Mamma Roma

"Mamma Roma"(1962) the second film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, is the brutally realistic in its depiction of life in the slums of Rome yet lyrical ode to mother's love. Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani), a middle-aged prostitute is ready to quit her profession and to start a new life with her teenage son who had spent his childhood in the country and does not know her well. She wants a better life for herself and a meaningful future for her son, and there is not much her Mamma Roma would not do for her son. Things don't go as planned, though...

Anna Magnani was renowned for her earthy, passionate, "woman-of-the-soil" roles and she is one of the main reasons to see the film. She is Rome's flesh and soul, its spirit and symbol, its loud laugh and bitter tears.

If Sarah Palin wants to support what she calls her "Mama Grizzlies," she should have Mamma Roma in her stable. This woman (Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo, The Secret of Santa Vittoria) is one tough grizzly, especially when it comes to her son, and trying to keep him on the straight and narrow.

She used to be a woman of the evening, until her pimp (Franco Citti - Accattone!, Godfather III) marries a country girl and retires, letting her reclaim her now teenage son (Ettore Garofolo in his first film) and move to Rome.

He soon falls for a loose woman and in with some unsavory characters. That's when the grizzly rears on her hind legs and goes to work.

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, The Decameron, and the last before he was murdered, Salò) used Citti in many of his films. His films, while critically acclaimed, could draw moral outrage. Five minutes were cut from this film by the Italian authorities; although I can only guess where. He still was one of the best, and directed a winner here.

After many years working in the streets of Roma, the middle-age whore Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) saves money to buy an upper class apartment, a fruit stand and retires from the prostitution. She brings her teenage son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo), who was raised alone in the country, to live with her, and Ettore becomes her pride and joy. However, the boy that does not want to study or work, joins to idle friends, has a crush on a bitch, and Mamma Roma uses her best but limited efforts to straight Ettore and make him an honest man. However, her past haunts her with tragic consequences.

"Mamma Roma", the second movie of Pier Paolo Pasolini, is an impressive, cruel, touching, riveting realistic drama. Anna Magnani has an awesome performance in the role of a limited mother trying to live an honest life and give the best for her son. Franco Citti has a short, but also fantastic acting in the role of a nasty pimp. In times when Hollywoodian fairytale world prevails in most worldwide movie theaters and rentals, it is good to revisit the real world in this unforgettable gem. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mamma Roma"

Mamma Roma could be Pasolini's best film. Well, perhaps I shouldn't judge that right now. I have seen two others, Salo, which I quite like despite its being the vilest film ever made, and The Gospel According to Matthew, generally considered his best film. I love that one, as well. But, as much as I loved those two films, they didn't envelope me like Mamma Roma did.

Anna Magnani plays the titular character, an aging, plump, and earthy whore. Her pimp has retired and let her go, so Mamma Ro' runs off to the country to gather up her teenage son. The backstory of the son is left obscure. Apparently Mamma Ro' left him with some relatives or something like that. Her son, Ettore, is excited to move to Rome, but he is not sure whether he trusts his mother. She has abandoned him for most of his life presumably (one of the great gifts that Pasolini has in this film is that he never spells anything out, but just suggests and implies a lot).

The film shifts between Mamma Ro' and Ettore. Ro' is running a respectable fruit stand, although she likes to hang around all of her friends who are still prostitutes and pimps. Probably the most memorable shot of the film occurs when Ro' walks down the streets of rural Rome at night. The camera moves backwards on a dolly, and Ro' is constantly walking towards it. Her friends approach her, talk with her and walk with her a while, only to drop back. A few seconds later, a new companion will walk up next to Ro' and walk beside her, talk with her. There are actually two scenes with this shockingly beautiful technique, used at strategic points of the film. Mamma Roma cares about her son more than anything. She is a good mother, or at least she is overly determined to be one.

Ettore, on the other hand, lives a life of boredom. School does not interest him, nor does work. He would rather hang around with all the local hoodlums and the local tramp who lives down the street. He wanders around amongst the ruins of ancient Roman city walls. The landscape is simply beautiful, but in a very desolate manner. As the film progresses, Ettore grows more and more delinquent.

The themes of mother and son are universal. Of making amends and of growing up. This film captures the feel of human existence as almost no other film does. Pasolini is a genius, he has his fingers right on the pulse of human rhythm. I think that he captures what the neorealist directors were always after. They always got bogged down in melodrama, although I do love a ton of them. Mamma Roma is the kind of film that makes me happy to be alive. It's not exactly a happy film, but it is wonderfully life affirming. When Mamma Ro' rode proudly down the street on the back of her son's motorbike, it left a mark on me never to be erased.

Mamma Roma(1962) is one of the best films to come out of Italy during the 1960's. Anna Magnani is terrific as a strong willed mother who wants to give her son a better future to look foward to by living in the city. Its a homage to the neo-realist classics of the late 40's and mid 50's. In fact, this film compares greatly with some of the early films by De Sica and Fellini. Mamma Roma and his previous film added on another facet to the multi talented, multiple artist Pier Paolo Pasolini. The movie is filled with many political and religious ideas that the director believed in.

Mamma Roma(1962) deals with the themes of betrayal, loneiness, and class status. The film has a nililistic feel to it when it comes to the youth of the story. There are parts of this motion picture that reminded me of Luis Bunuel's Los Olvidados. They both see the youth as people who have nothing to look foward to. Its the opposite of a coming of age story because nothing positive happens to the teen protagonist. The direction by Pasolini is well done as he showed that he was on his way to becoming one of the most important film makers in Italy during the late 20th Century.

It contains some poetic moments. Its a film that doesn't get much credit due to the bleak nature of the main characters. Its this sense of hopelessness that turned many viewers off to this movie in 1962. It was rereleased in its full version several years ago by Martin Scorsese' film company. The film is a class study of people who try to escape their old ways only to be unsuccessful in the attempt to turn over a new leaf. The art direction was done by future director Flavio Mogherini.

Ettore Garofolo does a good job in the role of Ettore, Mamma Roma's son. Anna Magnani is wonderful at alternating between motherly and sensual instincts. In 1962, Mamma Roma was denounced by the police to the Magistrate's office for its portrayal of the young teens. The case was eventually dismissed. One scene that was good is the scene where Mamma Roma shows her son what's its like to be respectable. Another memorable moment is the final shot of Magnani attempting to jump out the window.

Ettore is presented as a martyr in the vein of a religious symbol. His final scenes are both heart breaking and sad. Although Mamma Roma is a prostitute, she still in a awkward way has a moral consciousness that gradually develops throughout the movie. Her ideology is developed through the mass media. What's sad is that Mamma Roma does not realize that her ideals are corrupted until she feels that she has failed in her relationship with her son. Pasolini believed that "The only thing that makes man really great is the fact that he will die", and "Man's only greatness lies in his tragedy".