The Son’s Room

Thursday, May 15, 2003 – 7:30 pm
ITALY/FRANCE, 2001. Director: Nanni Moretti

Nanni Moretti’s extraordinary drama The Son’s Room, which won the Palme D’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, tells the deeply affecting story of a tight-knit, middle-class Italian family having to come to terms with a devastating loss. Nanni Moretti, who not only stars in and directs the film, but is also co-writer and co-producer, plays Giovanni, a happily married man with two charming and well-adjusted teenaged children. He is also a well-respected psychoanalyst with a thriving practice of patients who pour out their troubles to him on a regular basis. Giovanni also enjoys jogging through the streets of Ancona, but when he opts to make a rare house call one Sunday morning instead of going for a run with his son Andrea as he usually would, tragedy strikes. Andrea dies in a scuba diving accident and he can’t help blaming himself and his choices. Giovanni starts having trouble listening to and caring about his patients, and he also distances himself from his wife and daughter. “Moretti’s film achieves true greatness and spiritual depth when he shows how this resilient family gradually moves towards an understanding and acceptance of the body-blow they have received. Never stooping to clichés, Moretti builds the emotive power of his film through consistent understatement combined with a deft sensitivity to the grief that his narrative demands.” (Piers Handling, TIFF)
Colour, 35mm, 99 mins.

The program will include:
A post-screening discussion with:

Dr. Michael Myers, is a Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UBC and the Director of the Marital Therapy Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital. He is a specialist in physician health and his videotape “When Physicians Commit Suicide: Reflections of Those They Leave Behind” won the 1999 American Psychiatric Association Psychiatric Services Award. Dr. Myers will be introduced by Cathy Sosnowsky, a BC Director of The Compassionate Friends organization and author of a book of poetry written after the death of her son called Holding On:Poems for Alex. The Compassionate Friends is an international, non-profit, non-denominational, self-help organization offering support to families who have experienced the death of a child at any age, from any cause.

Evening moderated by:
Dr. Harry Karlinsky Director of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.

This evening is co-sponsored by The Compassionate Friends