

A neurotic teacher's girlfriend might be his alibi—or his accomplice. Italian chaos ensues.
Michele, a young mathematics professor, moves into a new flat. Lonely, depressed, and neurotic, he spends his free time spying on his neighbors, particularly a young couple struggling with the routines of married life. When Bianca, a new teacher at the local high school, enters his life, Michele finds himself falling in love. At the same time, a string of murders rocks the neighborhood, casting suspicion on him.
Acting
Moretti's self-directed performance is pure anxious exhibitionism.
Direction
Moretti's idiosyncratic framing turns Rome into his personal playground.
Writing
Dialogue veers from psychoanalytic confession to deadpan absurdity.

Director
Nanni Moretti
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Moretti allegedly wrote Michele's apartment to exactly replicate his own living space at the time, down to the furniture placement.
The film emerged from Italy's 1980s 'cinema of the self,' where auteurs turned neurosis into aesthetic—Moretti became its patron saint.