Alphonse Cuaron’s Roma is the best film of the year, probably the best of the last 10 years, it’s a masterpiece. It’s also my favorite of all his films . An amazing accomplishment, he is one of the very few filmmakers that is advancing the evolution of Cinema. He has picked up the mantle of Orson Welles long takes and run with it. You are so absorbed in what’s happening on the screen you don’t notice that there hasn’t been a cut in a long time. No one since Welles has been as good at this, I think Welles came to it from Radio, rehearsing actors so the dialog was fast and furious without the need for editing to pace it, he got the actors to get the right timing then filmed it, sometimes with spaectacular camera moves , Ambersons, Opening of Touch Of Evil, but other times with barely any camera movement, I’m thinking of the scene in the Mexican boyfriend’s apartment, where Quinlan and Vargas have an argument with the suspect while Quinlan’s sidekick Pete finds the dynamite offscreen in the bathroom. An amazing scene no cuts, plays just like a Radio Play.
Cuaron does this kind of thing perfectly if not better! The scene in the delivery room what a tour de force and so emotionally powerful. The scene on the beach where the camera cranes like 50 feet in just above the waterline. Masterful.
There are so many great things in this film, Cuaron also picks up something from The Double Life Of Veronique, in that film the heroine is passing through a square in Prague or some Eastern Euro City, there is a student demonstration going on that breaks out into a riot, but it’s all in the background. Cuaron stages a student riot similarly and to great effect.
This is a period film and it’s done beautifully, one shot in particular blew me away as Cleo runs down a busy street chasing after her young charges, she crosses a big boulevard and the camera tracks with her, revealling a vista of period cars and people and city life that is astonishing! Another gem is when Cleo takes a bus ride to an amazing crazy barrio , the buildings are just tacked together from whatever as around, a guy is shot out of a cannon in the background, you have to see it for yourself. I just recently rewatched Ermano Olmi’s masterpiece The Tree Of Wooden Clogs, a great film about tenant farmers in Italy 100 years ago. All non actors in the cast yet it is great, moving, real.
Cuaron has done the same thing, made a compelling , supremely watchable film with basically an amateur cast. There are some great actors, the woman who plays the mom is terrific. But she just makes the others better.
Libo and Idrector Alfonso Cuarón
Finally I must say there is something Cuaron does that no one else can do. He makes films that seem shorter than their length! I don’t know what magic he posseses, but these films are over in the blink of an eye, and they’re over two hours long! I first noticed it with Gravity, but in Roma, it’s the same thing. Incredible. So watch it, you will love it. It should win every award out there, it’s in a class by itself. Bravo!
