Mamma Roma

Mamma Roma

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1962 • Italy
Starring Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti

Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged prostitute who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, MAMMA ROMA offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed. Though banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity, today MAMMA ROMA remains a classic, featuring a powerhouse performance by one of cinema’s greatest actresses and offering a glimpse at a country’s most controversial director in the process of finding his style.

Mamma Roma
  • Mamma Roma

    Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1962 • Italy

    Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged prostitute who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, MAMMA ROMA offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survi...

Extras

  • Bernardo Bertolucci on MAMMA ROMA

    Filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci began as a production assistant to Pier Paolo Pasolini on Pasolini’s first film, ACCATTONE (1961). This interview with Bertolucci was conducted in 2004.

  • Tonino Delli Colli on MAMMA ROMA

    Tonino Delli Colli worked as director of photography on eleven of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s fourteen films, beginning with ACCATTONE and concluding with the director’s final film, SALO (1975). This interview with him was recorded in 2004.

  • Enzo Siciliano on MAMMA ROMA

    This interview with Enzo Siciliano, author of “Pasolini” (1982), was conducted in 2004.

  • Pier Paolo Pasolini

    A filmmaker, novelist, and poet, Pier Paolo Pasolini revisited the same themes throughout his brief career. Made by Ivo Varnabo Micheli in 1995, on the twentieth anniversary of the director’s murder, this documentary examines the central ideas in the work of this legendary and controversial artist.

  • La ricotta

    Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1962 • Italy
    Starring Orson Welles

    Pier Paolo Pasolini’s contribution to the omnibus film RO.GO.PA.G casts Orson Welles as a director attempting to make a film of the crucifixion of Jesus—all while he, the cast, and crew behave in the most un-Christlike ways ima...