La Habitación Del Hijo

`Son's Room' reminds me why I love character-driven European films: the pace is slow, the camera lingers on a face longer than an American shot would dare, and the theme is frighteningly simple but almost always universal. In this case, a loving family has lost a son; the grieving process and the letting go are painful and inevitable. The film makes it all as lyrical as could be possible for a grim topic.

The point of view is consistently the psychiatric-professional dad's, who regrets he had not forced his son to run with him rather than go with his friends that fateful Sunday. Dad's sessions with clients frequently mirror his personal family life, before and after the tragedy, adding a melancholy connection between this flawed evaluator of men and his clients. In a dream he tells one of his clients, `I'm just as boring as you are,' certifying that our analyst and the rest of us are neither above nor below the ties that bind humans. Nanni Moretti writes and directs with Jean Renoir's gifted sense of the romance and tragedy of living everyday.

The exaggerated scenes of happy family life before the tragedy, for instance when they lip-synch to tunes during car trips, serve to highlight the unbearably real grief after. Eventually it takes a young outsider to move the characters to another level of reconciliation. Throughout the film the son's room maintains it role as motif to remind that the son, like us, lives in this space for just a short while.

This plot resolution is best expressed by the lyrics on the radio as the family comes to terms with its grief in the final scene

"Here we are stuck by this river/You and I underneath a sky/That's ever falling down, down, down."

This ending fits well the need to get outside grief to beat it at its corrosive game.

`Son's Room' shows that we will be crushed by that sky if we don't take care. The film deservedly won the top prize last year at the Cannes Film Festival.

This is one of the movies I wouldn't like to rate. But I would recommend each and everyone of you to watch it. I'm sucker for Palme D'or winners and how could I miss this one? I'm pretty sure the concept of losing out a family member have been explored by many directors, but there is something unique about this one. Directing himself in the movie (I really think it's a very difficult job to do that), Nanni Moretti hasn't put a foot wrong. And, if you're looking for a very good screenplay and some breathtaking cinematography, this is not your thing. This movie is all about actors pouring out their emotions on screen and a really sweet background score. What got me raving about the movie is how we blame every single action of ours when things don't go our way (I think majority of us to do that). La Stanza Del Figlio is simplicity personified. I'd say a must watch.

THE SON'S ROOM (2002) ***1/2 (ITALIAN W/SUBTITLES) Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Giuseppe Sanfelice, Jasmine Trinca, Sofia Vigliar. Excellently realized depiction of a loving Italian family who find themselves questioning a bleak future when a tragedy strikes shaking them out of their idealized trappings and seeking resolution to unanswered questions. Moretti, one of Italy's finest comedians, does a superb low-key job here in acting, directing and co-writing (with Linda Ferri and Heldrun Schleef) while maintaining an even-keeled balance of emotions, high and low, throughout thanks also to his talented cast. Haunting, humane and ultimately heart-rending yet never condescending and a final note: one of the most naturally performed interpretation of a nuclear family that truly loves one another equally; a damn rare thing to marvel.

Nanni Moretti's deserved winner of the Palme D'Or was a controversial choice, if only because it is a film grounded in reality and truth. We know these characters for a change, they are the neighbours whom we fear approach because of their loss and raw pain.

Moretti, in his subtle yet magnificent performance and in his deft, assured direction, has crafted a film which transcends cliche and sentimentality in spite of its well trodden subject matter. As in his earlier effort, 'Caro Diario' the viewer is held transfixed by his languid cinematic storytelling, which is nonetheless riveting.

Without resorting to pat endings or easy solutions to the characters' individual suffering (beautifully rendered by each of the performers, whose roles portray distinct yet relevant facets of grief) the film manages a redemption in unexpected, yet highly satisfying, fashion. I left the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival feeling completely exhilarated and grateful to this natural filmmaker.

A beautiful portrait of true, real emotion.

a film like a parable. fresh, honest. and cruel. because it is only reflection of ordinary reality. nothing else. a ladder of regrets, angry and lost of axis. a tragedy but in a special form. because its heart is fragility. with many nuances and games of nuances. with words as circle of deep silence and fear as wall for self protection. it is beautiful because it is wise image of a piece from society. with many definitions, all fragile, with many crumbs of joy, hope and sadness. and with bones of grief. like a confession. like mask for survive. like smoke bridge.so, nothing new. only slices of search for sense. and the silhouette of escape territory.