Windows (1980) Released a month before William Friedkin's explosive NYC Gay-Jack-The-Ripper thriller 'Cruising', it's no wonder this limp, barely-there non-entity of a film slipped into deep obscurity.
Cinema archivists might remember it as the one and only film directed by celebrated cinematographer Gordon Willis (the 'Godfather' trilogy, 'Annie Hall', 'All The President's Men').
Though gifted as a genius visual artist of light and shadow, nobody grieved over his decision not to direct any more films. Nor did Willis, most likely
We're back again in New York City, still depicted in movies as a cesspool of psychosis, sexual assault and violence. But the storyline here is so simple and brief, it couldn't fill out 40 minutes of screen time, let alone the slow 95 minutes that it stretches into eternity.
A shy, repressed woman (Talia Shire) is the stalking target of her psychotic lesbian neighbor (Elizabeth Ashley). The looney Ashley hires a cab driver to invade Shire's apartment to sexually assault and humiliate her. The creep accomplishes this by forcing Shire, at knifepoint, to fake orgasmic moaning.
That sequence, as weird and ugly as it sounds, constitutes this woeful, stillborn movie's highpoint. Then it proceeds to slowly roll downhill, with Shire starting a tentative romance with the investigating detective (Joe Cortese) while the bonkers Ashley spies on her with a telescope.
You'd think that his time spent on movie sets would have given Gordon Willis as least a fundamental idea of how a director works with his crew and actors to craft a coherent story.
But the resulting film looks like the only thing that intrigued him was capturing beautifully composed, stunning day and night cityscapes. Terrific work if he'd been putting together a coffee table book of still photographs........but deadly for a movie that purports to be a suspense thriller.
Incredibly, the expected melodramatic climax occurs offscreen, leaving us to wonder why we wasted a minute of time watching any of "Windows". Even the score by prolific maestro Ennio Morricone sounds like he phoned it in while working on a different assingment.
If you absolutely crave a creepy, New York stalker thriller filled with sexual perversion (and a killer recording the victims), stick with 1971's "Klute".....in which Gordon Willis, as its cinematographer did what he did best and left the directing in the capable hands of Alan Pakula.
"Windows" will thankfully stay in the graveyard of deservedly forgetten films, , a collection of well framed pictures in search of a movie. Zero stars (0)
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