Pasolini’s work is distinct from the rest of his Italian contemporaries who were more or less working in tandem. All he does is just to be himself and make films with some unique style that other people of that time period merely did not bring on board. Pasolini quickly tired of making contemporary films like this one and Accattone, opting instead for such classic narratives which transformed the world as he knew it. Furthermore, although homosexual, Pasolini had a special fondness for peasants whom ironically hated him so much. Of course, the latter was stirred by traces of Italian fascism & years of male dominance which only sprang up after going underground (for example by Italy’s present fascist PM). On the other hand, Mamma Roma’s life demonstrates how a peasant woman overcomes obstacles in order to obtain a quiet and more secure existence even though she encounters one challenge after another.
After many years of working as Carmine’s prostitute, Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) is now free. He has decided to marry and quit prostitution hence she can now live a free life. Getting back with her estranged son who is sixteen years old, Ettore is what matter most for Mamma. The surprise visit from the mother offering a different improved lifestyle makes him happy. However, he remains doubtful because she had never there for him before. To get even with this, Mamma threatens the owner of a restaurant so that her son secures a job as a waiter there. This cannot deter Ettore hanging out with some young men who are not good according to his mother but lead him through dark places. Furthermore, he has fallen in love with Bruna who is one of those sex workers at the neighborhood, and it frightens Mamma a lot when she hears about it. And here comes Carmine again; he wants to use money to drag Mamma into doing anything once more for him to survive in the world of business while she holds onto her dreams like sand passing through clenched palms.
In keeping with the rest of the post-war Italian neorealism that was spreading in its culture, this is likewise Accattone. Although it is set in a contemporary society and concerns underprivileged classes, Pasolini does not fancy grim reality. He firmly believes that the life of poor people can be as or even more beautiful than that of rich people. There are things about peasants which most mainstream art fails to capture; that they are true, often tragic yet also immensely joyous beings. Occasionally the surroundings become surreal here, such as when we float through Mamma’s dream.
Pasolini’s works on the other hand are filled with these emotions unlike the neorealist who go for grounded or muted emotions. Known actress Anna Magnani in Italy at that time period gives her genuine performance in an operatic style that went overboard. She made herself appear bigger than life possibly out of necessity to hide her wounds from years spent (eating) crumbs off the streets and reluctantly selling herself to men for money . She’s so happy to have Ettore back, giving him what he never had a mother and a chance at a better future. The themes juxtaposed with her performance have seen Mamma Roma elevated into one of those epitomes of grand tragic opera.
Mamma will introduce her son to the petit bourgeois. Several lanes of similar housing flats where she sells farm produce on a stall at the outskirts of Rome. Pasolini knows that this is all a counterfeit for luxury lifestyles associated with the rich people. It’s like an expensive facsimile of how Mamma views herself in this place. She mimics these individuals because she is aware that her peasant background will always define her. Mamma is a woman seeking redemption in a newly formed system of automated consumption. Just when she starts to feel happy about the new environment, it quickly goes away.
What is happening here, in a broader perspective, is that Mamma Roma symbolizes post-war Rome. In the first place, it never becomes clear whether Ettore’s father exists or not. As Pasolini views it, Mamma is a blend of the Madonna and the Whore: this seems to be an ideal way of representing what happened to Rome. For example, Carmine speaks of his hypothetical father as being a young boy from the countryside who was lured by Mamma “…and left standing at the altar.” And within this perverted tale begins descriptions which almost resemble those about her absent partner but who actually turns out to be Ettore who now enters into relationship with a prostitute himself. She sees history repeating itself right before her eyes. They say time is a flat circle.
Mamma Roma, like many of Pasolini’s movies, was controversial. Naturally, he loved all the drama that came with it he even publicly spoke ill of Magnani in the press. The blame was laid on her; she also said that she disliked the performance but put it straightly on the director who was then directing her. During its premiere in Rome, neo-fascists invaded the theatre, causing a minor riot. Pasolini’s public figure status would be sustained by such scandals and accusations of indecency. I don’t think that these extraneous things ever reduce his work quality. It always deals with beauty in ugly places as far as I am concerned.
For more movies like Mamma Roma (1962) visit solarmovie.
