WINDOWS

US, 1980, 96 minutes, Colour.
Talia Shire, Joseph Cortese, Elizabeth Ashley, Kay Medford.
Directed by Gordon Willis.

Windows received minimum release, yet it is a powerful, if oppressive, film. Directed by cinematographer Gordon Willis (and his eye is on people, windows and New York landscapes which don't connect or do ominously), the film is a symbolic thriller: the woman victimised in the city by madness, manipulation and sexual assault. Talia Shire suggests much by a seemingly passive performance. Elizabeth Ashley as her sophisticated friend has a flashier role but creates a complex character with violence but pathos. Echoes of Hitchcock themes: Rear Windows, Psycho knives and acceptance of guilt and responsibility, abound. But this very serious thriller and psychological study is not geared to the tricks of shock entertainment. Impressive. Willis makes his directorial debut with this film. He has photographed many excellent films and has worked on Woody Allen's principal films including Manhattan and Stardust Memories.

1. The significance and focus of the title? Indication of thriller - echoes of Hitchcock's Rear Window? Psychological drama? The symbolism of windows? Windows and the American city - the urban view, homes, people inside the windows? Indications of personal drama?

2. The importance of style: Gordon Willis. the director., as photographer? Presentation of his drama from the photographer's point of view? The photography of dark interiors? The focus on exteriors - vistas 'out there'? The credits sequence and the dark. the neon light,-? The world of the New York streets,, apartments, police precincts, psychiatrists' rooms? The observations through windows - of people. of events, of the city? The view from the windows? The collage of windows throughout the film? The use of devices for psychological melodrama? Knife-wielding thrillers? Police films? The blend of realism and symbolism?

3. Technical qualities: the use of close-ups. long takes for communicating characters and what was taking place inside them? The use of editing for an atmosphere of menace. the oppressive? Musical score - the use of sounds., the city, screaming etc.? The editing for the sounds and the music?

4. Audience familiarity with the New York setting: a place to work, live? Isolation in New York? People together but not close? The ordinary citizen as victim of cruelty and violence in New York? Passion? People being manipulated? Madness? What happens inside buildings and outside? Inside people and outside? People watching others.. hostility,, edginess? Urban alienation and the desire to be free of this?

5. The atmosphere of mystery of the film: the initial focus on Emily. her quickly becoming a victim? The repugnance of the attack? Audience sympathy for her? Andrea's presence - helping? The detective work? The place of Lawrence and his reappearance with the taxi? The mystery of the person watching through the telescope? The deaths - of the neighbour, of the psychiatrist? The build-up to the confrontation and the truth about Andrea? A satisfying puzzle for the audience? Wanting to work out the mystery? The place of the police? The horror atmosphere of the knife thriller?

6. The film as psychological drama: the focus on the characters. both Emily and Andrea going to Dr. Marin? Emily not going any more? The significances of the discussions with Andrea? Reality and illusion? Thwarted relationships, passion? Psycho drama and the acting out of impulses and fantasies? Psychological disintegration and collapse? Psychological liberation and freedom?

7. The feminine viewpoint of the film: the focus on Emily and audiences invited to identify with her? Experiencing her terror, her ability finally to cope? The portrait of Andrea - passion. perversion,, imagination, fantasy.. possessed by her fantasy? Ultimately pathetic? The plight of women in New York?

8. The character sketch of Emily - her relationship with her ex-husband, discussions with him and going home after work, the long sequence of the assault and its terror, threat? The darkness after the assault? The police and the interrogation? Her needing to trust Bob and visiting him at the precinct? The bond between them and a growing trust? Her timidity with him, keeping at a distance even in a room? Beginning to rely on him, falling in love with him, being saved by him - but also by herself? Her relationship with Andrea - as friend, ordinary and common sensed yet sensing evil, being alone with her, accepting her friendship, sharing and not thinking? Her moving house? Setting it up? The fact that she had been seeing Dr. Marin and decided not to see him again? The panic sequence with the taxi driver yet having the strength of mind to get out and phone the police? Her friendship with the neighbours - the telephone call and their watching, the death and her comforting the wife and taking her to hospital? The importance of her friendship with the cat, smuggling it into the building, concealing it from Bob, the horror of its death and being in the refrigerator? Her decisions about Andrea - the discovery of the truth, visiting her, her initial panic, awareness of the relationship, spending the night, ultimately commanding Andrea to stop and this being the step for freeing herself? Her ability then to relate to Bob? Her future? An ordinary woman, her experience in the city? A psychological fable about the alienation and terror of the contemporary world?

9. Andrea: suave, woman of the world, slick in her manner, wanting to help, imposing herself, arranging dates? Audience sensing of the true relationship with Emily? The many sequences with Dr. Marin - the significance of her poetry, her edginess like a cat moving around the room, smoking, at the blinds, the windows? Going to hospital? Her smooth leading on of Dr. Marin and the horror of her killing him? Her need to communicate with Emily, watching her through the telescope? The innuendo and the invitation? The tension in the confrontation, revelation of her passion? The deaths? Her wielding the knife against Emily? The truth about her setting up the initial assault and using Lawrence? The taping of Emily's response? Producing the knife in hysteria? The confrontation and her crumbling before Emily? Her final pathos? Elizabeth Ashley's skill in communicating finally just with her expression? Bob's comment that Andrea was always dangerous?

10. Bob and his work, dingy office, dates with Emily, Emily seeing him as a threat, locking the door, running out of coffee? Being with him but going to Andrea alone? Seeing him pacing around the room? Finally being able to stand with him as an equal?

11. The neighbours of New York - watching, reserved, sick and Emily's care, death? An image of relationships in the city?
12. The ugly taxi driver, the aggressive man., brutality, sexuality? Sadism in the taunts and whisperings. the taping? The use of the tape? His being used by Andrea and paid? The threat in the taxi?

13. Themes of sexuality: Emily's marriage and its failure, divorce? Friendship with Bob but hesitation? The phallic symbolism of the knife and the assault - by Lawrence and by Andrea? Threatening people by sexuality and rape? Ability and inability to cope? The inadequacy of sexual integration and relationship?

14. The emphasis on psychological help, self-assertion., being in touch with reality, the place of fantasy?

15. How satisfying a thriller, drama, parable about the difficulties of urban living? For men? Especially for women?