Mamma Roma

Mamma Roma is a more mature film compared to Pier Paolo Pasolini's debut, Accattone, which expressed a too great fascination with the world of prostitutes and pimps. In this film, Pasolini shows more of the flip side of life on the outskirts of the city and society. His characters are examples of naive dreams and the painful inability to cross the boundaries of their social class and position. The film is depressing not only because it shows the housing estates without proper infrastructure beyond the borders of better districts, worn-out prostitutes, arrogant pimps, and poor peripheral residents, but also because of the story itself, which ends tragically. Overall impression: 75%. Pasolini once again does not deny his left-wing beliefs as he sympathizes with his characters from the bottom of human society, despite their imperfections, and does no unnecessarily moralize their actions. (03.10.2008)