The Son's Room

Starring:Stefano Abbati, Stefano Accorsi, Lorenzo Alessandri, Alessandro Ascoli, Marcello Bernacchini, Toni Bertorelli, Silvia Bonucci, Dario Cantarelli, Roberto De Francesco, Paolo De Vita, Alessandro Infusini, Laura Morante, Roberto Nobile, Antonio Petrocelli, Giuseppe Sanfelice, Claudio Santamaria, Renato Scarpa, Jasmine Trinca, Sofia Vigliar
Studio: Miramax Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti's signature talent for the overheard, unexpected, and happened-upon detail lends The Son's Room, the story of a grieving middle-class family, the unnerving quality of an unwanted surprise. Giovanni (Moretti) is a successful psychoanalyst whose family life is remarkably placid and enviously intimate: his beautiful wife (Laura Morante) and two intelligent, attractive teenage children are unafraid of their emotions. When his son, Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice), drowns in a diving accident, Giovanni is driven to suspend his practice and unintentionally betray his patients as he is haunted by what small choice he might have made in order to avert his son's death. Moretti, more widely known for his comedies, masterfully recreates how seemingly trivial things can take on such importance in the aftermath of tragedy. The intricacies of remembering are traced with such a light touch that the cumulative impact of the film is far greater than its many well-chosen details. Winner of the Palme d'Or (highest honor) at the Cannes International Film Festival, The Son's Room, which refuses melodrama at every step, is a deeply affecting portrait of familial love and the ritual of grieving. --Fionn Meade

Description

Declared Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival, this universally touching film tells the unforgettable story of a man facing the greatest challenge of his life. Giovanni is a psychoanalyst who thought he had all the answers. In contrast to the worries and neuroses of his patients, Giovanni's reassuringly calm existence revolves around the security of his loving family and the comfort of his daily routines. So when an unthinkable tragedy hits his home and turns his life upside down, he must somehow summon the courage to deal with his own grief while giving strength to those who need him most. Released to overwhelming critical acclaim, this ultimately uplifting emotional journey has drawn praise for its subtle realism and remarkable power!

Customer Reviews:

The Capriciousness of Life.......2006-08-10

Rarely has a film drawn me in so deeply that I remain affected days after I viewed it. "The Son's Room" is profound in its ability to create its moods especially in the latter half of the film. I feel that the director's presentation of this happy family, in the film's first half, is what allowed me to feel the result of an impending tragedy so personally. I kept thinking that I wanted everything to go back to the way it was before. I shared their grief as if it was my own.
I also applaud the presentation of an Italian society which is unlike the comic opera Italian experience presented in American films over the past decades going back to the silent era.
The film may not affect you as deeply as it affected me, but I highly recommend the absorbing story that is presented.

Based on a true story.......2006-03-05

I was surprised at the ending of this film that I didn't see the above caption at the beginning of the film. This movie to me was comparable to American television movies where something terrible happens to a family and how they cope with it. It was an Italian film, but on the whole it was of the same viewing quality as these movies, maybe a little less slick in appearance.

Also some of the scenes were so banal. Like just before the boy drowns a sense of danger is created by the girl on the moped kicking one of her friends on another moped, the close passing of a truck as the father drives to his patient etc. Or when the boys' casket is nailed shut and is screwed shut interchanged with images of the mourning father. How fat can you lay it on?

Especially the beginning of the movie is excruciating. A very one-dimensional portrait of the family, if they were black, they would be called the Huxtables. This is of course to offset the second part of the movie with the first. First routine and happiness, the second chaos and sadness.

The above are just some things I noticed about the movie which didn't make sense to me. I won't even go into the storyline which is rather unplausible at some points even though it is completely predictable. What bothers me most though is that all of this must have been done on purpose, but why? The end result is a bland film which may have been made with a lot of care, but just doesn't come across. This is the first movie I have seen by this director. I have heard that his other movies are better. I hope so, because this film hasn't made a great impression on me.

"Very little of life is completely under one's control".......2005-08-31

Happiness can be delicate. In just one swoop, it can stolen out from under you, just when you least expect it. The results can be often devastating - some can never recover. The family in the Italian film The Son's Room has found such happiness, but when tragedy suddenly strikes, they're engulfed in a whirlwind of grief and paralyzed with heartache.

