Movies - Mamma Roma

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	Movies - Mamma Roma

Mamma Roma is a 1962 film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Of his feature debut Pier Paulo Pasolini said that he wasn't able to rebirth Anna Magnani as she was in Roma, città aperta because as an actor, she chose to maintain her independence from his artistic visions. "If I had to shoot the film over, I would have still chosen her", said Pasolini later.

An ex-prostitute, Mamma Roma(Anna Magnani), tries to start a new life selling vegetables with her 16 year old son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo). When he later finds out she was a prostitute he succumbs to the dark side with the petty theft of a radio in a hospital and goes to prison. The lingering shots of Ettore, strapped to a prison bed in his underwear are seductive and haunting. As are shots of Mamma Roma walking at night, joined by different men in conversation, one after another, one continuous shot.

The relationship between Ettore and his mother is clearly incestuous. Pasolini's love relationship with tough young men is also clear. Ettore is flawless, except for a nose that looks like it's been broken in a fight.

In Mamma Roma Pasolini's two loves are revealed: his mother, and young tough men. In Pasolini's films women are either mothers or prostitutes.

As soon as the film was released, critics and audience claimed the film as immoral. The reason the film was considered as immoral is because of the use of swear-words like "piss" or "shit". The film was brought up to the court but the case was turned down as unfounded of "immorality". (Siciliano, 250) But the film shows how people in the lower class at that time lived, the culture which is long gone from now. The film is a visual evidence of those who struggled to live after the fascist era. (Restivo, 8)

The film was dedicated to the director of Roma, città aperta (1945), Roberto Rossellini. Anna Magnani plays a pregnant woman who gets killed in the middle of the Rossellini's film. Rossellini represents "good Italians" through deaths of a priest, Don Pietro who helps a communist group and a mother who tries to help her husband who is communist. People who killed those "good Italians" are Nazis. On the other hand, Pasolini comments how the country changed from 1945 to 1962 in Mamma Roma. First of all, characters in the film are whores, pimp and thieves. None of them are people who work for people. Secondly, in the beginning of the film, Mamma Roma brings three pigs to the wedding of her old pimp, Carmine. Carmine calls the pigs "Brothers of Italy." Then, Mamma Roma calls one pig a whore. In a contrast to Rossellini's patriotic film, Pasolini brings irony in his film. Ettore dies in Italian prison even though he doesn't die from extreme physical torture. Pasolini shows that the corrupt of the society is not because of the outside force like Roma under Nazi occupation. The problems are created within the society or the people in it. (Viano, 88)

There is a shot of landscape of Rome in the end of Mamma Roma. The dome of a church sticks out from the rest of the top of buildings. The scene shares the similarity with the aforementioned Rossellini's film again. In Rossellini's, the dome of St. Peter's appears as the background when boys are walking on the street dragging their sadness. They seem like walking toward St. Peter's or "the house of God." On the other hand, in Pasolini's film, when Mamma Roma finds out Ettore's death, goes back to her apartment and tries to jump off the window, she sees the dome of a church. She stares at the dome. The image of her and the dome switches back and fourth. Her stare gets more intense. The film ends.

What separates Pasolini from other neo-realist filmmakers is the use of actors and their acting. Most of Pasolini's cast doesn't have any acting training. In his book A Certain Realism: Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice, Maurizio Viano points out that actors in other filmmaker's films are "beginners" and they start establishing acting career afterwards. But in Pasolini’s case, most of actors "only acted with Pasolini."(Viano, 90) So, actors who have worked with Pasolini don't develop a career in acting because Pasolini's film is the first and the last film of their acting career. Author of Pier Paolo Pasolini: Cinema as Heresy, Naomi Greene says the use of non-professional actors is the same as what other neo-realist filmmakers but the philosophy behind it is different. Neo-realist filmmakers believed that using nonprofessional actors "would add to the realism to their films, Pasolini turned to nonprofessionals because their acting did not seem 'real.'"(Greene, 42) Nonprofessional acting obviously interrupts "narrative flow." For example, when Mamma Roma and Ettore dance a tango song together, Ettore's rigid inexpert dance move causes his mother to fall on the floor. She laughs brightly. Ettore laughs shyly and looks at the camera. But Pasolini doesn't cut or reshoot the scene. He leaves it as it is.

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