Mamma Roma dressed in pale/ 『Mamma Roma』

The protagonist called Mamma Roma brings three pigs to a wedding ceremony. This is the first sequence of this film. Pier Paolo Pasolini who can be categorised as a filmmaker of Italian Neorealism depicted the society of working class citizens in the post war Italy. Pigs are symbol of greedy and sexual desire for a long time, but at the same time, they are the most common meat-eating in Roma. We can say the scene that people are celebrating the wedding in front of pigs is an epitome of the post war Italy. Even though society consists without workers, society captures workers who is struggling with a social step up just as a sideshow.

A table which people take place the wedding ceremony goes across a long-shot, and it looks like a painting “The last supper” by Leonard da Vinch. Then, it’s so interesting because it remains us a mythology of Jesus that he was born in a livestock shed, and it’s also related to the motif of “pigs.”

Some ten years passed, Mamma Roma finally manages to live with her son called Ettore again. She strongly wishes her son to live in a higher society, so she bought a flat in Roma with money she earned from prostitution. However, her old flame called Carmine threatenes her with the fact that she used to be a prostitute, and sponges off her for money.

---

Mamma Roma and Ettore are dancing nicely in their new flat, and she talks about a dream which she had last night. Mamma Roma was standing on the top of a mountain which is all covered by mud, but it turned to be Rosemaries suddenly. Then, she could hear the voice of Ettore’s father from the distance. So, she went toward that voice from, and realised that the person who is standing on the other side of the hill is not Ettore’s father but Ettore himself.
We can say this is everything about this film. “Mamma Roma” is a story about a mother who shows an adoring love rather than showing a love as a mother.

We can say pigs which are the symbol of greed and sexual desire and Mamma Roma who brings pigs to the wedding are the same motif, if we look back to the first sequence. Absolutely, it doesn’t mean that Mamma Roma is similar to pigs. It means we can consider that pigs are tied with ribbon for the ceremony and Mamma Roma in a pale-tone dress with a ribbon on the waist share that symbolistic meaning.

However, her love is not required. Ettore sales a vinyl which played when he and Mamma Roma danced tango together, in oder to buy a gold necklace to a woman. Ettore has gone away from the eyesight of Mamma Roma with a motor bike which she bought for him when he knows the fact of her prostitution. Lost some ten years forced a mother’s love to be distorted and a child to refuse an existence of home. However, why can we blame her who couldn’t earn money without selling herself.

---

There is an astonishing sequence which is inserted twice. Mamma Roma just goes straight ahead in the night which has lots of street lights from the spot people always have small talk. In this sequence, bunch of guys of different generations talk to her and leave her one after another. And the lighting of this sequence is stunning because the faces of Mamma Roma and random guys seem like floating up from the darkness of background by removing back light. This unrealistic direction of Three-point lighting and Thai Loy Krathong Festival like street lights tells the audience that the sequence is a kind of flashback for her.

In the other hand, the sequence which has exactly same setups and actions as previous one is inserted in the latter half of the film. Then, one of Mamma Roma’s friend who probably often has 　a small talk with her shouts aloud to Mamma Roma, “Are you looking for a heaven or something?… That fog ruins your bone…. Your wicked deed is an Autobahn which is your innocent has to walk.” Mamma Roma drinks cognac and says, “Shit, what a stomachache. I feel like I ate my heart.” As these sentences express, this second sequence is a representation of the future which Mamma Roma and Ettore are going to walk.

---

Ettore commits a theft with his wrong crowd when he was delirious with fever. After theft, he is thrown into a jail and forced to move to solitary cell soon after that because he starts acting crazy because of fever delirium. In the solitary cell, Ettore is tied on a wooden board and dies there. That figure reminds us Jesus being crucified, and the shot after the Ettore’s death is the one Mamma Roma is disconsolate about his death, and it captures The Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco.

　This film starts from “The Last Supper” and ends with “Crucifixion of Jesus.” Ironically, it’s already told the ending of this story in the beginning. In other word, we can say Mamma Roma was Judas and Ettore was Jesus. A mother who replaced a love for ego lets son of god die. We’re witnesses of such a short story about the last supper till being crucified next day.

Additionally, the motif of post war Italy and pigs depict binary subject that people who push their way to the top with ambitious and the society which emotionlessly refuse them greatly. Pasolini became isolated from the world in the latter half of his career, however, he was considerate of the society and put a question to this ruthless world. “Mamma Roma” deserves recognition in terms of this fact too.

Thank you:)