172 - Mamma Roma, 1962, Italy. Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini,

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

172 - Mamma Roma, 1962, Italy.  Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini,

Mamma Roma loves her son.

Ettore.

She has had a difficult life.

Years ago a man found her and pimped her out.  He will continue to use this memory throughout her life to get money from her.  His name is Carmine.

She attends Carmine's wedding.  She brings pigs.  She sings an insulting toast.  The bride sings insults back.

Years later she has saved enough money to get her son back.

She has been working the streets.  He has been living on the streets.  She gets him back.  She moves him home.  She wants his life to be good.  Respectable.

She uses manipulative gymnastics to get him a job.

He falls for a girl.  Bruna.  The boys tease him.  They have all had Bruna.  He is new and easy to fall.

Mamma Roma tries to get his mind off Bruna.  By having a former workmate, who herself is still working, to get his mind on her instead.

Things do not always turn out the way Mamma Roma wants them to.  She works diligently to make things happen.  But things do not always happen.  Her life is hard.

Her life is tragic.

Pier Paolo Pasolini turned down Il Sorpasso to direct this film, his second.

He uses Christian imagery throughout.  He begins with the wedding party alluding to The Last Supper.  He ends with the crucified Christ.  In the middle he places the Madonna and Child.  He takes the viewer to church.  He uses as a refrain the view looking out on the local basilica.

He took Italian cinema in a new direction.

Let us watch more of him.