Mamma Roma poster & wallpaper

Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti

At the wedding of her former pimp to a country girl, Mamma Roma celebrates her own liberation from a life of reluctant prostitution. She sells vegetables in the outdoor market and dreams of a respecta...( read more  read more... )ble future for her teenage son, Ettore. Not even her pimp's continuing demands for money can tarnish her hopes. Desperate to save her handsome young son from the various temptations of life in the big city, Mamma Roma blackmails a restaurateur into giving the boy a job. Tragically, her happiness is too brief--her pimp forces Mamma Roma back on the street and Ettore learns of his mother's profession.

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9 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Release Date: January 1, 1962

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DVD Release Date: June 22, 2004

Stats: 118 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (118)

  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    October 7, 2007
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Pasolini's greatest, and most heartfelt work.
  • ElCochran90
    October 18, 2009
    ElCochran90
    "I can finally quit my job as a fruit seller due to ths job that I have done which I am not proud of but has improved my style of life, no?"

    MAMMA ROMA (1962)


    Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
    Country: Italy
    Genre: Drama
    ...( read more)>Length: 110 minutes

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    Scandal and controversy always pursued him, recognized because supposed cinematic obscenity and constantly attacked by both the Left and the Right, Italian auteur Pier Paolo Pasolini always prioritized the expression of his ideas through an early neorealist style and a latter politically shocking form throughout his filmic career. The underrated and charmingly effective Mamma Roma is his second feature film, an Italian gem that resorted to the classic Italian neorealism, paying a gorgeous homage to the works of Vittorio de Sica (Ladri di Biciclette [1948], Umberto D. [1952]), Federico Fellini (La Strada [1954], Le Notti di Cabiria [1957]) and Roberto Rosellini (Roma, Città Aperta [1945], Germania Anno Zero [1948]). The techniques would be repeated, yet majorly perfected in Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo before reaching the level of his famous Mythical Cycle. As amateur and referential as it may seem at first glance, this catastrophically gorgeous Italian gem reflects the ability of past filmmakers of accurately portraying on screen the devastating effects of a massive war, the resulting spiritual perdition and a much more stronger influence of Catholicism, a characteristic that would clearly distinguish Pasolini through his projects, not to mention it mixed such concept with predominately Marxist ideals. This time, a melodramatic tale is transformed in a nostalgic tale with that notoriously moving power of human relationships.

    Extremely talented Italian actress Anna Magnani returns to the big screen of Europe and brilliantly portrays the character of Mamma Roma, a middle-aged whore of the capital city of Italy. Destiny partially favors her and allows her to buy a fruit stand and an upper class apartment so she can move with her 16-year-old son Ettore, retiring from the prostitution. However, Ettore is a rebel young man who has no interest towards studying and having healthy relationships, causing her mother to revive some tragic consequences of her past life. Pier Paolo Pasolini was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival, losing it against Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivanovo Detstvo (1962) and Valerio Zurlini's Cronaca Familiare (1962).

    Despite the genre and the filmmaking branch it directly belongs, the film corrects most of the justified technical failures that films of past decades had precisely because of the effects of the Second World War. It intentionally adds the cinematographic charms of the most significant and relevant neorealist movies and Pasolini establishes his trademark from beginning to end, thus indicating a new period in his direction. It was a clear and simple sign of a search for the correct style for expressing his perspective towards an anarchic world. Mamma Roma is a sample that homages can be moving pieces of art, and that experimentation has always been a daring branch of filmmaking that can either bring brilliant or terrible results, with no middle ground. Despite its melodramatic touch and a very characteristic Oedipal approach, a controversial feature that would be present in his latest films like Teorema (1968) and Il Fiore delle Mille e una Notte (1974), the emotional empathy it provides is an everlasting result to remember for the rest of the days of cinema itself.

    The brilliantly executed camera work gently oscillating from street to street compensates an average, but pleasurable black-and-white cinematography. Anna Magnani radiates an enormous presence throughout the film?s length, providing one of the best and most memorable female leading roles in cinema history, a statement that is no exaggeration. Her talent is still present and makes both the character and the plot work completely. Despite being a very dedicated woman who somewhat represents prostitution as a job worth of respect and a deplorable one under the standards of society, she is still the model mother that the world universally accepts as admirable. Having a son that is going through the tight path, she puts every single sweat drop so she can correct his path before it?s too late. He represents her pride, joy and fortitude; he is the strongest human connection she will ever have and, as the responsible mother she wants to be, she would be capable of going through any hardship so his son can learn the best qualities of the world in a hostile environment. Mamma Roma can be interpreted as the incarnation of a destroyed Rome trying to raise its sons: the citizens of Italy through times of hardships and constant moral and financial obstacles.

    The screenplay of the film has a notorious talent. It is poetically written and makes the best possible transitions between scenes and close-ups to the characters, one technique that Fellini began to learn how to perfect it in 1960 with the film La Dolce Vita. It draws a marriage between the camera and the dialogues, like if the film were trying to imitate the joy that life can transmit. It has an effective story development and it has a strong climax, with an ending scene that does not need to show one more single frame than the ones it shows. More than an open ending, it is a direct invitation to the viewer to reflect the correctness of the moral that is mainly accepted as "right". What gives the write to man to take vengeance and justice into his own hands? The motives remain unclear, but an explanation is not required. Man?s cruelty and incomprehension of others? problems is the main issue treated throughout. It costs a lot of effort and guts to wear the shoes of any other person that has to face several hardships and lives under inferior life conditions, especially when we are not meant to live them, either because of divine intervention, how prepared we would be for it, psychologically speaking, or just because we would miserably fail.

    Mamma Roma is an underrated masterpiece. Its merits acquitted Pasolini delayed fame and recognition. It is a powerful manifesto of the people surrounding a wealthy and morally incorrect society judging lower classes with neither solid nor valid arguments whatsoever. Pasolini was still constructing a vision, but he left several masterpieces along that complex road and Mamma Roma is not an exception. It can be rightfully considered as one of the best Italian films of the decade, wonderful in its own sense and wittily naïve talent through an experienced scope.

    100/100
  • bbliumis
    January 27, 2009
    bbliumis
    great film
    Anna Magnani was amazing
    and Pasolini made a good linear film
  • engrymfilm
    October 17, 2008
    engrymfilm
    Sometimes, there's no good outcome ever for any situation. Very sad.
  • ArtistaScar
    August 22, 2008
    ArtistaScar
    saw this in one of my lectures. would like to see again without my professor yapping during it.
  • AndySitzerFan
    June 10, 2008
    AndySitzerFan
    I wish I could watch every movie ever made but I sadly don't have the time. I'm not interested in this movie because I don't think I'll like it or don't know enough about it to think I might like it. I may still end up seeing it some day though.
  • RyanS87
    June 3, 2008
    RyanS87
    A powerful humanist hagiography, which treats its flawed, confused, but fiercely compassionate protagonist with the utmost reverence.
  • 24000Baci
    April 4, 2008
    24000Baci
    a troubling masterpiece.

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