Grief is perhaps the most tangled of human emotions, and the vagaries of sadness, love, and anger that comprise its essence are often very difficult to portray. Luckily, co-writer, director, and actor Nanni Moretti avoids all the usual clichés in this delicately nuanced and subtly acted film. The Son's Room is indeed a moving and weighty depiction of one family's attempts to heal after sudden death strikes them.

Moretti stars as Giovanni, a successful psychiatrist with a busy practice treating the assorted neurotics of the picture-perfect Northern Italian coastal town he and his family call home. Giovanni is a mild-mannered and kindly man, who has a sort of passive and submissive approach to living.

Giovanni also has a lovely family: he's happily married to gorgeous book publisher Paola (Laura Morante) and shares what he considers a close relationship with his teenaged daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca) and son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice).

He presides over his wife and two children with a kind of flaccid authority, enveloping them with the same deceptively passive doctoral concern with which he counsels his psychiatric patients. He supports, and heals, less by what he says than by what he doesn't say. He quietly coaches Andrea in soccer moves, while encouraging Irene to be more competitive at basketball.

Perhaps it's an ominous portent of what is to come, but the film opens as Andrea and his friends have been accused of stealing a valuable fossil from the school's Science department. Giovanni and Paola are surprised to find they entertaining the idea that their son may in fact be guilty as charged. However, no one takes the incident that seriously.

If this is the only drama that affects Giovanni's serene life, nothing prepares him for the sudden tragedy that occurs one sunny Sunday afternoon. Called away from home by a desperate client, Giovanni cancels his plans to go jogging with Andrea; and it's a fatal choice that haunts him for months to come.

The accident, when it happens, is so unexpected. The loss giving rise to sorrow, rage, tenderness, and the inexplicable feeling that hope is no longer possible. The family, emotionally fractured, is unable to continue on. Plunged into unimaginable grief, Giovanni attempts to carry on with his life, but bereft of his objectivity, he finds he's no longer able to function as an analyst.

The Son's Room, with it's subtle acting and its pensive, emotionally layered story, remains a startling testament to the delicate nuances of grief. And it's as though Moretti has invited the viewer to spy on a deeply personal event in the life of a very ordinary family. Like a fly on the wall we witness the sadness, the regret, the empty dinners and the overwhelming feeling of whether they could have done anything to stop the accident.

Moretti, whose eyes glitter with knowledge from within a bland, bearded, professorial face, gives a wonderful performance, as does the classy Morente as the beautiful, anguished Paola. While Giovanni wanders dazed through a theme park, numb to the grief, Paola fields a desire to talk about the absent child.

A savior for the family arrives in a letter addressed to the deceased, and when the writer appears on the family's doorstep, she offers the grace note that reminds them of the means by which happiness eventually repairs itself and the unavoidable fact that life goes on. There's no catharsis here, only a heartfelt exploration of what it means to grieve. Mike Leonard August 05.

Moving.......2004-08-06

Italian director and actor Nanni Moretti delivers a deeply moving meditation on the nature of grief and loss with "The Son's Room." Moretti plays Giovanni, a respected psychoanalyst, who leads a normal and happy life with his wife Paola and their two teenage children. But when Andrea, their son, suddenly dies in a diving accident, the family is forced to deal with this tragedy as best they can. It would be easy for the film to become so depressing and sad as to be unwatchable, but somehow that does not happen. The characters are so well drawn that, while you feel all their heartbreak, you know they will stay together and eventually find a way to deal with this. This is a beautiful film. Highly recommended!

The Buddhist Way.......2004-06-27

Must say that I've been waiting for a film like this for a long time. Nothing fancy, just beautiful, elegant, and detailed. Most of the time I was not aware that I was watching a film. It was that real. The film may have a simple look, but the philosophy/attitude that helps the family to come through the crisis is not. The Buddhist ideas revealed in the film are not some new age bull but sincere and inspiring. And I find the ending extremely powerful yet soothing. This is a great film made by a filmmaker who knows the medium really, really well.

Average customer rating:

Excelente musica cubana !!!
I kept asking myself "what was missing" after watching
Rest in Peace, Pio!
How could it be?
What a disappointment!

