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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780028005
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780028007
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 22, 2004
Running Time: 110 minutes
Sales Rank: 22508
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: January 18, 1995
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Editorial Review:
Description:
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 is considered a classic: a glimpse at a country#s most controversial director in the process of finding his style and a powerhouse performance by one of cinema#s greatest actresses.
Amazon.com:
Combining the immediacy of Italian neorealism with potent criticism of post-war Italian society, Mamma Roma is one of Pier Paolo Pasolini's most accessible and satisfying films. This was only his second feature, but Pasolini (who was mysteriously murdered in 1975) was already demonstrating a powerful affinity for cinema as a forum for his anti-Fascist ideology. To express his outrage at the spiritual vacancy of vulgar consumerism, Pasolini cast the great Anna Magnani in the title role, a former prostitute struggling to transcend her sordid past in a desperate attempt to give her estranged teenage son the better life she never had. In Pasolini's worldview, Mamma's petit bourgeois idealism can only be doomed, and the film assumes the melodramatic thrust of tragic opera. Like most of Pasolini's films, Mamma Roma attracted controversy, but it was nothing compared to the outcry over 'La ricotta,' a 35-minute short featuring Orson Welles (part of the 1963 anthology film RoGoPaG, and included here for the first time on DVD). Seized and condemned 'for insulting the religion of the state,' 'La ricotta' presents the crucifixion of Christ as an incendiary criticism of the Catholic Church, in which the actor playing Jesus stuffs himself with ricotta cheese and dies from indigestion on the cross!
As usual, Criterion has done an exemplary job of assembling a wealth of supplementary materials. Pasolini's films demand at least rudimentary understanding of his life and politics, and that background is provided through new interviews with former collaborators, a clip-laden 1995 documentary about Pasolini's career, and a 32-page booklet containing excerpts of interviews from the out-of-print book Pasolini on Pasolini, along with a mini-essay on Mamma Roma that further illuminates the film in the context of Pasolini's controversial career. For anyone interested in Pasolini's art, this two-disc set provides a suitable starting point, offering important films and scholarly study in the esteemed Criterion tradition. --Jeff Shannon
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
"Mamma Roma"(1962) the second film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, is the brutally realistic in its depiction of life in the slums of Rome yet lyrical ode to mother's love. Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani), a middle-aged prostitute is ready to quit her profession and to start a new life with her teenage son who had spent his childhood in the country and does not know her well. She wants a better life for herself and a meaningful future for her son, and there is not much her Mamma Roma would not do for ... Read More
Rating:  -
In his first feature film, Pier Paolo Pasolini uses a neorealist aesthetic to critique petit-bourgeois mores, training his sights on a poor outcast who strives and fails to become a respectable member of Italy's postwar society. Played to triumphant perfection by the fiery Anna Magnani, Mamma Roma is a hearty, proud woman willing to do anything for her boy, and Ettore Garofalo is appealing and believable as her son. An early gem by an Italian master, "Mamma Roma" is a moving, perceptive study of how ... Read More
Rating: -
Mamma Roma was Pasolini's second feature and was made before he became the much revered and much hated director of more controversial works. There is much subtly to this film which shows much of post war Italy's less exotic locations. Unlike his Italian contempories such as Antonioni and Fellini, Pasolini decided to show the lives of the bottom of the social class, and in doing so carved a unique niche for himself. The film has good performances, and the actions in it resonate to a much higher importance ... Read More
Rating: -
"Mamma Roma" was Pier Paolo Pasolini's second feature film and if you've seen his other works, you'd probably be able to tell. None of Pasolini's visually splendor is here. So far I've seen "The Gospel According to St.Matthew", "Arabian Nights", and "Medea". All three movies had some of the most memorable images I can remember. Pasolini is what cinema is all about. He was a visual master. It's odd to think that he was a poet. As a poet I would think the words would be his most important tool. He would place ... Read More
Rating: -
You would have to understand what I mean by saying natural. Mamma Roma was a natural woman, a sunny, vibrant, sometimes crazy character. Pasolini was infatuated by those who were not shaped by civilization and those on the margins of society. The beginning of the movie is amazing. There is laughter, singing, call and response, all of which is so beautiful to see and feel that I had to rewind rewind the DVD just to see it again. There is something in Mamma Roma that is very rare in our world today.
... Read More
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