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 quote:A story that chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.  Roma is the latest film from Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron. It's loosely based on his own experiences growing up in the 60s and 70s in Mexico City, and it tells the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a housekeeper for a middle class family. It's a story of loyalty, courage, class struggle, determination, gender roles, and ultimately, a story of family.   It's an absolutely gorgeous film, with Cuaron himself credited as the cinematographer. We spend most of our time in wide shots, and close ups are reserved solely for a few truly special moments. Every frame is chock full of small details as Cuaron brings 1970s Mexico City to life.   Cuaron is also credited as one of the two editors, and the story unfolds at a perfect slow pace. The trade mark long takes are there, granting us no escape during the pivotal scenes where Cleo first faces, and then later decides the course of her life.  Roma is an instant classic piece of cinema, one of the absolute best films of the decade, and the shining crown jewel in Cuaron's filmography. I knew next to nothing about the film prior to seeing it, and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what I saw. It's one of those films where it's difficult to really explain what's so good about it beyond breathtaking cinematic storytelling. The nuance, the humor, and the humanity found throughout the film brings everything to life. It's one of those films where you go "They just don't make films like these anymore". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ It's available on Netflix starting Dec 14th, but if there are still special screenings near you, make sure to see it in a theater. It's absolutely worth it. 
DanTheFryingPan fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Dec 15, 2018 |
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Dec 15, 2018 00:36
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Beware of spoilers, I think it was hollywoodreporter or variety who basically spoiled the entire film in their review.
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Dec 15, 2018 01:15
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I owe my life to martial arts.
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Dec 15, 2018 07:00
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The sound design was insane good and I was half tempted to shush people in the theater. Many scenes really stuck and totally blew my mind: The 360 view of Cleo turning the off all the lights in the house The forest fire The furniture store and riot Cleo going into labor and the delivery The beach and tremendous sound of the waves
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Dec 15, 2018 08:02
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Ignis posted:Beware of spoilers, I think it was hollywoodreporter or variety who basically spoiled the entire film in their review. It's the Variety review that does so. They pull that all the time. Liked the movie, and thought that seeing it at home through Netflix worked just fine.
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Dec 17, 2018 01:22
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air- posted:The sound design was insane good and I was half tempted to shush people in the theater. Also, the movie is a glimpse to Mexico's toxic macho culture, which prevails to this day. The main adult men in the movie do certain things that are quite common and a lot of times encouraged between male friends or even relatives , the doctor finding a younger lover, the boyfriend denying any responsibility from their future child. Both, sadly, hit really close to my own family experiences. And finally, I loved Cleo's patron liberation and how she gains back her confidence. And in my point of view it's shown with a very non-subtle object. The Galaxy car. She went from being a very lovely insecure driver to a woman confidently driving her whole family down the road all by herself.
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Dec 17, 2018 14:01
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I loved this movie on Netflix and I’m gonna go see it tomorrow in a cinema because it definitely deserves it.
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Dec 17, 2018 17:13
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Escobarbarian posted:I loved this movie on Netflix and I’m gonna go see it tomorrow in a cinema because it definitely deserves it. This is a great decision.
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Dec 17, 2018 20:32
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Saw it on Netflix, as someone who grew up in Mexico City in the 90's, I can totally relate to many aspects of the film and how the portray the mexican family. It is so carefuly produced, paying attention to sounds especially (garbage truck bell, radio songs...). I truly loved it, I don't know why some people in Mexico are trashing the film, I even believe it has to do with politics right now, which is sad.
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Dec 18, 2018 21:45
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El Chingon posted:Saw it on Netflix, as someone who grew up in Mexico City in the 90's, I can totally relate to many aspects of the film and how the portray the mexican family. It is so carefuly produced, paying attention to sounds especially (garbage truck bell, radio songs...). I truly loved it, I don't know why some people in Mexico are trashing the film, I even believe it has to do with politics right now, which is sad. Oh yeah, there's some stupid arguments that go "Blah, the movie is not in color and there are many like that and doesn't make it unique". Although, the moment it starts (hopefully) winning awards there's gonna be a lot of praising from everyone. Like...I won't even be surprised. I also got struck with the childhood memories, even if I didn't live in Mexico City, almost every medium sized city in the whole country will share those same noises. The guy selling camotes, the afilador which sadly is not a common sight anymore,etc,etc. I even liked the detail of the street vendors. I could even smell the barrio Cleo went to when she was looking for her boyfriend, because my grandma used to live in a similar place. So the smell of mud, icky open sewers and farm animals running around is another weird sounding childhood memory of mine.
