“FILMING MEMORIES”

By Raymond Benson

The art-house darling of 2018, like 2019’s Parasite (from South Korea), was a foreign language film from Mexico. Except that it didn’t play in many art houses—it was a streaming Netflix production, and that’s how most people in the U.S. saw it (although the picture did play in cinemas a short time in order to qualify for Academy Awards).

Roma emerged from the memories of its creator, Alfonso Cuarón, who grew up in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. Taking place in 1970-1971, when Cuarón himself was between the ages of eight and ten, Roma is the story of a maid/nanny who lives with an upper middle-class household and is, for all intents and purposes, a member of that family. Apparently Cuarón had been close to his nanny, and the picture is a compilation of fictionalized memories from his childhood.

Cuarón took great pains to recreate the house where he grew up, the neighborhood, and milieu in the city during that period. In fact, the production utilized the house directly across the street from the one in which the Cuarón family lived. The filmmaker also served as his own cinematographer, shooting the picture in widescreen black and white digital—thus creating a completely grainless, “modern” look to a movie taking place in the early seventies. The results are absolutely gorgeous.

Roma is a slow burn that sucks you in at a meticulous pace, but once the characters and the mesmerizing tone of the piece have begun to work their magic, you can’t escape. As with 2019’s The Irishman, also a Netflix streamer, I heard many complaints that Roma was “boring.” I blame that reaction on folks sitting at home, most likely in a living room with the lights on, with distractions galore, looking repeatedly at a phone in hand, and the lack of attention one might alternatively devote if the locale was a movie theater. Roma was anything but boring. It was an intimate study of a family on a broad, impressionistic canvas.

Yes, there’s a story. Cleo, the maid (vulnerably played by Oscar-nominated Yalitza Aparicio), enjoys a pleasant life working for the family of a doctor, Antonio (Fernando Grediaga), and his wife Sofía (Oscar-nominated Marina de Tavira). She is close to the four children, but especially one of the boys (Cuarón’s alter-ego). During the course of the picture, Cleo becomes pregnant by a young man who then wants nothing to do with her, Antonio leaves his wife for another woman, and the family unwittingly clashes with political events in the street (the violent El Halconazo of June 1971). This description barely scratches the surface of the tremendous depth of emotion and wonder that Roma evokes, but suffice it to say that the film is more an experience than a movie.

Unlike Parasite, Roma did not win the Best Picture Oscar for which it was nominated, but it did pick up trophies for Director and Cinematography (both for Cuarón) and Foreign Language Film, the first title from Mexico to do so.

The Criterion Collection, thank goodness, released Roma on Blu-ray and DVD (original content from Netflix rarely makes it to home video). The deluxe package is exceptional. The 4K digital master was supervised by Cuarón and contains a Dolby Atmos soundtrack—and it looks and sounds fantastic.

The supplements are plentiful. A feature-length “making-of” documentary, Road to Roma, is a virtual filmmaking lesson from Cuarón as he relates how the movie happened from conception to release, complete with behind-the-scenes footage. Another long piece, Snapshots from the Set, features interviews with producers Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis, actors Aparicio and de Tavira, production designer Eugenio Caballero, casting director Luis Rosales, and others. If that weren’t enough, there are documentaries on the movie’s design, sound, and post-production processes, as well as a doc on the film’s release campaign and its social impact in Mexico. There are alternate French subtitles and Spanish SDH. The enclosed, thick booklet contains several essays with beautifully reproduced images from the movie (with notes by Caballero).

Although you can still stream Roma on Netflix, the Criterion edition is a superb collectors’ package with an abundance on material you don’t otherwise get. Highly recommended.

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