Viva Italia: Mamma Roma
April 3, 2024
Viva Italia! The Passion of Italian Cinema
Anna Magnani stars as Mamma Roma, a former prostitute wanting to start life anew with her now teenage son. The road is bumpy, but with her warm heart, free-flowing laughter, tears and insulting banter, Mamma seems to be the resilient, earthy madonna of the entire Eternal City.
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
If Marcello Mastroianni is the male icon of Italian cinema, Anna Magnani is the female: a living symbol of Rome, "its she-wolf mother, the face and voice of its streets and people, personifying their suffering, moral strength, and renewal" (Diane Halles). The fiery, soulful, humorous Mamma has been a prostitute, but she ambitiously wants to start life anew with her now teenage son (Ettore Garofolo). But the past intrudes, in the form of her former pimp (Franco Citti), and Garofolo falls for a lower-class girl (Silvana Corsini) and hangs out with the local punks. The road is bumpy, but with her warm heart, free-flowing laughter, tears and insulting banter, Mamma seems to be the resilient, earthy madonna of the entire Eternal City.
- Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Principal Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini
- Country: Italy
- Year: 1962
- Running Time: 110 min.