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Dec 19, 2018 04:12
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El Chingon posted:I truly loved it, I don't know why some people in Mexico are trashing the film, I even believe it has to do with politics right now, which is sad. It's got nothing to do with politics and more with the internet loving to hate anything popular. Most of the hate I've seen is from people who clearly aren't into art house cinema, so they're obviously gonna find the movie to be too boring and pretentious to be worth a drat. e: at least the shitlords pissing on Cleo for daring to wear designer clothes are more or less nowhere to be seen 
Ignis fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Dec 19, 2018 |
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Dec 19, 2018 09:42
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Ignis posted:It's got nothing to do with politics and more with the internet loving to hate anything popular. Most of the hate I've seen is from people who clearly aren't into art house cinema, so they're obviously gonna find the movie to be too boring and pretentious to be worth a drat. There was also people complaining because it wasn't like Children of Men, and asking Netlix to put some series that looked cheap as hell on the same sentence. All the indigenous women in that movie deserve to wear as many designer clothes as they wish  Fine actresses, beautiful women and a wonderful representation of the indigenous groups in this wretched country.
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Dec 19, 2018 13:55
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I assume everyone else also tried the one-footed pose with theiir eyes closed.
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Dec 23, 2018 19:09
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Saw this tonight and I cannot imagine it having the same effect at home on the TV. A few uncoordinated thoughts: The noise, and the house: I really got the feeling that the house (and the middle-class in general) were defined by keeping the noise of the city out. (They never fully succeed, of course.) This had the effect, to me, of the student protest being like the city itself rising up. The barriers of the middle class can't keep the city out, and in the protest scene we have the noise starting outside before violently bursting inside. Dogs: The maids are compared to the dogs: kept in the home and appreciated as part of the families, but kept by the families as something less than human. This is most evident during that amazing pan shot of all the maids doing the laundry on the rooftops. All we see are maids, laundry, and dogs. This thematic line comes to a head with the dogs' heads on the wall: the family cherished them and wanted to keep them but... like that. The Galaxy: The car seems to be in pointed contrast with the space movie. The Galaxy vs the galaxy, so to speak. It's this contrast of the breadth of reality and imagination, with what that imagination represents being reduced into a consumer object. The car, pointedly, fits poorly with the reality of the city. I think this links up with the first point about the middle-class trying to keep the reality of the city out. Water: Access to water in the barrio seems to be limited, as Echeverria promises to restore it. This is contrasted with the liberal use of water in the house and, I think, at the rich ranch-house.
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Dec 24, 2018 04:39
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Hand Knit posted:
There's a moment where Cleo is getting close to the family, when they are watching television, only to be pushed away by the mother when asked to prepare her husband's tea. By the looks of if the kids consider her part of the family (she even takes the role of a mother), and she isn't totally accepted until she is seen as a savior during the beach scene. They even talk about visiting Cleo's town at the ending of the movie. Hand Knit posted:Water: Access to water in the barrio seems to be limited, as Echeverria promises to restore it. This is contrasted with the liberal use of water in the house and, I think, at the rich ranch-house. This is now hilarious considering that they were trying not to spend a lot in electric power by keeping all lights off at night, even in the maid's room. Also water problems have always been an issue everywhere and a common promise by politicians, which rarely comes true. And it was Echeverria,quite the evil guy.
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Dec 24, 2018 05:19
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Desperado Bones posted:This is now hilarious considering that they were trying not to spend a lot in electric power by keeping all lights off at night, even in the maid's room. Also water problems have always been an issue everywhere and a common promise by politicians, which rarely comes true. And it was Echeverria,quite the evil guy. Is there anything you can tell us about the political stuff we see? The rallies and the advertisements. Because they seem important, in a way, but it's context that a lot of us don't have.
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Dec 24, 2018 17:37
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Hand Knit posted:Is there anything you can tell us about the political stuff we see? The rallies and the advertisements. Because they seem important, in a way, but it's context that a lot of us don't have. Im too young for the era of the movie and never lived in mexico city, but everyone knows echeverria was a nasty guy. He was responsible of the tlateloco massacre and the killing of the students in the movie. His idea was mostly to violently get rid of any political rival. Im on my phone so i cant post much. I also dont remember if he was responsible of jailing la quina, the leader of pemex's union , or if it was his succesor. Also the whole politicians promising things is a classic and a bitter memory of past party campaings.
