Mamma Roma

Mamma Roma is a 1962 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo and Franco Citti. Synopsis After her pimp Carmine has gotten married, prostitute Mamma Roma starts a new life as a marketer in Rome to enable her 16-year-old son Ettore a better life. She finds him a job as a waiter by blackmailing a trattoria owner and tries to draw him away from his thieving friends and occasional streetwalker Bruna. When Mamma Roma is forced back into prostitution by Carmine and Ettore finds out about it, he returns to his previous habits. Caught during a theft in a hospital, Ettore dies in jail from a fever, leaving behind his grieving, desperate mother. Cast Anna Magnani as Mamma Roma Ettore Garofolo as Ettore Franco Citti as Carmine Silvana Corsini as Bruna Luisa Loiano as Biancofiore Paolo Volponi as Priest Luciano Gonini as Zacaria Production and release Pasolini based his screenplay for Mamma Roma on the true case of Marcello Elisei, who had died in prison. Shooting began on 9 April 1962, with a cast that largely consisted of non-professionals. Pasolini, unhappy with Magnani's interpretation of the title role, expanded Citti's role of Carmine, but the production was temporarily halted when Citti was arrested for a petty crime.