Windows (1980)

February 23, 2025 9:52 AM

A weird woman admires and spies on her shy mousy neighbor with a telescope.

Notable for several things:

- The first (and last) film directed by celebrated cinematographer Gordon Willis

- The first Hollywood movie released in the 1980s (it was a January release - with all that implies)

- Has a beautiful Ennio Morricone score (additional evidence that fine music can be found in many non-fine movies)

- A reminder that it wasn't that long ago, historically speaking, when a character's lesbianism was considered sufficient cause to explain her insanity

posted by Lemkin (2 comments total)

For all of the above reasons, I would like to see this film. However, I would now like to bring to the attention of whoever may read this, the following (from the Wikipedia article about this film):

The novelization of Windows was written by H. B. Gilmour.[16] It was published by Pocket Books in 1980.[17]

"Hm," you may be saying to yourself. "This film barely seems to merit a Wikipedia article; why then a reference to its novelization, which probably went out of print two weeks before the movie was released and was never heard of again?"

Well! It turns out that H.B. Gilmour was quite a prolific novelizer of films and TV shows, including Saturday Night Fever, The Eyes of Laura Mars, The Muppets, All that Jazz, Godzilla (1998), Pretty in Pink, Fatal Attraction, Clarissa Explains It All, and Clueless, from which she derived, apparently, an entire sequel series of novels. Who was this fascinating author, and why has she been lost to the ages? I'm so much more interested in the life and work of this person than I probably should be, but I just really want to know her process.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:56 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]

Gilmour was contracted to write the novelizations of these screenplays. Interview on Book Beat.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:22 AM on February 23 [2 favorites]