The Favorites - Mamma Roma (#25)

The Favorites is a series briefly exploring films I love, to find out what makes them - and me - tick. Mamma Roma (1962/Italy/dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini) appeared at #25 on my original list.

What it is • Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) has paid her dues, sacrificing her son to another family and surviving on her own through prostitution. Now she feels that she has earned the right to a steady, legitimate job in Rome, providing for her adolescent son in the hope that he will achieve a prosperity and happiness. It is not so easy. The past haunts them in various forms, including Carmine (Franco Citti), Mamma Roma's former pimp who claims to have been corrupted by her. Ettore drifts from his mother into the arms of a lively young woman (Silvana Corsini) and a dangerous crowd. We can feel the threats emerging from all directions, as a mother attempts to shield her son from the forces that shaped her own life. This was only the second film by the prolific Pasolini, who would rack up twenty-five credits in his fourteen-year career, cut short by his notorious, shady murder in 1975. It was variously condemned and banned like many of his other movies, although today it seems like one of his most accessible and universal stories (if he was new to directing, he wasn't to writing - this was his twentieth screenplay including the similarly-themed Nights of Cabiria which you'll see covered soon). The film exists at a crossroads (which Pasolini's scripts for Fellini had helped construct) between the grounded, socially-concerned neorealist films of the forties and fifties and the more abrasive, flamboyant features of the sixties by young directors like Marco Bellochio (Fists in the Pocket) and Bernardo Bertolucci, who trained under Pasolini. This context fits the film's narrative, caught between the search for economic security and the temptation of youthful rebellion, and also its style, characterized by sharp cutting and fluid camera movements. There is grace and anxiety in Mamma Roma, released in equal measure by the film's final moments.

Why I like it •

Cinepoem: Rimbaud's "The Stolen Heart"

updated 2/23 - the video is up!

My third Cinepoem is up a couple weeks late, but I am now almost caught up with the video schedule I set months ago. Covering one of my favorite poets, Arthur Rimbaud, this video is one of the more formally complex and abstract that I've created so far. It uses (non-graphic) clips from Salo and Blue is the Warmest Color (as well as some stylized bloodshed from Patriotism - between that and Rimbaud's language, this probably isn't something you want to play at work). While it may seem slightly perverse to pair one of Rimbaud's hardest-hitting verses with clips from NC-17 films that don't feature extreme violence or sexuality I was more interested in suggesting the emotional aftereffect/byproduct of both desire and trauma. For the score, which might be one of my favorite aspects of this montage, I slowed down and combined tracks by Kendrick Lamarr and The Velvet Underground. And the photo zoomed in on for most of the video, providing one of its central disciplines, is of course Rimbaud himself.

Check out my previous Cinepoems each of which segues directly into the next: "Idylls of the King" and "After Great Pain". I created a new playlist to play all three in a row, and new ones will be added as they are uploaded in coming months.

Oh, and an embarrassing correction for something I should have double-checked in the credits: the translator is Wallace Fowlie, not Walter. Argh. Jim Morrison is spinning in his grave.

Recommended Cinema: Hulu, Criterion & Beyond

Many of you know (and the rest of you should know) that The Criterion Collection has offered all of its content for free on HuluPlus between Valentine's and President's Day. This treasure trove of films includes many not available in their DVD catalog. With only two days left, choices must be made.

I add my voice to the cacophony of recommendations, with the proviso that I've chosen films a tad more overlooked than, say, Breathless, Modern Times, or Seventh Seal (that said, some of my picks are hardly obscure). Needless to say, I hope this guide remains useful long after the Hulu promotion has ended.

As for myself, I've flirted with the notion of a 12-hour marathon on Monday (I don't work until evening, my sad equivalent to a day off), exploring films that I haven't seen yet and live-tweeting screen-caps from each movie I view, perhaps with brief comments. Would anyone be interested in following this exercise? I have other tasks I should prioritize, but I hope you'll encourage me to be irresponsible. ;)

Anyway, on with my dozen recommendations for Hulu/Criterion bliss. I've included excerpts from previous reviews or fresh thoughts on films I haven't discussed before. It's up to you, of course, which ones you want to watch.

Except for Paris Belongs to Us.

That one's mandatory.