Pier Paolo Pasolini
1962
While this is only the second Pasolini film I've seen (the first being the superb but inconsistent "Accatone" (1961)) it's easy to see that much of this director's cinema, and that of his contemporaries Visconti and Rosselini, is preoccupied with the social attitudes and conventions of Italian society, and the modern Italian experience. Anna Magnani plays (what else?) a reformed hooker hell-bent on making a proper life for her son Ettore. This being Pasolini religious overtones are splashed all over the place with Magnani cutting a clear Madonna/Magdalene to Ettore's sinless Jesus. There's a few cool tracking shots of Magnani walking the nighttime streets as she returns to her old profession, and her boozy associate Biancofiore is a gorgeous knockout. There's no shortage of honesty or emotion in Pasolini's gritty Roman underworld, and thankfully realism outweighs symbolism to prevent the film from being overly pretentious.
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