Soneros de Verdad - Sounds of Cuba
Starring: Soneros de Verdad
Manufacturer: Standing Room Only
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Cuba | Caribbean & Cuba | International | Styles | Music

General | Caribbean & Cuba | International | Styles | Music

General | International | Styles | Music

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music

Bolero | Latin Music | Styles | Music

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

International | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Buena Vista Social Club
Afro Cuban Legends / Juan de Marcos González , Ibrahím Ferrer, Rubén González, Pío Leyva
Latin Jazz Founders
Afro Cuban All Stars Live in Japan
Cubanissimo: A History of Cuban Music

ASIN: B0006SSQ2A
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Description

Soneros de Verdad (Sounds of Cuba) is a full-length live performance featuring the stars of the Buena Vista Social Club including Pio Leiva, Guillermo Rubalcaba and Julio Fernandez that blends traditional Spanish sounds with fiery Afro-Cuban rhythms. Songs include: Chan Chan, Francisco Guayabal, Danzon y Son (instrumental), A Buena Vista Barrio de la Habana, Instrumental y Bolero, Pena me da, El Cuarto de Tula

Customer Reviews:

Excelente musica cubana !!!.......2006-08-25

Program:
1- Chan chan
2- Francisco Guayabal
3- Danzon y Son
4- A Buena Vista Barrio de la Habana
5- Instrumental y Bolero
6- Pena me Da
7- El Cuarto de Tula

Luis Frank is the host and leader sonero. Guillermo Rubalcaba is excellent at the piano, in a style similar to the late Ruben Gonzalez. Another great pianist, Jesus Rubalcaba, makes a short appearance. Daniel "Gordo" Ramos does a good job at the trumpet, and Jose Angel Espinosa plays the tres. This could have been one Pio Leyva's last appearances. The setting at Habana's Club Chan Chan highlights the traditional architecture. Highly recommended !!! I'm sad it's only 60 minutes long ...

I kept asking myself "what was missing" after watching .......2006-08-18

Then it struck me: there was no happiness on this video; none of the joy of Buena Vista is here.

Pio, clearly not in the best of health, does not seem to want to be there, and only performs one full song. It seems, as Ibrahim's family claimed was done to Mr. Ferrer shortly before his passing away, that poor Pio was "encouraged" to perform more than was advisable for his waning health in order to generate hard currency.

The musicians,well, it's about what you'd expect from Cubans. All done with no cuts, do-overs, etc., improvised on the spot, etc., but Cuban music is judged to different standards, and by those standards this is lacking a certain flair. The musicians were there, but so much of the emotion wasn't. I get the feeling Pio's condition was felt by the rest of the guys. How else could it be, when Cuban music is so driven by the instant communication of emotions between the artists?

At the beginning of the video, Pio is asked about his health, and he gives the international hand-signal for 'so-so.' The pretty much defines this release.

KP

Rest in Peace, Pio!.......2006-03-25

I'm not quite sure what the other reviewer was watching but I know this, he must not have been coherent. This is an amazing piece of musical history and EVERYONE should check it out. Amazingly skilled musicians is all I hae to say. Rest in peace...Pio!

How could it be?.......2006-02-09

I have the CD "A Buena Vista: Barrio de la Habana" by Soneros de Verdad and can only recommend it to lovers of Cuban music. It has songs in all the subgenres of Cuban music - son, bolreo, afro, guajira ... all in superb quality of musicianship. Additionally it has nice thick booklet with details on musicians, photos, and all the lyrics. Plus it's both in Spanish and English - very valuable for someone like me who's learning Spanish.

I have not seen the DVD yet, however I strongly doubt whether the same group of musicians that produced such a nice album could be so bad in concert as previous reviewer suggests.

Of course, if one wants just one album / dvd of Cuban music in his "world music" collection, the "Buena Vista Social Club" will do, but to say that songs are "original" only as performed on that particular album is just plain wrong.

What a disappointment!.......2005-07-03

This DVD is terrible! All the songs are from the Buena Vista Social Club but are butchered. The musicians are constantly missing notes, they bring on "special" guests who can barely play their instruments. Save yourself the expense or at least rent this botched effort before you buy it.

The Girl in Room 20/Son of Ingagi/The Girl From Chicago/Lying Lips

Average customer rating:

The Girl in Room 20/Son of Ingagi/The Girl From Chicago/Lying Lips
Starring: Spencer Williams
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Drama | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Harlem Rides the Range/Moon Over Harlem/The Big Timers/Dirty Gertie From Harlem, USA
Spencer Williams Collection
Hi-De-Ho/The Devil's Daughter/Beware/Reet, Petite & Gone
Spirit of Youth/Lucky Ghost
Movies of Color - Black Southern Cinema

ASIN: B00062IYXW
Release Date: 2004-12-07

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Daredevil (Director's Cut)

North to Alaska

Confidential Report [1955]

DVD: Mutiny in the Big House

Down by Law