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Dec 25, 2018 05:29
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The riot scene is based on this event
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Dec 25, 2018 15:19
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DanTheFryingPan posted:The riot scene is based on this event I have a coworker who actually lived in Mexico City during that era, when she was way younger. She remembers having a lot of curfews, people who looked like "students" (I'm guessing, young, long hair, whatever was in vogue back then) were picked up by police or the military to never be seen. Entire families or strangers who protected students would also be made disappear. She claims there were a lot of disappearances and dead ones but it was never ever mentioned by the government (same poo poo with the famous earthquake, were people claim the toll was huge but the party in charge decided to lower the number of deaths). Also,Echeverria was never punished for said crimes. Hooray my country.
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Dec 25, 2018 15:47
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Wonderfully shot with some very intense scenes but not the kind of movie that I can see myself watching again. Also main character really should've stepped up her dog poo poo cleaning game, that legit made me mad. And maybe be a tiny bit more active in general idk.
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Dec 26, 2018 21:23
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This had some really wonderful cinematography. This is one of those movies where I feel like I could watch it on mute and still get a ton out of it. The main actress is a really good example of how to give a great performance without a lot of dialogue. Some of the scenes in here were a lot more emotionally tense than I anticipated. The entire childbirth scene was pretty heavy, even more so for just how frankly everything was presented. I don't think I've seen anything like that in any other movies. Cleo's "boyfriend" sucked. I had a sinking feeling as soon as he said he had to go to the bathroom. It was a great portrayal of a real piece of poo poo. I did feel like I was missing some stuff since I don't really know anything about the politics of 1970s Mexico. I wouldn't say that's really a detraction though, the movie does a good enough job presenting itself that it's not really necessary to know all the details.
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Dec 28, 2018 04:21
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Doflamingo posted:Wonderfully shot with some very intense scenes but not the kind of movie that I can see myself watching again. Also main character really should've stepped up her dog poo poo cleaning game, that legit made me mad. And maybe be a tiny bit more active in general idk. Is there any behind the scenes knowledge about why the first martial arts scene was included? It feels a bit random when compared to the solemnity that predominates the film.
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Dec 28, 2018 15:54
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I don't typically love small-stakes slice of life sloooooow-burn art house period dramas, so it's a testament to the amazing filmcraft and stunning performances that I was absolutely riveted during ROMA. I should've been bored but I didn't look at my phone once. Pretty spell-binding film (made me think about 100 Years of Solitude for some reason even though ROMA is 10 months of solitude comparatively) As for my "arthouse reading" I found a strong thematic association between the men in the film and the various scenes featuring dogs. The dogs are just making GBS threads everywhere for people to clean up or scavenging/fighting aimlessly in the background. The men in the film likewise just leave their poo poo everywhere and no matter how much the women clean up, there's always more. Also, I want to put a spoilery content warning out there for people who might find something traumatic: My wife and I are about to have a baby, so the long, unflinching shot of a stillborn baby was.... a lot. We were okay with it but man if you didn't know that was coming, the film is NOT bashful about its depiction. Arresting, but could be too much for some people.
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Dec 28, 2018 16:24
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Guillermo Del Toro's thoughts on the film https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1084701184110153729 (click for threadreader) He brings up that they built several blocks of 1970s Mexico City to act as a backdrop for certain scenes, which is frankly amazing. The production design is remarkable.
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Jan 14, 2019 14:49
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DanTheFryingPan posted:He brings up that they built several blocks of 1970s Mexico City to act as a backdrop for certain scenes, which is frankly amazing. The production design is remarkable. quote:6) It seems to me that the fact that Cuaron and Eugenio Caballero BUILT several blocks (!) of Mexico City in a giant backlot (sidewalk, lampposts, stores, asphalted streets, etc) is not well-known. This is a titanic achievement. 
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Jan 14, 2019 19:49
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It's funny that someone mentioned seeing complaints about this not being like Children of Men... I thought Roma was shockingly similar to Children of Men, albeit in a much more realistic context. The camerawork, the slow burn up to the riot scene, the fascism imagery, and the pregnant woman at the center of it made me feel like this was kind of a remake or reexamining of what in Cuaron's life inspired him to make Children of Men.
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Jan 23, 2019 23:05
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Martman posted:It's funny that someone mentioned seeing complaints about this not being like Children of Men... I thought Roma was shockingly similar to Children of Men, albeit in a much more realistic context. The camerawork, the slow burn up to the riot scene, the fascism imagery, and the pregnant woman at the center of it made me feel like this was kind of a remake or reexamining of what in Cuaron's life inspired him to make Children of Men. It was me, and it was a fellow Mexican (or several) commenting stuff like that. Is like they only remember the explosions and action scenes in those movies. Currently most of my dear compatriots are praising the movie after spending all December spewing hate about it on social media. Ugh.
