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The Son's Room [2002]
from Momentum Pictures
starring Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca, Giuseppe Sanfelice, Sofia Vigliar
directed by Nanni Moretti

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

The Son's Room, which picked up the 2001 Palme d'Or at Cannes, marks a departure for writer-director Nanni Moretti. The films that made his name outside Italy, Dear Diary and Aprile, were both highly personal and politicised semi-documentaries, and a strong political sense underlies the half-dozen or so features he made before them. By contrast, The Son's Room is a subtle, intense study of a family cracking apart under the impact of grief, with no overt political element. For all that, it's the most moving film that Moretti's yet made. "It captured me" he says "more than any other [story] I'd worked on previously. It's a film in which the director shares his emotions with the audience, without imposing his own feelings."

As usual, the director plays his own lead character. Here he's Giovanni, a successful psychiatrist in a provincial Italian city (Ancona on the Adriatic coast). He has a beautiful wife, happy in her own career, and two bright, good-looking teenage children, a son and a daughter. Then, out of nowhere, tragedy strikes and in its aftermath, the fissures begin to show in the idyllic façade. Giovanni in particular reveals the insecurities and neuroses lurking behind his tolerant, easy-going demeanour. Moretti homes in on his characters with clear-eyed compassion, never milking the tragedy for facile sentiment but sparing us nothing of the gut-wrenching grief they feel. Nor does he succumb to the temptation of a feel-good happy ending: we are left with a hint of hope for the future, but no more. This is intelligent, mature filmmaking that respects its audience.

On the DVD: The Son's Room comes to disc with just the trailer--and the flabby US trailer at that. A commentary from Moretti would have been more than welcome. Still, the transfer, in the original 1.66:1 ratio, is impeccable, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound to match. --Philip Kemp

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

• Modest
  This is more of a character study than a plot driven story, and the organic pace may frustrate those who are not used to European films. However if you're down with the idea of nothing actually happening and have a taste for the gentler side of European cinema, then this offering will not disappoint.
  The Son's Room is an interesting family drama with a light touch and a wonderfully transparent delivery. The characters are presented honestly, without emotional steerage, and are loveable from the outset.... more info

• the room inside
  There two moments when cinema can be sublime: when it show us life as it could be and is not, and when it show us life as it rigorously is. La Stanza del Figlio is one of those moments, when we see up there on the big screen life such as it truelly is, as our life is, as we people are. That transcendent and fragile breath that gives humanity to the clay that we come from.
  Ok, I'm I partial: I adore italian cinema, I adore the films by Moretti. I've seen most of his movies (well, all of them since... more info

• A beautifully morbid film
  I was taken a back the first time I saw this film, I did not know that so much emotion could be put into 95 minutes of film. The content of The Son's Room is brutal yet beautiful, it shows the true emotion that goes along with the loss of a loved one, rather then a rose tinted hollywood perception. This film is stunning, emotive and truly one of a kind, a masterpiece by a wonderful writer and director. It is a film that will keep you gripped, it will make you smile, and more importantly it will make you cry... more info

• VERY STRONG
  This was one of the best movies I've seen lately but it is still just a typical Italian film. Italians still know how to get your attention and hold it for the length of the film. How to review it? It is not easy. Life of a middle class Italian family is interrupted by the death of a son. How does it affect all of them? They are all angry and feel somewhat responsible for that but they have to deal with the situation and help each other. The rest of it you have to see for yourself. There are some... more info

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