The first film in this anthology of four, tells the story of Renzo (Germano Gilioli) and Luciana (Marisa Solinas) a young couple during the Italian economic boom of early ‘60’s. We initially see the couple at work under strain trying to hide the fact that they are engaged from their nosy boss out of fear of getting fired. The film attempts to show what could have been a millennial love story if shot today. New set of dilemmas that are in complete opposite to Italian traditional family mores. For example, the improvised marriage in a church that looks more like a Las Vegas instant marriage parlor than you would expect from an Italian church, the struggle of the couple for economic independence and once achieved – the grinding daily routine.

There are a couple of scenes I especially liked because of their unique visual value: the packed swimming pool with millions of people clad only in bathing suites – feels like a gigantic colony of wavering organisms painted in brown with patches of light blue pool waters. There is also the swiveling stage in the disco laden with couples dancing or better yet, the crowded movie theater where Luciana finally sighed in relief while hugging Renzo – finally some privacy…

Indeed, the theme of privacy is central to the plot, as the couple throughout the film is in search of this scarce commodity, but when they finally get it, it’s thrown aside due to more important pragmatic priorities like job security and planning for the future. And this quest is whimsically punctuated by Luciana’s occasional excitements: Che meraviglia! (how nice!).

The soundtrack alternates between jazzy tune to convey the modern pace of life the couple leads that in turn changes into a more somber sax and organ interplay. The only ray of hope for the newly wed couple straining under their conflicting work routines is the poignant scene when Luciana hurriedly takes a tiny sip from her espresso Renzo offers before leaving to work and says:

Domenica, Domenica restiamo tutto al giorno in letto. Che Meraviglia! Ciao! (Sunday, Sunday we’ll stay all day in bed. How nice! Bye).

That’s the price of progress and the socio-urban face of post-war modern Italy.

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Just by judging the surnames of key players from the above four groups, Germi implicitly conveys his opinion about this wry influence structure: Passalacqua – The mafia head is engaged in criminal acts, but no one will say anything like his name – water under bridge. Lo Vasto, is the baron’s last name to indicate his large riches, whereas the magistrate and his police marshal are given very weak names to indicate their powerless status: Schiavi (slaves) and Griffo’ (snout). Interestingly, the peasants we see are typically given only first names like the young Paulino that represent the most vulnerable fabric in this society as they are both victimized and from fear keep their mouth shut.

One of the film’s strongest scenes (see above) is the long tirade the magistrate gives to a crowded village piazza where he promised all that despite being pushed around so many times, he’s not willing to give up and he will stay in the village to keep the law. The message is clear: the good forces will continue fighting the bad intertwined in an eternal battle where the poor man pays the most.

Anna Magnani in an emotion explosion

In his second film Mamma Roma, Pier Paolo Pasolini is constantly moving between these two extreme poles. The story, brings about Pasolini’s typical characters on the margins of life as skillfully represented by the role of Anna Magnani, a Roman prostitute that tries hard to do a career change and at the same time ensure a better life for her son. Some say, Pasolini is in fact using Mamma Roma as analogy to all Italy, by putting a blaming finger to the responsibility of the state and the church that abandoned the struggling poor.

In some aspects, you may find typical themes to Pasolini’s first film Accatone. In both films Sergio Citti plays a local pimp who tries in vein to better his poor existence in Rome’s slums. The Neorealist rough reality in both films is brought up into an epic expression, as if to say: nothing’s new here this is an eternal human condition – by using classic music as soundtrack: Bach in Accatone and Vivaldi in Mamma Roma.

The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

Pasolini’s opening scene in Mamma Roma

Another technique to amplify the epic portrayal of the characters is the strong visual influence from classic artworks such as the first scene positioned as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci; or when Ettore, strapped in his bed, is closely expressed as Andrea Mantegna’s The Lamentation over the Dead Christ.

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
by Andrea Mantegna

Ettore Garofolo in Pasolini’s Mamma Roma

I especially liked the night scenes where Anna Magani is shown walking the dark road and brisk encounters with clients, friends, are woven into her long monolog. I found these scenes as an allegory to life itself (road of life) and the attempt to make sense of it despite the pitfalls.

The son, Ettore (Ettore Garofolo) brings about an authentic portrayal of a son who grew up away from his mother and they both meet again in his teens, he tries hard to both understand his mother as well as rebel and find his voice. Interestingly, because of the detachment, Mamma Roma (Magnani) still tries to compensate for lost years and treat him as a young boy, if you consider that scene where Ettore is shown riding a carousel with Mamma Roma watching.

Looking outside the film, we know that Pasolini had a very close relationship with his mother; and within this context you could interpret some of the mother-son scenes such as the dance scene as quite on the intimate side.

Throughout the film you will see three visual signifiers: the open fields, the new white buildings and the ruins of old aqueducts. These elements help paint a picture of a society in transition from old to new, from Roman waterways that provided life to the city – to ruins indicating figurative death represented by the lifeless white buildings and the new gospel of consumerism Pasolini fought hard against.

The film brings about a simple message of human basic need to create a better future despite reality’s constant constraints. If it was a direct route to success for everybody then: a) sense of accomplishment will be lost and every action will become a habit with a predicted outcome b) movies will lose their conflict-driven storyline and become banal and c) you tell me?

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The film’s 3 protagonists: Giulia, Guido and their swimming pool

The film runs 3 main parallel plot lines: the semi-successful writing career of Guido (Valerio Mastandrea), his deteriorating family structure until separation from his wife and daughter, the encounter of Guido with Giulia (Valeria Golino) – his daughter’s swimming instructor by day and as later revealed – a prison inmate by night. Hence, the movie title “Giulia non esce la sera – Giulia Doesn’t Date at Night”

As the relationship develops between Giulia and Guido, mostly emanating from the personal swimming classes Giulia provides Guido, Picconi vividly shows us the clear fault lines around us. In one of the many swimming pool scenes, Giulia brings Guido underwater to see the world from an unusual point of view – a wondrous twilight zone where all people are the same as they try to negotiate their way in the water.

The tables are radically turned when Guido needs to face questions about her past and fulfill her prison parole duties – off water. Confronted with Guido’s harsh prison reality and the reason why she ended up behind bars, you begin to realize that the swimming pool is Giulia’s only salvage, the only place where she can command control on others and at the same time can take stoke on her life from afar.

I especially liked Giulia’s blank facial expressions as she holds in her true story and how difficult it is to break down her defense walls she had built to fend off past ordeals from reappearing or new relationships with Guido to easily exist. True, it’s a natural survival instinct to learn from the past, however sometimes at the risk of generalizing and missing out on truly solid opportunities to connect and grow.

Some memorable visual signifiers include: the half vacated apartment Guido lives in, an effective internal representation of his life after his wife and daughter left him; the recurring appearance of the windows’ white shades the wind blows, which seems to indicate that winds of change are coming; and the numerous swimming pool scenes, signifying as mentioned above, an alternate reality, that also plays as the unassuming context/pretext for the relationship between Giulia and Guido to develop.

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As viewer, the film takes you on a journey where some elements are gradually revealed about its protagonists; a conflict is detected, solution is attempted sending rings of impact on sub-plots – packaged nicely with the emotive theme soundtrack by Baustelle, sung in part by Valeria Goilino. Beautiful!

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