Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy 1962, 110 min.)

Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged sex worker who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, Mamma Roma offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed. Banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity (a pimp's wedding banquet is composed to resemble The Last Supper), Mamma Roma is recognized now as a classic. It features a powerhouse performance by one of cinema’s greatest actresses and a roughhewn aesthetic that manages to organically incorporate the sensibilities of master artists including Leonardo, Caravaggio, Masaccio and, even though Pasolini denied it for some reason, Andrea Mantegna’s stunning Lamentation of Christ (1480) durning the film's heartbreaking conclusion.

Reviews:

“Extraordinarily moving… A cry of social protest.”

--Sight and Sound

"[Writer/Director] Pasolini's verbal skills are more than matched by visual ones. He always had a knack for making the faces of his impoverished subjects look like angels in a canvas by Caravaggio."

--The Baltimore Sun

“As the titular, tragic prostitute, Anna Magnani executed one of the great roles of her career.”

--Slant

"A chorale of longing, a scream of pain... a neglected classic."

--The Chicago Tribune

"Heartbreaking and powerful thanks to Magnani's devastating performance... [She] is a force of nature on the screen."

--Paper Magazine

"The least known of Pier Paolo Pasolini's features in this country also happens to be one of his very best. Pasolini’s final image of blighted urban wasteland, a vacant lot surrounded by grimy buildings and a church…, reverberate[s] like an El Greco. Not to be missed.”

--Chicago Reader

Trailer