Mamma Roma (1962)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Film Review

Mamma Roma, Pasolini's second and perhaps most important film, shows some marked similarities with his first, Accattone (1961).  Both are keenly observed and intensely poignant portraits of Italian poor people trapped in a life from which there is no escape, filmed using a starkly neo-realist yet alluring style of cinematography.

Post-war Italian film icon Anna Magnani stars as the tragically framed lead character, Mamma Roma, giving a characteristically gripping performance, full of emotional power yet totally believable.  Thanks to her contribution, the film leaves a lasting impression on the spectator, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the simplicity of the narrative and the harsh melodramatic ending.

Film Synopsis

Now that she is in her forties and fast losing her good looks, Mamma Roma has made up her mind to give up her life as a prostitute and try to make a respectable living, for the sake of her 16-year-old son Ettore.  The latter has grown up in the country with his foster parents and knows nothing about his mother, although he is keen to renew her acquaintance.  After finding modest accommodation on a housing estate in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Rome, Mamma Roma moves in with her son and immediately throws herself into her new job, selling vegetables in the market place.  Now, at last, it seems that she has everything she could want to be happy.

Despite her best efforts, Mamma Roma has a hard time trying to make ends meet.  When an old lover of hers shows up and demands money off her, she has no choice but to fall back on her old profession.  It is an emergency that she hopes will not recur.  Unfortunately, Ettore has by now discovered his mother's shameful secret.  So shocked is he by his mother's former life as a prostitute that he goes completely off the rails and becomes mixed up with a gang of petty criminals.  When her son is arrested and thrown into prison, there is only one way that Mamma Roma can raise the money to have him released.  She must become a full-time prostitute once more...