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Jan 24, 2019 02:12
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With 10 Oscar nominations, you should probably check this out if you already haven't. There's an art house theater here that still has screenings, and if you do have the chance to see it on the big screen, definitely do that.
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Jan 26, 2019 21:59
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Hopefully it will have a nation wide screening here in Mexico if it wins a lot of those Oscars, they have done that before with other films, so I can finally watch it in a theater.
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Jan 26, 2019 22:32
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Did this have a first run on 70mm? My local theater is getting the print in a couple weeks, has anyone seen it already?
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Jan 28, 2019 06:21
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Jan 28, 2019 08:11
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Jenny Agutter posted:Did this have a first run on 70mm? My local theater is getting the print in a couple weeks, has anyone seen it already? I saw it on 70mm and... it's good.
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Jan 28, 2019 11:29
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In Children of Men a woman gives birth amid a backdrop of societal collapse. Our protagonist played by Clive Owen runs through a burned out building in an active warzone, braving gunfire and chaos in a single unbroken shot to save the child. The film ends with the child escaping safely onto the ocean. In Gravity, a woman who lost her daughter is depicted in space with womb-like imagery. She is thrust into a physical journey through the chaos of space to land in the ocean. She nearly drowns, but is able to swim to shore, emerging half naked as if she were reborn. In Roma, a woman's water breaks in the middle of a fierce political riot that killed dozens and nearly prevents her from getting to the hospital. Her child is stillborn. The film ends when she, who we are told cannot swim, saves two children from drowning in the ocean before breaking down in tears admitting she had never wanted the child she lost. Cuaron recognizes that life is a battle against powerful, uncontrollable forces of nature and humanity. We fight to survive, and we fight to be born, and we very well may die in the process. These forces sweep us away, and it takes immeasurable determination to fight against the riptide and live.
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Jan 28, 2019 22:41
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I saw this movie this weekend and I was blown away by it. So far it is my clear choice for Best Picture (although I still haven't seen BlackKklansmen, Bohemian Rhapsody, or Green Book), and it'll be a crime if it doesn't win Best Cinematography as well.
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Jan 29, 2019 07:12
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I'm not from Mexico, so a lot of the backdrop was lost on me, but drat this was emotionally affecting for me in a way I can't explain yet. And it absolutely deserves best cinematography. What an amazingly shot movie
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Jan 29, 2019 16:33
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I read an interview with Cuaron where he says the airplane passing by in the sky should be left to be interpreted to the audience. As someone who lived in Mexico City for 30 years, I guess all of us have memories of seeing airplanes on landing approach over our heads every 2 minutes (the landing "queue" makes all airplanes come from the north and turn east to the airport, this makes a half circle over the city). And I think many of us have different memories involving this. For me, I would always remember my grandfather playing with me in my house patio on a sunny day and hearing the airplane engines in the distance.
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Jan 31, 2019 00:28
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Just saw ROMA in a theater. What a stunning and gorgeous movie. The ending scene is going to stay with me for a while.
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Feb 3, 2019 01:58
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I watched it on Netflix and absolutely loved the cinematography, such a well shot film. The actual content I found sort of boring, I don't feel like I learned anything new about the life of a Mixtec nanny in Mexico.
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Feb 12, 2019 01:07
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I got to see it in 70mm, just an absolute stunner. I agree that, sure, it wasn't sci-fi, but thematically this is just as much Cuaron as Children of Men - it's kind of stunning how clear it gets when you don't just think about the washed out colors and explosions of CoM. The cinematography was out of this world. Early on, the first scene of the Dad parking the Galaxy, his hands and cigarette and the shifter and the sunglasses - that set the tone about how different the world was for men and women to Cuaron. I read somewhere that it was filmed in 65mm? I ain't a technical buff on this or anything but what the heck does that mean? EDIT: Also and I will never ever forget the beach scene. That super wide shot, apparently just trolleying back and forth? Stunning.
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Mar 8, 2019 23:18
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Big Mac posted:I got to see it in 70mm, just an absolute stunner. I agree that, sure, it wasn't sci-fi, but thematically this is just as much Cuaron as Children of Men - it's kind of stunning how clear it gets when you don't just think about the washed out colors and explosions of CoM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70_mm_film
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Mar 12, 2019 19:37
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