Mamma Roma
Motto : Fior de gaggia,
quando canto io canto con allegria,
e se io dico tutto rovino 'sta compagnia!
Fiore de sabbia,
tu ridi, scherzi e fai la santa donna,
e'nvece in petto schiatti da la rabbia.
Fiore de menta,
fèrmete bocca che ce n'innocente:
è mejo che nun veda e che nun senta!
Fior de cucuzza,
'na donna pe' 'sti baffi annava pazza,
e adesso che l' ha persi ce va in puzza!
Fiore de merda,
io me so' libberata da 'na corda,
adesso tocca a 'n'altra a fa' la serva!
Mamma Romai promises immensely, much like a proposed charge to be run by a famous captain and supported by simply redoubtable Panzerkampfwagen V. The woman's a cinematic tank, what!
It starts off very strongly, too, but sadly it also fizzles, immediately thereafter. The best part of it all, and better than the rest by an outright shocking margin, was quoted above. The perfectly framed, perfectly working rural wedding scene is memorable. The rest, however, is an incomprehensible jumble of confused nonsense -- in the words of a bimbo "they dropped all the interesting threads and pursued all the pointless ones". Quite.
The story's as old as the sea : whore retires, fetches her kid from the countryside and attempts a new life. It doesn't work out -- that much you knew going in -- but if a bunch of little green men landed their tin foil bathyscaphe halfway through and started yodeling it'd have been just as well supported by the premise, the cast and the characters as whatever else actually happens. I'd be more specific, by the way, if I could. I'd say what actually happens instead of calling it "whatever actually happens", gladly. I simply can't, I have no fucking idea how this crashed delivery van's worth of footage is supposed to work together.
This film is very much worth seeing, for all of five minutes. Ever heard of something like that before ?!
———- 1962, written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, with Anna Magnani. [↩]
