Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) has been hired to restore a painting in a church in a small community. He arrives by boat, which enhances the feeling that the community is cut off from the world he leaves behind. Arriving on that same boat is a beautiful young woman that he exchanges glances with, but no words. Solmi (Bob Tonelli), the man who has hired him, believes that the artist's work will become a main attraction of the town and will bring in tourists to help revive the post-war economy. When we see the painting, we recognize it immediately as depicting a scene similar to what we witnessed in the film's shocking opening. And it isn't long before we hear that the artist was crazy. Then, when Stefano is led to his hotel room, a red-haired woman emerges from another room. The hotel staff member shakes her head, and tells Stefano, "She should stay in her own place doing what she does best." There is a nice moment when the woman, down the hall already, turns back to them. Did she hear what was said, or is she just checking Stefano out? I love how the film introduces us to an assortment of interesting characters all in the first ten minutes. Stefano gets the first in a series of mysterious phone calls, someone telling him to go away. "Don't touch that painting."
There are more unusual characters in the town, and Stefano is surprised by a friend, Antonio (Giulio Pizzirani), who, it turns out, recommended him for the restoration job. He also claims to have discovered an extraordinary story which he needs to share. But even though he is a friend to Stefano, we aren't sure whether we can completely trust him, as there is some word of a breakdown in his recent past, and he seems nervous. Even Stefano worries that he might still be suffering from his illness. The film does an excellent job of aligning us completely with Stefano and making us uneasy about everyone else, without resorting to heavy-handed tactics. The film is also really well-constructed, the way one scene is connected to the next. For example, at one point Stefano sees a woman in the distance collecting flowers. and the film then cuts to some flowers next to him as begins work on restoring the painting. There is even mystery here, as Stefano casually asks Lidio (Pietro Brambilla) who brought the flowers to the church, and Lidio says he doesn't know. Mystery seems to be just under the surface of everything, and Stefano begins to scrape away at it, just as he begins to scrape away at the painting.
After Antonio's questionable death, immediately judged a suicide, Stefano is even more alone. The only other person he had connected to at all was the red-haired woman (who, in another of the film's surprises, turns out to be a school teacher), but when he goes back to her place, he learns she has left town. She has been replaced in her teaching position by the young woman from the boat, Francesca (Francesca Marciano). Because Francesca arrived in this community at the same time he did, Stefano feels he can trust her. And so do we. It isn't long before both of them are in grave danger. The House With Laughing Windows is a fanastic film, full of suspense, and with a wonderfully unsettling atmosphere that never feels unbelievable. In addition, there are beautifully composed shots. There is a reason this film is so beloved and respected. And this Blu-ray edition looks great.
Special Features
The Blu-ray contains a lot of bonus material, including two commentary tracks. The first is done by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, who both immediately say they love the film, and go on to talk about what they appreciate about it (I think, however, that Alexandra does not know what the word "ambivalent" means). The second is by Eugene Ercolani and Troy Howarth, who talk about the Avati brothers and what they're known for in Italy, and how they wrote the initial script several years earlier. Also, interestingly, once they did go into production, the filming apparently went smoothly. That's something you rarely hear about any film. They talk about the priest character, and how there were a lot of Italian genre pictures in the 1970s that featured priests as killers. They say that "a lot of these films could be seen as being vaguely anti-Catholic" or "highly critical of Catholicism," but that's not the case with this film. They also talk about the lack of sex scenes in the film.
There is also, as I mentioned earlier, a feature-length documentary on the film, titled Painted Screams, directed by Federico Caddeo. It contains interviews with director Pupi Avati, producer Antonio Avati, assistant director Cesare Bastelli, costumer designer Luciana Morosetti, assistant camera operator Antonio Scaramuzza, sound man and still photographer Enrico Blasi, and painter Emanuele Taglietti, along with cast memgbers Lino Capolicchio, Francesca Marciano, Giulo Pizzirani, and Pietro Brambilla. Pupi Avati says the film was made by a crew of only twelve people, due to budget constraints, which is crazy. He also says, "When it comes to making so-called 'gothic films,' which would be called 'horror' back in the day, or just scary movies, the key is the protagonist's journey. You must establish a rapport with the protagonist from the get-go." Francesca says, "I think my character's purpose in this story was adding a reassuring presence amidst all this gloom." The documentary gets into the cast and the locations, and even about an earthquake that occurred during production. There is also information about the addition to the film's ending.
The special features also include two featurettes. The first, "La Casa Sola," has Chris Alexander talking about the importance of the opening title sequence, as well as the feel of the film and about this film's place within Italian cinema. The second, "The Art Of Suffering," finds critic Kat Ellinger talking about how the character Stefano represents modernity entering an antiquated community, and talks about the film's relation to artistic traditions. The Blu-ray also contains the film's trailer.
The House With Laughing Windows was released on Blu-ray on December 2, 2025 through Arrow Video.
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