Mama Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini's second film has all the earmarks of a great film. It is beautifully framed thoughout and extremely well acted by Anna Magnani (Mama Roma) and Ettore Garofolo (Ettore). The opening sequence is one of the funniest, most brilliant beginnings I've ever seen; Mama Roma attends the wedding of her ex-lover, Carmine, and engages the betrothed couple in a contest of singing insults at one another. There are a number of other episodes that are nothing short of breathtaking: shots of Mama Roma walking the streets at night and Ettore slumming around ancient ruins with his fellow delinquents are as poignant as anything I've seen at the movies.
The film has some unfortunate failings, however; most of these come down to a forced combination of Freudianism and Catholicism that throws an overwrought, ideological wedge between the characters and what are intended to be the most emotive moments in the film. For example, the beginning of the scene of Momma and Ettore dancing is quite touching, but the Oedipal sensuality forced into some of the close shots detracts from what could have been a simpler and more touching portrait of a mother and her maturing son. This is highlighted by a later scene in which Ettore is shown practicing the cha-cha on his own, which seemed to me to have much more true feeling. Likewise, the portrayal of Ettore's suffering towards the end is so heavily symbolic that it jars the viewer from the story as it actually unfolds.
The Marxist vision I'd heard about in Pasolini's films failed to materialize, and there was nothing in the extended sequences of barren urban landscapes that struck me as Commie propaganda. The Christian Democratic Party, for all its faults, gave rise to the economic conditions that set the pace for much of the construction we see in the background of the film, and the destitute conditions in which the characters live out their drama seem more the products of petty criminal action than capitalist pigs. Certainly there is exploitation of some people by other people, but a movie in which the sole business owner is played for a dupe and a fifty year old whore starts selling fruit instead of sex just doesn't work as an attack on capitalism.
Overall a very fine movie with moments of greatness. The entire cast is great, and despite some heavy handed symbolism, all the major performances are indeed major. Pasolini's tracking shots are masterful and the unforced still shots are also very fine. Most of all, there's an earthiness, or maybe a salt-of-the-earthiness in the expressions of the Magnani, Garofolo and the others that makes this a movie well worth seeing.
The film has some unfortunate failings, however; most of these come down to a forced combination of Freudianism and Catholicism that throws an overwrought, ideological wedge between the characters and what are intended to be the most emotive moments in the film. For example, the beginning of the scene of Momma and Ettore dancing is quite touching, but the Oedipal sensuality forced into some of the close shots detracts from what could have been a simpler and more touching portrait of a mother and her maturing son. This is highlighted by a later scene in which Ettore is shown practicing the cha-cha on his own, which seemed to me to have much more true feeling. Likewise, the portrayal of Ettore's suffering towards the end is so heavily symbolic that it jars the viewer from the story as it actually unfolds.
The Marxist vision I'd heard about in Pasolini's films failed to materialize, and there was nothing in the extended sequences of barren urban landscapes that struck me as Commie propaganda. The Christian Democratic Party, for all its faults, gave rise to the economic conditions that set the pace for much of the construction we see in the background of the film, and the destitute conditions in which the characters live out their drama seem more the products of petty criminal action than capitalist pigs. Certainly there is exploitation of some people by other people, but a movie in which the sole business owner is played for a dupe and a fifty year old whore starts selling fruit instead of sex just doesn't work as an attack on capitalism.
Overall a very fine movie with moments of greatness. The entire cast is great, and despite some heavy handed symbolism, all the major performances are indeed major. Pasolini's tracking shots are masterful and the unforced still shots are also very fine. Most of all, there's an earthiness, or maybe a salt-of-the-earthiness in the expressions of the Magnani, Garofolo and the others that makes this a movie well worth seeing.
posted by Quin Finnegan at 12:25 AM
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