Mamma Roma

Released Aug 31, 1962

1 hr. 50 min.

Drama

List

95%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son (Ettore Garofalo) she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp (Franco Citti) threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.

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Audience Member

Very well made, and interesting political and cultural messages being displayed by Pasolini throughout the film and his artistic vision is clearly noted, with some fantastic imagery.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Il secondo film di Pasolini è un ritratto della periferia romana dei primi anni '60, al contempo un'opera universale: il complicato rapporto madre-figlio; l'amore di lei, talmente sconfinato da travalicare i limiti del giusto e finire per inghiottire il figlio in una morsa disperata che lo porta ad allontanarsi da lei. Ettore, unica ragione di vita di Mamma Roma, per il quale smette di prostituirsi e inizia a fare un lavoro "moralmente onesto" (secondo l'opinione dei romani), in una condizione di povertà che lei odia e da cui prova a liberarsi, in una scalata sociale da proletariato a borghesia. Mi ha colpito il suo anticomunismo, frutto di un background culturale cattolico e conservatore. Ettore: "Non ci voglio stare con quei figlî di papà che solo perché hanno un po' di grano si sentono qualcuno." Mamma Roma: "Ma che sei comunista te? Non ti ci voglio a fa' il compagno con quei morti di fame a zappà la terra." La prima scena è del matrimonio del pappone di Mamma Roma, in cui un uomo elogia la fondamentale importanza degli agricoltori e dei contadini, senza i quali nemmeno i borghesi potrebbero godere dei proprî privilegî. La stessa Mamma Roma lo canzona. Ettore, per volontà della madre, passa dai contadini alla "brava gente", e si percepisce la pesantezza della differenza di vestiario, in una società ancorata alle impressioni esteriori quale l'Italia del boom economico. Infatti se nella vita in campagna Mamma Roma malediceva lo sterrato per via dei suoi tacchî, ma i Ettore frequentava ragazzi che lavoravano la terra, nel quartiere borghese il nuovo gruppetto del figlio lo coinvolge nei furti, è un gruppo violento, che vuole stuprare le ragazze, ed Ettore finisce per morire dopo una detenzione inumana in seguito a un furto. La speranza classista di Mamma Roma della redenzione borghese si rivela solo un'illusione. Comprensibilmente nessuno è consapevole che la povertà da cui si scappa è causata proprio dai borghesi, da quelli ricchi, da quelli che sono ricchi per aver sfruttato la forza lavoro di altre persone tenendo per sé i guadagni senza restituirli, condannando i lavoratori a soffrire. Mi ha messo molto a disagio questo film, crudo e deprimente come la realtà della fetta meno "chic", meno "in" dell'Italia di una volta, simile a quella odierna.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

s r

Italian, sad and not much for redemption. I don't want to see it again.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pasolini's warmest and most emotional work. Magnani's performance is the weakest part of the film, but in every other terms, Mamma Roma is Pasolini's best motion picture.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An honest reassessment of Rossellini's brand of neorealism, Mamma Roma updates this style of filmmaking through a focus on the true root of societal discord in the lives of the impoverished. While naming the central character "Mother Rome" may be a little on the nose, Pasolini's choice to have Anna Magnani embody the essence of the ideal Italian woman is inspired, Magnani portraying the hardworking mother willing to sacrifice everything for her son as she did in Rossellini's Rome, Open City. Pasolini's Rome is much more pessimistic than that of the man he emulates, pointing to Italy's own faults instead of idealizing an Italian communal identity, adding an undercurrent of commentary to its homage.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

another Italian pic about hookers which seems 2b an Italian favourite subject

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Pier Paolo Pasolini

Director

Anna Magnani

Mamma Roma

Ettore Garofalo

Ettore

Franco Citti

Carmine

Silvana Corsini

Bruna

Luisa Loiano

Biancofiore

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Peter John Dyer

Sight & Sound

In its rhetorical way the film is a good deal more powerful and assured than Accattone.

Mar 11, 2020

Full Review

Bill Weber

Slant Magazine

Pasolini's second film showcases Anna Magnani with a minimum of sentimentality in a bleak, pitiless Eternal City of the early '60s.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 19, 2011

Full Review

David Fear

Time Out

A key transitional work for the cinematic subversive, a seriously damning portrait of maternal martyrdom and, in a killer final shot, upward mobility.

Rated: 4/5

Jan 19, 2011

Full Review

Justine Smith

Vague Visages

Pasolini suggests in Mamma Roma that the spiritual beauty of humanity often emerges from vulgarity and contradiction.

Nov 21, 2023

Full Review

Scott Nye

Battleship Pretension

Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.

Jun 29, 2023

Full Review

Isabel Quigly

The Spectator

It almost inevitably dis- appoints, one is tempted to a bit of hindsight and reassessment.

Jun 23, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son (Ettore Garofalo) she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp (Franco Citti) threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Distributor: Milestone Film & Video, Criterion Collection
Production Co: Arco Film S.r.L.
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 31, 1962, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 18, 1995
Release Date (DVD): Jun 22, 2004
Sound Mix: Stereo