“L’Isola di Andrea (Andrea’s Island)” isn’t told from the perspective of the eight-year-old boy of the title, but it isn’t not exactly either. There’s a kind of innocence to the camerawork deployed by writer/director Antonio Capuano as he chronicles the divorce proceedings between Marta (Teresa Saponangelo) and Guido (Vicino Marchioni), who surely haven’t made a mistake in separating from one another, and while Andrea isn’t ever in the room as they bicker in front of an arbitrator who will determine his custody, the camera playfully floats around the office, notably not taking any side as it refuses to settle in any one position but also suggesting to some degree with its restlessness that everyone in the situation have been reduced to children when no one knows what’s about to come next.
Although Marta and Guido’s separation is a complete mess, Capuano finds a rigid structure for an engaging drama in the former couple’s dates with the court where they meet both together and individually with a panel that includes Cristina, a representative for the court and a forensic psychologist to determine the best situation for Andrea to be raised in. The need to recount history leads both down memory lane, with the filmmaker fancifully having them offer commentary as they’re actually reliving scenes from the past, a dramatic liberty that works when it becomes obvious that the primary reason they got together in the first place is a certain artistic sensibility that the two have to reckon with when they’re no longer in sync. While Guido has an appreciation for the beauty to be found in art, passed on from a father who was an acclaimed pianist, there’s a certain discipline that Marta does not have as she shows a preference for dance where freedom and fluidity are key to movement and the two have reached a stalemate upon realizing that a shared passion for art wasn’t a strong enough foundation for a real marriage, having to deal with meddling mother-in-laws and jobs that required travel.
They are quite a handful for any evaluator even without challenging each other’s recollections when Guido can break into song as a way of articulating a memory that won’t come any other way and Marta wears her emotions on her sleeve, often acting on instinct that she comes to regret and Capuano refrains from assigning blame to anyone, but does create a compelling question in what will happen to Andrea when neither parent looks entirely capable of taking care of themselves emotionally, let alone a child. (A Halloween sequence is particularly frightening when both parents appear to be getting in character for their own benefit rather than for their son.) The slightly surreal tone doesn’t only prove diverting, but accurate to what Andrea must see when he looks at the adults around him, curious about what he can’t yet know at his age, but resistant to be pulled in when it looks unpleasant and it becomes a unique look at a relationship where a reality that they all once accepted as a family has been broken, leaving confusion in its wake. While there’s little chance the pieces will ever come back together in a satisfactory way, Capuano creates a cohesive narrative that honors everyone’s radically different points of view.
“L’Isola Di Andrea” will screen again at the Venice Film Festival on September 6th at 11 am at Sala Giardino.