Thursday, February 07, 2008
Mamma Roma
With the possible exception of the United States no country has produced more film genres than the Italian film industry. It has given us neorealism, sword and sandals, spaghetti westerns, giallo, and the sentimental works of the late 1980s and early 1990s to name a few.
But the 1970s brought surreal, films loaded with symbolism and bizarre orgies of S&M laden sex. Fellini dabbled in the genre but it is more closely identified with Pier Paolo Pasolini with his films The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Salo (one of the most infamous film in history.) As odd as this work is, his early work is at the other end of the spectrum in beauty. The Gospel According to St. Matthew is one of the best works based on the Bible and Mamma Roma, the film I recently watched, is just as hypnotic.
The story of Mamma Roma is simple. A former prostitute (Anna Magnani) tries to leave her old life and raise her son to be respectable as she works in a fruit stand. Her son, fascinated by the local tramp and the local youths, is more drawn to the life of a petty thief. Magnani enlists the help of some of her former associates to get her son a decent job but in the end it doesn't matter.
This film is all Magnani. She gives a great performance even though both her and Pasolini don’t thing so, for different reasons, and fired barbs at each other in the press. The scenes with her have amazing energy but when the film concentrates on her son it loses some of this intensity. A couple of her most interesting scenes are also the most technically interesting. She walks down a dark street while former customers and workers approach to talk then fall back while another appears. These scenes are done in one take with one lasting over four minutes. The black and white photography is another high point especially in these scenes where the audience can see little outside of the speakers. The classical music, much of it by Vivaldi, further adds to the mood.
This film is rich in symbolism. Magnani’s character can be seen as a stand in for Italy as she is caring, coarse, religious, and suffers through it all. There are numerous religious and political allusions, most notably the ability to change you social status. Even the mother-son relationship has some oedipal overtones.
The film was labeled immoral upon its 1962 release. One reason was due to its vulgar language. But as Pasolini has explained that is how this social class, which as drifted away, lived.
Guardian 1,000: 663 seen, 336 remaining.
Hot Chick Born Today
Robin Lively, 36, she doesn't work too often now but she southern looks made her one of the most beautiful around in the 90s when she went from the television shows Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, & Savannah.
But the 1970s brought surreal, films loaded with symbolism and bizarre orgies of S&M laden sex. Fellini dabbled in the genre but it is more closely identified with Pier Paolo Pasolini with his films The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Salo (one of the most infamous film in history.) As odd as this work is, his early work is at the other end of the spectrum in beauty. The Gospel According to St. Matthew is one of the best works based on the Bible and Mamma Roma, the film I recently watched, is just as hypnotic.
The story of Mamma Roma is simple. A former prostitute (Anna Magnani) tries to leave her old life and raise her son to be respectable as she works in a fruit stand. Her son, fascinated by the local tramp and the local youths, is more drawn to the life of a petty thief. Magnani enlists the help of some of her former associates to get her son a decent job but in the end it doesn't matter.
This film is all Magnani. She gives a great performance even though both her and Pasolini don’t thing so, for different reasons, and fired barbs at each other in the press. The scenes with her have amazing energy but when the film concentrates on her son it loses some of this intensity. A couple of her most interesting scenes are also the most technically interesting. She walks down a dark street while former customers and workers approach to talk then fall back while another appears. These scenes are done in one take with one lasting over four minutes. The black and white photography is another high point especially in these scenes where the audience can see little outside of the speakers. The classical music, much of it by Vivaldi, further adds to the mood.
This film is rich in symbolism. Magnani’s character can be seen as a stand in for Italy as she is caring, coarse, religious, and suffers through it all. There are numerous religious and political allusions, most notably the ability to change you social status. Even the mother-son relationship has some oedipal overtones.
The film was labeled immoral upon its 1962 release. One reason was due to its vulgar language. But as Pasolini has explained that is how this social class, which as drifted away, lived.
Guardian 1,000: 663 seen, 336 remaining.
Hot Chick Born Today
Robin Lively, 36, she doesn't work too often now but she southern looks made her one of the most beautiful around in the 90s when she went from the television shows Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, & Savannah.
Labels: Criterion, FilmReview, Guardian1000
# posted by ChrisR @ 11:18 PM 
