The immortal Anna Magnani is equally vulnerable and volcanic as the titular character in Pasolini’s second film. The writer-director returns to the desolate outskirts of Rome for this tale of doomed maternal love set against a stark backdrop of ancient ruins and prefab apartment blocks. Former prostitute Mamma Roma is trying to start a new life in a new flat with her teenage son. But the criminal underworld she thought she had escaped slowly returns to view.  

Pasolini’s first documentary, Love Meetings, is a bold, verité journey throughout Italy in which the writer-director, microphone in hand, speaks with strangers and intellectuals alike about sexuality. These frank interviews and chance encounters offer a lively panorama of the Italian people on the cusp of the sexual revolution. Expanding out into discussions of gender, morality, power, and politics, all touchstones for the filmmaker, Love Meetings is a surprising and enlightening chapter in Pasolini’s oeuvre. 

Also screening is Pasolini’s contribution to the omnibus film RoGoPaG—La ricotta, which stars Orson Welles as a director struggling to film the Passion of Jesus.

Mamma Roma 
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini. 1962. 107 min. Italy. B&W. Italian. 35mm. Print from Cinecittà. 

Love Meetings 
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1965. 90 min. Italy. B&W. Italian. DCP. New 4K DCP digitally restored by Cinecittà and Cineteca di Bologna. 

La ricotta 
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Orson Welles, Mario Cipriani, Laura Betti, Edmonda Aldini. 1963. 35 min. Italy/France. B&W. Italian. 35mm. Print from Cinecittà.

All film screenings of Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini are available here.