Mamma Roma

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Mamma Roma

1962,

1h 50m,

Drama

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Watchlist

Watchlist

95%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

2,500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

95%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son (Ettore Garofalo) she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp (Franco Citti) threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.

Peter John Dyer

Sight & Sound

Mar 11, 2020

In its rhetorical way the film is a good deal more powerful and assured than Accattone.

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Bill Weber

Slant Magazine

Jan 19, 2011

3.5/4

Pasolini's second film showcases Anna Magnani with a minimum of sentimentality in a bleak, pitiless Eternal City of the early '60s.

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David Fear

Time Out

Jan 19, 2011

4/5

A key transitional work for the cinematic subversive, a seriously damning portrait of maternal martyrdom and, in a killer final shot, upward mobility.

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Sean Burns

WBUR’s Arts & Culture

May 22, 2025

The film’s final segment goes full Passion Play, including a faux crucifixion in which Magnani’s character serves as both Magdalene and Mary. Madone!

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Justine Smith

Vague Visages

Nov 21, 2023

Pasolini suggests in Mamma Roma that the spiritual beauty of humanity often emerges from vulgarity and contradiction.

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Scott Nye

Battleship Pretension

Jun 29, 2023

Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.

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Poe S

Mar 25, 2017

Pasolini's warmest and most emotional work. Magnani's performance is the weakest part of the film, but in every other terms, Mamma Roma is Pasolini's best motion picture.

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Pier Paolo Pasolini

Director

Anna Magnani

Mamma Roma

Ettore Garofalo

Ettore

Franco Citti

Carmine

Silvana Corsini

Bruna

Luisa Loiano

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Synopsis

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son (Ettore Garofalo) she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp (Franco Citti) threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Producer: Alfredo Bini
Screenwriter: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Distributor: Milestone Film & Video, Criterion Collection
Production Co: Arco Film S.r.L.
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 31, 1962, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 18, 1995
Release Date (DVD): Jun 22, 2004
Runtime: 1h 50m
Sound Mix: Stereo

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