Roma

Roma, by Alfonso Cuarón, has netted 10 Academy Award nominations, all very well deserved. A stunning film in black and white cinematography, it is one incredible look over a year in the life of a middle class family in Mexico City in the early 1970’s. The film is rated R for graphic nudity, some disturbing images and language.

The Academy Award nominations include Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio, Best Supporting Actress Marina de Tavira, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) is a dedicated nanny/maid, and serves the family she works for in any way she can. The family’s father is a physician who is not often at home, and his four children and wife Sofia (Marina de Tavira) are mostly left to fend for themselves with the assistance of their “servants.” I found Cleo to be a self-aware young woman with strengths perhaps she didn’t even know she had at the beginning of the year in Roma.

I recall watching two other of Cuarón’s films, Y Tu Mamá También, and Gravity (for which he won Best Director). Very different films, and both wonderfully innovative. In Roma, I found myself wondering about his choices. There is nothing in a screenplay that is unintentional, and there are surprising situations and relationships that the film depicts. Not once did I feel anything was less than the truth about a fictional family. What women endure.

Have you watched Roma? It is easy to see as it is on streaming Netflix. How did you feel after watching it?

Roma Official Trailer