Film Screening
Mamma Roma

Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged prostitute who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for her son’s sake. An unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, this 1962 film embodies director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed. Banned for obscenity upon its release, today Mamma Roma is considered a classic, revealing Italy’s most controversial director in the process of finding his style. It was also his second collaboration with Tonino Delli Colli, director of photography on most of his films, who helped give them their distinctive look. 110 min. In Italian with English subtitles. Criterion Collection. Introduced by Rebecca Falkoff, Italian Studies, NYU.

Co-sponsored by NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò; Center for Applied Liberal Arts, School of Professional Studies; and Grey Art Gallery. Co-presented by The Criterion Collection. RSVP to casaitaliananyu.org. (Non-member RSVP does not guarantee a seat.)