In its rhetorical way the film is a good deal more powerful and assured than Accattone.

Pasolini's second film showcases Anna Magnani with a minimum of sentimentality in a bleak, pitiless Eternal City of the early '60s.

A key transitional work for the cinematic subversive, a seriously damning portrait of maternal martyrdom and, in a killer final shot, upward mobility.

The film’s final segment goes full Passion Play, including a faux crucifixion in which Magnani’s character serves as both Magdalene and Mary. Madone!