flirts with the romance that only works in the detective/victim relationship but forces too much when the final moments walks in (one of the most annoying anti-climax endings ever made). It's the kind of screenplay that needed to be written and rewritten countless times to finally get the chance of being decent or appealing to audiences. This is so "Fatal Attraction" before "Fatal Attraction", with threats, deaths, obsessions and all when it could be a much lighter film, psychological and positive to be seen. Why people are so bothered by the portrayal given to the lesbian character in here? It wasn't so prejudicial, it showed a variation of a behavior and it wasn't setting this psychotic mannerisms as a pattern like the one developed in the controversial "Crusing" where all the gay characters were strong male sympathizers of S&M (even with that in mind, the bad reviews and the protests, that movie accomplishes to be greater than "Windows"). It's a little focused on stereotypes but it's not so hurtful or annoying. "Windows" was Gordon Willis first and only film sitting on the director's chair, after many years as being one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. His photography here is beautiful, dark, perfectly match with the movie, and he filmed glorious shots of New York's street scene of the 1980's and there's lots of them in the movie, perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the film. Too bad his direction of actors is cheap, confused and inspireless. I don't blame him all that much. With a script like that, there isn't much one can do. I might blame the casting director just a little. At times, there's this vague sensation of seeing something that is about to be good, a thoughtful project but when the actors are talking, "acting" and representing everything sounds phony and creepy. Stranger than this is when all the actors seem to getting up on scene while the story keeps going down and ridiculous. Shire shows some versatility in playing the stutter victim but there isn't much she can do with a weak, fragile, broken to pieces character. Ashley is playing this male hater yet with some masculine aspects, rough, rarely delicate (only when reading her love poem to the doctor) and this is the kind of character that in a good movie would be more important than the victim, a profound characterization of body and soul. But no, she's out of time and it's unbearable to watch at times. I have said too much, I know, you're probably running to watch this now. Gladly, this is a little difficult to find. I'll take the suggestion of a fellow reviewer here and support a remake of this film since there's things in it that can be better explored now. But I add this: trade the women and replace them for men. I'm imagining this movie right now. It can be awesome, far more violent and please, whoever made this, emphasize just a little the romantic point of view of someone's suffering for not having the other person instead of just planning attacks and recording moans. That was so brutal and wrecked of what could be a good film. 4/10
lazarillo The general opinion of this movie is either that it is terrible, or that it is SO bad, it's actually good. Well, I don't think this movie is really "good" in any sense of the word, but it's not that bad either. It definitely has some good aspects. The cinematography is outstanding, not surprisingly perhaps since it was directed by famed cinematographer Gordon Willis. Visually it was kind of and attempt to update the moody film-noir style of the 40's and 50's to the present day (as of 1980 anyway). It was also filmed in NYC and it captures a lot of the palpably sleazy ambiance of the city in that era that can also be seen in films like "Taxi Driver" or "Dog Day Afternoon".The plot is ridiculous, of course, but that's not necessarily a bad thing either. In fact, the people who were so offended by the movie originally should have taken into account that this movie defames real-life lesbians about as much as "Roadrunner" cartoons defame real-life coyotes. (And Wile E.Coyote gives a much more subdued performance and usually shreds less scenery than Elizabeth Ashley does in this movie). Besides the problem is not that lesbians are frequently portrayed as villains in movies. Even taking their relative numbers into account, there are still far less lesbian villains in movies (not including sexy bisexual women, which is a whole different thing) than there are white male villains. There is certainly a lack of POSITIVE portrayals of lesbians in movies perhaps even today, but that's a different issue. And, ironically, the typical negative portrayal of lesbians in the media does not generally involve them being murderous stalkers, but rather being shrill, self-righteous, humorless, man-hating busy-bodies who want to censor everything under the sun that offends their perpetually outraged sensibilities. Hmmm, I wonder where that stereotype comes from? But back to the movie, this is one of 70's/80's movies that would actually be PERFECT for a re-make. They could put a really sexy actress in the lead who doesn't play the whole thing as deadly earnestly as ole "Yo! Adrienne!" does here. It would actually be pretty hard to best Elizabeth Ashley's campy, OTT performance, but I think modern audiences would certainly appreciate a performance like this a lot more than they did back in 1980. This isn't a good movie, of course,but why re-make a GOOD movie? Re-make, DVD release, or both--this is definitely long-due for some kind of revival.
Francis MOURY Directed by the cinematographer of THE GODFATHER and starring 2 good actresses. Storyline is quite interesting and camera job impressive. It is an original movie. As it was a Warner release (and as I have the Warner Home Vidéo VHS in French version) I wonder how the former commentary can wonder if it was released in vidéo ? Besides, it is the perfect example of a, by now, rare title, which sould be offered again on DVD with sharp image quality and, of course, French soundtrack or subtitles !
chez-3 "Windows" had the distinction of being the very first film released in the decade of the 80's. It was as ominous beginning to the decade as it turned out to be the year's worst film.Talia Shire plays a woman who is raped and then becomes the victim of a psychopathic lesbian who has her eyes set on Shire. Yes you read that right. The most ridiculous scene in the film comes when Shire catches a cab and recognizes the driver as the rapist. She gets him to pull over. What does she do? Run like hell? I think not. She calls the police and is instructed...get this....to get BACK in the cab until the police can find her and trail her.This film is mind numbingly awful. It was the directing debut of noted cinematographer Gordon Willis. It's easy to see why he never directed again.