La stanza del figlio(The Son’s Room): Shades of Grief

Tushar   | Movies, Review | December 16, 2009 at 11:41 pm         Print

La stanza del figlio(The Son’s Room) is a 2001 Italian film written and directed by Nanni Moretti. The film won the Palme d’or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. It depicts the psychological effects on a family and their life after the death of their son (Wikipedia).

The film is a stark account of the events as they happen in this family of 4. Moretti plays a psychoanalyst – Giovanni, who is introduced as a mild reactive person, given his profession makes him face many a cases of psychological depression almost each day at his clinic. But Giovanni has his wife- Paula, and his two children- Irene & Andrea to share his little troubles and it all moderates in a typical family dinner environment through their smaller yet significant family life.

One day, Andrea is accused of stealing a rare fossil at school. There is unrest in the family, and a domestic run of whodunit which questions morality in general and puts Andrea in a fix follows. The film then changes tracks and Andrea, who is a scuba diver, dies in an accident. This changes the whole sequence of events for the family dramatically, and we see finer layers of each character as they go through this emotional turmoil and face their own demons out in the open- guilt, despair, remorse, anger.

The film takes its own time to find an amiable pace and comfort with the viewer. But if you are in for an emotional family drama that stifles and disturbs you yet leave you with a memorable resolve, The Son’s Room is the film you are looking for.

Moretti keeps the setting minimal, with bleak colored house walls, and an overexposed white to narrate the oft-gloomy plot. Moretti as the central character of Giovannni grabs your attention with his imperfections of a doctor and a counselor turned into a patient himself following the games life plays with him.
Laura Morante complements Moretti as his wife who is finding it hard to get over their grief and often breaks down amidst conversations through recollections of Andrea.
Jasmine Trinca as their daughter Irene plays the child who lives under the grief of her brother’s demise and faces her own demons- a life of ennui, rejection and ever-distant aspirations.

Theirs is a functional family, which gives them an envelope for their little defeats and personal hurts.
Giovanni has his own grief and monotony – listening to patients all day, with compulsive empathy. He gets all kinds- OCD’s, depressives, violent, silent, cynics, analyzers etc.

Post Andrea’s demise, we see the lead couple getting into a different kind of gloom, something which almost starts defining or rather redefining their daily life. They revisit the past through their conversations, mull over the tragedy over and over, discussing and analyzing possibilities and what-if’s, as they realize it is all taking them even deeper into the gloom and despair. One event that happened for the bad is taking all the worse possible proportions and a void that one gradually fills or looks to fill with the passage simply is refusing to fill.
In one sequence, Irene gets into a fight during her basketball match and is booed out by the crowd and is consequentially disqualified from the championship. On their way back, the parents who are sitting few seats away from her in the bus try to console her unsuccessfully. Another sequence follows where Irene is trying to score ‘empty baskets’ to her further dismay and haplessness. And to add to the misery, her father can’t help or alleviate her problems either. This is an example of ever-saddening and worsening grief.

Andrea’s mourning- Giovanni gets restless at the priest’s consolation. All the divine justification does not, and maybe it is the first time ever for that, make sense to him. He questions all that is being said, albeit in the dead comfort of his wife and house, but does.

“Everything is broken, chipped, scratched, in this house…”

As we go deeper in the depression, we see Giovanni becoming more inefficient in his counseling sessions. His clinical methodology and approach takes a backseat and gives way to vague talks of destiny, and its unconditional ways. He becomes intrinsic and loses ‘all objectivity’ as he puts it.

Association of tragedy- Giovanni and his wife often go back to all the real and unreal events that happened attached to their son and his life.

Fear of analyzing a tragedy- Giovanni & Paula cannot help going back to the same discussion but fear an emotional outburst when they analyze the events circling Andrea’s death/accident, another escape from a practical approach to tackle the situation. Which is an interesting central conflict in Giovanni’s character here. The counselor has given way to the victim. And it is no surprise that his much tested approach to cure it is not working.

All relationships are false – Irene, the daughter, expresses this trait when she says she left her stoner boyfriend.

Amidst all the other events, Paula discovers a letter in Andrea’s room. This letter was written by Arianna, a girl who Andrea must have had something of an affair with, back in the old time. Paula takes to it rather intensely and goes back to Andrea’s room and his stuff, much dictated by the letter and the adjoining pictures.
On hearing about this, Giovanni attempts to write to Arianna, Paula calls her. But it does not turn out the way they expected. And another hope of them reconciling with life’s strange ways dies.
In a decisive sequence, Giovanni says it is time he says goodbye to practicing psychoanalysis. The patients, as expected, all react differently to the news. Some accept it with mild opposition while others react violently.

In a beautiful montage sequence around this time, we see all 3 members of the family finding it hard to sleep or to do what they are trying to do. Giovanni who is trying to have dinner can’t have it, the lack of attention manifests itself in myriad ways, glasses break, wine gives way to breadcrumbs, bar conversations go futile, sleep is a rarity…
“You can’t turn back time.”
“That is exactly what I want to do!”
There is a hint of all money and material possessions proving to be futile in bringing a hint of happiness or hope to their now-saddened lives.

The film though moves emotionally from one event to the other, mere failed attempts of the family headed by Giovanni to regain their little insignificant yet comforting happiness, it sometimes gets a little bleak and detached in the way the scenes play out. When Giovanni visits the record store to get a flavor of Andrea’s favorite music and the music plays on while the tad familiar shopkeeper looks from the corners before walking away, there is a strange sense of alienation in this attempted reunion of sorts. You have mixed feelings for Giovanni. He is not outright convincing as a remorseful, regretful father, yet there is a strange music that rather literally hangs in the air as he walks out of the store with the song still playing on. The same song would conclude the film rather beautifully and matter-of-factly a few scenes later.

The final portions of the film are the strongest. Arianna’s visit to the family, the family’s reactions, the minor intricacies, the mannerisms, are the film’s quiet triumph over this rather tough approach of a grieving family plot. And then there is the tried angle of the undying spirit of quest, the long winding road of life that the film decides to leave us with. No doubt it is an easy resolve, but one questions if there was another option…
“…well, if Stefano says so..”

This is the only positive message that the film rather reassuringly delivers and negates the strong sense of ennui and a world of gloom that it creates all this while to a certain degree.

“Do not fall asleep, let’s keep each other awake.”
The long, impending night gets over in this typical road-movie-family-trip-transformation as they reach the French border. “What’s so funny”, Irene asks Giovanni and Paula. They simply smile back and we know things are going to be different for this grieving family this day on.

Film Image Courtesy: Simz