This 2018 Oscar winner is a brilliant time of it. Roma was written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and it was picked up as a Netflix production. It’s a semi-autobiographical work exploring his upbringing in Mexico City’s neighbourhood Colonia Roma.
It’s also a homage to the women who raised him. Namely his maid Liboria “Libo” Rodríguez, who was highly influential to him and his siblings in the early 1970s. The result is really quite something.
Women Rise to the Occasion in Roma
The absence of men plays a huge part in Roma. Specifically, men abandoning their duties for frivolous reasons. There’s a father having affairs and then leaving his wife and four kids. Meanwhile, the maid of the family becomes pregnant and the man responsible refuses any involvement and joins a thuggish far-right revolutionary group.
Set in 1970, the maid Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez (Yalitza Aparicio) lives with an upper-middle class family. The father is a doctor but is rarely present, with the mother Sofia (Marina de Tavira) a doting parent. She had studied at university, but is now a housewife.
It’s clear early on she has concerns about her husband, who spends a lot of time away, and she suspects he’s having affairs. And that is the bedrock of the narrative.
Roma is 135 minutes and eager to take its time with things. Perfectly pitched pacing, with the extended intro sequence laying the foundations for the mood ahead. Simple, but beautiful, filmmaking.
It’s a historical drama, but the methodical pace also plays out in unexpected ways.
The film’s soundtrack also really sets the mood. All sorts of Mexican pop, salsa, Spanish folk, R&B, jazz, and classical are dotted across the narrative. Here we have Te He Prometido by Argentine composer and singer Leo Dan.
There are unexpected moments of humour that often rear up. One is an occasional joke Sofia could do with getting glasses, as she struggles to drive her car into small gaps.
This results in a series of bizarre, amusing scrapes. This scene below we just love, it highlights the difference a brilliant actor can make. Marina de Tavira’s facial expressions are fantastic.
We couldn’t work out why she’s pointing, but a YouTube comment from the above video had this to say:
“The reason she’s moving her fingers is because she’s counting the blocks. Before, that was a way to count how many blocks were left and which way to turn if you didn’t know the way very well. She’s driving, but with her finger she’s marking the route she needs to take to get to the hospital.”
We don’t know what the “byup” stuff is, though, we guess maybe a bit of hesitant anxiety.
It’s at the hospital where Cleo is confirmed pregnant. She decides to keep the child, but Roma’s narrative tales her on a reality check of the flaws in human society. That includes being trapped during the the Corpus Christi massacre of 10th June 1971, carried out by the Mexican paramilitary the Halcones. 120 people died.
During the massacre, Cleo’s water breaks and the resulting birth scene is an emotional watch. Yalitza Aparicio is a fantastic talent.
Alfonso Cuarón also has a history of these powerful birth scenes, with the iconic moment from his masterpiece Children of Men (2006) another example.
Cleo and Sofia are left to commit to each other, and the four children, bound together by male abandonment. All of which leads to the incredible beach scene (a small portion of which is below), where Cleo risks it all to save two of the children.
The use of water across the film can’t be ignored, it’s a motif for cleansing. The final beach scene acting as an arc of emotional survival, allowing Cleo to finally confront her personal grief and trauma. Class division is washed away, Sofia is no longer the wealthy employer, and the family unites.
Anyway, we’ve tried to leave spoilers out of this review. But as far as we’re concerned, Roma is masterpiece and Alfonso Cuarón and his team deserved all the praise in the world for this.
Here we have a brilliant study in memory, class inequality, race division, but most of all in enduring female resilience. It’s only available on Netflix—get it watched.
The Production of Roma
You often can’t rely on the Oscars for what really was the best film of any given year, but in 2019 Roma received 10 nominations (including Best Picture). It eventually won for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Director. So, then, you can sometimes rely on the Oscars.
Roma was critically acclaimed, too, claiming many 5/5 scores across the world.
As for its commercial performance, the budget was $15 million. It only received a limited cinematic run, eventually running in 145 cinemas in the US (as far as we’re aware, it didn’t have an official release here in the UK). The brief run led to a $5.1 million box office return, but then Roma was turned into a Netflix exclusive. Where it remains.
Everything was filmed from 27th November 2016 to 14th March 2017. Everything was shot in sequence across Mexico City. The director shot everything in colour, then decided to make it black and white so as to suggest a:
“Modern film that looks into the past.”
It was Yalitza Aparicio’s screen debut and she had no experience or training in acting.
She also can’t swim (as with her onscreen character). This led to the beach scene being particularly terrifying for her. Here’s how Cuarón and his team managed that for on set health and safety.
The technical marvel is as impressive as the narrative sweep, but it’s sad to note Alfonso Cuarón hasn’t directed any other films since 2018. He has, instead, turned his attention to TV and was last seen with Disclaimer in 2024 starring Cate Blanchett.
