Cycladic Screening “Mamma Roma”

Marlene Dumas maintains a constant interest in cinema and its potential as a medium of storytelling and expression. She is particularly interested in films that focus on intense emotional situations, the representation of the body, and social or psychological marginalization. She has cited the influence of Italian neorealism and Pasolini, while elements of cinematic aesthetics—such as dramatic compositions, striking close-ups, and atmospheric qualities—are evident in several of her works.

“MAMMA ROMA” | 1964, 106’

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Starring: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti

A year after his directorial debut with “Acatone”, Pasolini continued his social recording of the margins, observed a lavish prostitute in a noisy (eternal) city and recounted with reverence a Christian allegory that elevated a deity: Anna Magnani. In the story of an honest prostitute who tried to secure a better – according to petit bourgeois standards – future for her son, Magnani devoted herself entirely to the man had given birth to, rather than to those who imposed themselves transactionally and insatiably upon her.

With the camera as the key witness of the everyday, tragic grandeur, Pasolini confined the “brilliant dream” of “Mama Roma” within its narrow cinematic frames and characteristically mocked the illusion of a longing for escape. Escape proved possible, the shadows of the districts of Rome foreshadowed the dramatic finale, and fate continued to play its own undisturbed and timeless game. The struggle, however, for a better life remained the most important motivation and in the black and white world of “Mama Roma”, the symbol of this struggle was the face of a “mother of courage”.

It was hardly a coincidence that  Pasolini’s next film was “The Gospel According to Matthew”.