The "pizzeria" as the father calls it, is actually a restaurant of high class quality and they can be seen eating near an affluent family. What makes this scene so poignant in its comic presentations is the juxtaposition of destitution and gluttony. It is the poverty and insignificant nature of Riccio and his son, versus the self-indulgences of the wealthy family, that exemplify the ever wider class distinctions.
DESCRIBE SCENE.
In a similar manner, Pasolini uses comedy to reinforce the economic class differences in Italy, as depicted in the scene on the motorcycle in his film, Mamma Roma . This occurrs only after he spends most of the film describing, with great realism, the economic distinctions in Rome's sad underworld. Although filmed in the 1960's, Pasolini seems to portray an authentic setting ripe with characters whose lives have been devastated, a mirror of the post World War II neorealism of De Sica. Throughout the film, the director's realistiv style of describing the economic differences between classes is evidenced through the relationship between Mamma Roma and her son, Ettore. She only wants him to be in the upper class and so calls him a "bumpkin" for using lower class slang terminology and scolds him for dancing " the cha cha cha", and not knowing how to dance the "tango." Mamma Roma's desire for her son to marry into the upper class is seen in church as she points out all the wealthy prospects. She further scolds him for taking up with Bruna , who represents the lower class. Mamma Roma herself, desperately aspires to move up in class, as shown by her willingness to marry for money, resort to blackmail, or resume her life of prostitution. The sorrow of the film is intensified by the filmmaker's description of the desperation of Mamma Roma.and is reinforced by his depiction of her lowly economic class. In the motorcycle scene, Pasolini gets his point across regarding the deep division in economic class through the use of comedy.