LA FINESTRA DI FRONTE regia di Ferzan Ozpetek

Dott. Nespola     10 / 10  09/05/2003 17:23:15 » Rispondi
A fabulous film addressing the existentialist courage that motivated the members of the Resistance in Rome, during the Nazi occuaption. In some respects, then, the film is a remake and commentary upon Rosselini's 1945 classic, Rome: Open City. La finestra di fronte is an indirect question to the Italian audience itself, which has shown precious little interest in the history of Italian Jews, save until recently with the film by Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful, (1998). Finestra is in part an accusation of Italian film audiences and the Italian public at large which have chosen to remain blithely ignorant, on the whole, about the heroic acts of defiance engaged in by Jews in Italy under the fascist period and/or under the Salò Republic. The interplay between Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Massimo Girotti is a confrontation between her conformist materialism and hedonistic selfishness (as she is contemplating abandoning her family for the sake of an illicit affair), and his long-standing virtue, referring back to a by-gone era when life was more complicated, not less so. The question is aimed at the audience, when Davide asks her, “Why do you care about my story?” The female character starts out as unsympathetic antagonist, an anti-hero, until she learns from the older generation about what matters in life: her children, anyone's children. An excellent treatment in film of existentialist engagement of Resistance protagonists, made relevant to a younger generation.