Two Foreign Films Get L.A. Screenings

Two prizewinning foreign films, both submitted for Academy Award consideration for best foreign-language film by their respective countries, open in Los Angeles Friday.

“The Son’s Room” (La Stanza del Figlio) is the latest film from acclaimed Italian director Nanni Moretti. In the drama, which won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Moretti plays a psychoanalyst father in a family torn apart by the accidental death of a son. Woven with themes of grief and healing, the film is the darkest yet from Moretti, who is known more for overtly political, humorous works.

Moretti, who is in town for the opening, has called the film, which will play exclusively at the Fine Arts, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., “one of my most universal films.”

“Tricky Life” (En la Puda Vida), the first feature film by Beatriz Flores Silva of Uruguay, is also that country’s first film to be submitted for Academy Award consideration. The film, which will play exclusively at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., has won prizes in Cuba, Spain and Italy.

Based on a nonfiction book, “The Serpent’s Egg” by Maria Urruzola, the film depicts the dreams and troubles of Uruguayan women who become prostitutes in the Milan-based white slavery market. Mariana Santangelo, a New York-based Argentine actress, stars as a mother of two who becomes a national heroine in her struggle to free herself from the ring.

“It is really incredible for our cinema to have a film [considered for an Oscar],” said Flores Silva, who studied cinema in Belgium and is in Southern California to attend showings. “We come from a country without cinema.”

When she returned to Uruguay in 1992, no films had been made for 13 years. Now president of the Assn. of Cinema and Video Producers of Uruguay and founder of the School of Cinematography of Uruguay, she said she hopes the film will not only bring attention to the plight of the prostitutes but also prove that Uruguay can produce movies for national and international audiences.