On Roma

Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma is a beautifully shot family drama that unfolds, slowly and quietly, but with devastating effect. Told with one of the home’s maids at the focus, Roma is not unlike the work of the great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, careful and considered and leaving you emotionally drained by the end. Cuaron moves away from the technical accomplishments of his last feature Gravity (2013) and, like Ozu, allows the story to unfold before us, carefully moving his camera in slow panning shots, perfectly framed long shots, mid shots and then back again to repeat. Movements are slow by cinema’s standards, but real to life. It may feel like there are many long takes, and at times there are some impressive shots, but perhaps it is more the consistency of the camera movements that make watching Roma much like watching life, natural. We observe and in the early stage of the film, feel detached. Yet the intricate detail in every scene is drawing us closer, perhaps more than we realise, to the lives of these characters. So, when the story takes its turns, whether they be pregnancy or political unrest, we are hooked, unable to look away and therefore completely vulnerable to the devastating and beautiful events of the final third.