The show MAS go on

MAS, “Magazzini allo Statuto” is a “people’s emporium”, more like a large market than a big store but also a cult destination, at risk of closing. Hence, the artist Rä di Martino decided to make a film on it: part documentary, part musical and slightly surreal.

Location: between Via dello Statuto and Piazza Vittorio in Rome and only a stone’s throw from the Termini station. The lens pans over the area and a voice lists: “Piazza Vittorio” “980 metres of porticoes”; “280 columns”; “6 newsstands”; “3 flower kiosks”; “Beppe’s iconic kiosk”; “14 palms”; “4 Lebanon cedars”; “12 cluster pine”; “20 plane trees”, “Galleria Grilli Mobili”; “2 film company lorries”; “Osteria Angelini”; […] “Bar Crystal”; […] … “Chinese shop”; “empty Chinese shop”; […] and then “cat lady”; “lady waking up on a bench”; […] “La Porta Magica”; “fortune teller”; “MAS” ... and, at this point, a whole world opens up.

Rä di Martino, <i>The show MAS go on</i> — Rä di Martino, *The show MAS go on*, Iaia Forte

A world that is a microcosm and a crossroads; a sort of marketplace where everyone’s path crosses – Romans by birth and by adoption, families, nuns, transexuals, people looking for everyday clothes and film directors sourcing costumes for their extras. MAS, “Magazzini allo Statuto” is a “people’s emporium”, more like a large market than a big store but also a cult destination, so much so that, on hearing that this concentrate of Roman life was at risk of closing, some people decided to make a film on it. This is what prompted The show MAS go on, part documentary, part musical and slightly surreal, filmed by the artist Rä di Martino in November and December last year. No preproduction. Six straight weeks of filming, a project set up in a flash, with fine actors drawn in at the last moment, all accomplices in the exploit, convinced that filming would soon become impossible. The owners put forward some initial resistance but then issued a pass allowing the crew to film even after closing time when they had the store all to themselves.

This generated some of the topical scenes. Only after production was complete did the news come that MAS would not close its doors, at least for the time being. Extraordinary, filled with humanity, humour and citations from film history, enlivened by the presence of many anonymous characters but also famous actors, The show MAS go on unfolds in an alternation of reality and fiction.

Attacks in one direction and another; slightly lost-looking figures, a lady with a toy dog in a coat that refuses to sit on command; nuns rummaging through baskets of underwear; an assistant describing those who visit the shop dying for a chat and those who never buy anything because “they haven’t a penny”. The artist openly shows the camera’s presence as if filming Candid Camera, and a little girl who realises she is being filmed looks bewildered. Here we are on the margins of society and of reality and suddenly the impossible happens. The mood changes, it becomes dark and the sense of bewilderment is explicit. The mannequins, played by Maya Sansa and Sandra Ceccarelli, come to life, exchange glances and start talking. The dimension is oneiric and the conversation sways between the ordinary and the unlikely.

The show MAS go on title references Queen and Iaia Forte in a pink jacket imitating Freddie Mercury’s vest impersonates Chiara Pezone, who has owned the emporium since the 1970s. She was interviewed by Rä di Martino but did not want to appear in the film. Then, there is Filippo Timi who sings up to his neck in big knickers.

The film becomes blurred with reality but that is not all. The many ordinary and extraordinary clients of MAS include some who are the makers of dreams: actors, set designers and film-makers who visit to stock up on cheap costumes , especially for murdered bodies, which require plenty of cheap, identical and disposable garments for rehearsals – and MAS is full of cheap, kitsch clothes. So, among other things, MAS is a fantasy place-factory: a treasure trove where the entertainment world unearths raw material and solutions. Rä di Martino has the cinema in his DNA and with irony and naturalness shows us the other face of those magical worlds we see at the cinema.

The show MAS go on

MAS, “Magazzini allo Statuto” is a “people’s emporium”, more like a large market than a big store but also a cult destination, at risk of closing. Hence, the artist Rä di Martino decided to make a film on it: part documentary, part musical and slightly surreal.

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