Best Pictures #52: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Roma

by A.J.

Best Pictures #52: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Roma

"For Libo."

A movie like Roma does not come along too often. The new film by master filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has the look and feel of an epic film and the intimacy and emotion of a small, personal film. From the trailer, plot description, and lavish, wordy praise it’s received from critics you might get the impression that Roma is the epitome of an arthouse movie. Perhaps it is, if that means it is also a beautiful, superbly crafted, and deeply affecting cinematic achievement. It’s hard to describe what makes Roma so special because it elicits such an emotional response in the people it connects with, myself included. Roma works on so many levels I suspect any viewer will connect with it in some way.

Cuarón’s screenplay is loosely based on his experiences as a boy in Mexico City in the early 1970’s, specifically on his relationship with the family maid/nanny. This is not a story about a young boy, however. Seeking to pay tribute to the women that raised him, Cuarón makes them the focus of the movie. He even dedicates this film to his real life nanny, Liboria "Libo" Rodriguez. We follow a year in the life Cleo, a servant for an upper-class family in the Mexico City district of Roma. She cleans the house (including endless amounts of dog poop), cares for the children, and is treated as lovingly as a servant can be by her employers. First time actress Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo is so good and feels so natural in her role that she’s earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Marina deTavira has received a Supporting Actress nomination for her role as the family matriarch, Sofia.

Cleo’s eventful year begins when her boyfriend abandons her in a movie theater after she tells him that she is pregnant. At the same time, we gather from overheard snippets of conversations between Sofia and other adults that her husband has left the family. She tells her children that their father is on a long business trip in Canada. Sofia and Cleo do not necessarily become any closer, but Sofia and her mother are happy for Cleo and take her to see the doctor. The life events in Roma, both big and small, are episodic, but thankfully the story never meanders or feels aimless. Cleo accompanies the family to a relative’s estate, goes on a search for her wayward boyfriend, and goes with the family on a vacation to the beach. The outside world intrudes abruptly and harshly into Cleo’s day to day life though natural and man-made disasters. The focus is kept on Cleo throughout these events, which in a way makes them more real. A forest fire at a New Year’s party provides some of the film’s most memorable images. Just as the children are only marginally aware of the world of the adults until they feel a direct effect, so too are the adults with the larger world. Roma is not without some heavy-handed moments such as when a toast to someone’s doesn’t happen because the cup breaks, or when the characters go to see Marooned (I’m sure both Cleo and Sofia feel that they have been marooned by the men in their lives).

For Roma Cuarón did the cinematography himself, and it is safe to say that he learned a thing or two from his long-time cinematographer, the legendary Emmanuel Lubezki, who has won 3 Oscars in a row. Cuarón shot his picture in glorious black & white on 65mm cameras. This is what makes Roma so visually stunning and gives it the feel of an epic. Typically, 65mm cameras are used for big budget action films like Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, most recently, Dunkirk. When a modern filmmaker uses black and white, they tend to emphasize shadows. Cuarón’s camera captures wonderful shadows but it is much more concerned with what light illuminates. Sunlight seems to make everything it touches have an ethereal and dreamlike glow. The black & white makes every image feel like an old photograph conjuring old memories and emotions. Whenever the camera moves it is slow and deliberate and long, unbroken shots are numerous. Cuarón does not use many, if any, close ups. Instead his camera keeps its distance acting like window into Cleo’s life. The emotions in this story are so universal that you don’t need tight close ups on faces to know what a character is feeling or share in their emotions.

Alfonso Cuarón's filmography is impressive to say the least. He directed the best of all the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men, regarded by many as his masterpiece, appeared on several Best of the Decade lists for the 2000’s. I expect Roma will challenge Children of Men’s title as his masterpiece and make an appearance on the next round Best of the Decade lists.

Roma received a very brief theatrical release from its online streaming distributor, Netflix. It played in Austin in just one theater for two weeks and I was lucky enough to see it on a big screen. Seeing these images projected larger than life was a very enjoyable experience. I watched Roma again on my TV recently, and it is still visually and emotionally compelling. This is the sign of a truly great film. No matter how or when you see it, those sights and sounds will swirl around and take you on a journey.   
Nominees: Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón, producers
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Screenplay: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira
Production Companies: Espectáculos Fílmicos El Coyúl, Pimienta Films, Participant Media, Esperanto Filmoj
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: November 21^st, 2018
Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Alfonso Cuarón; Actress-Yalitza Aparicio; Supporting Actress- Yalitza Aparicio; Original Screenplay- Alfonso Cuarón; Cinematography-Alfonso Cuarón; Production Design-Eugenio Caballero, Barbara Enriquez; Sound Editing-Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay; Sound Mixing-Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan, José Antonio García; Foreign Language Film-Mexico