Alfonso Cuaron described the film, which he had been working on for twelve years, as follows: "Drawing up close to a woman who raised me, she taught me that love is a mystery that transcends time and memory. "
As a writer-director in the mature American film industry, Alfonso not only has a deep affection for "Roma", but also the superb technology accumulated over the years, and the strongest personal style. It can be seen that with the sufficient support of Netflix, Alfonso does not need to worry about external constraints such as market factors, and can freely release his childhood memories in the creation, and sway his strong feelings for the past years of his hometown.
A memory narrative that maintains a sense of reality
In order to achieve a 90% real effect, the whole film maintains a documentary style, making full use of the objectivity of the big panorama, and even the climax segment has no close-up shots. A large number of amateur actors with no performance experience are used, filming in chronological order, only giving the actors the script of the day, and creating real ambient sounds for the audience and actors... The interaction of various factors not only maintains the documentary quality but also helps non-professional actors to enter the state harmoniously , and superimpose the most realistic effect. Alfonso did not hesitate to show his master-level technology in this film. In order to integrate CGI technology without leaving any trace, it also made it difficult to reproduce "Roma", but the craftsmanship may also lead to some fans' rejection. .
In order to achieve the memory narrative, "Roma" does not have a large lens change, and does not use the hand-held photography and push-pull lenses that were used flexibly in previous works. The camera moves up and down smoothly, keeping the panning track to follow the shooting, allowing the actors to enter and exit the painting independently, showing the environment through Cleo's line of sight, telling the plot, allowing the characters to flow in the situation, and the fate of the characters ups and downs in turbulent times. At the same time, a large panorama of ultra-wide banners unified by a large number of spaces and characters makes everything the focus and the protagonist, reproducing the entire time and space.
Alfonso-style long lens
The most difficult to ignore nature of "Roma" is the Alfonso-style long shot. Even though the long takes have been used and expanded on screen, Alfonso's long takes are very personal and have forged his cinematic style.
Alfonso's "observation-style long shot" matches his usual implicit narrative style, instead of revealing everything, focusing on the substitution of the audience's own experience, while the characters become the containers for emotional placement. "Roma" chose 65mm film, widely used wide-angle shooting and actors' performances to create flexible viewpoints, maximized the role of long shots to accommodate rich information, and also kept the film from being tedious and boring, and always mobilized the audience's attention and emotions. , allowing the audience to stay focused on the narrative.
In addition, "Roma" stunningly uses long-lens stares for drama. For example, in the production clip of Clio Hospital, the 4-minute fixed long shot made the protagonist and the audience unable to move. First, I felt the pain of the protagonist’s production. After the light hit the baby, Clio was in the foreground, and the camera and her continued to stay in place. The audience can only stare at the rescued baby like Cleo. Another example is the clip of Cleo going to the sea to save people at the end. The 5-minute long shot gradually accumulated emotions with the waves until the scene on the poster finally appeared, reaching the climax of the film.
love and rome
Alfonso believes that personal experience is full of things beyond our control, and emotional relationships are the only ones we can control. So the real protagonist of this pseudo-documentary is "love", Rome - "ROMA" is "AMOR" in reverse, which is "love" in Spanish.
"Roma" first expresses Alfonso's love for this neighborhood and city. Birds chirping, vehicles, and hawkers whistle. The voice of childhood penetrates history and penetrates the screen to the heart of the audience. As Alfonso said: "(These voices) are not intended to convey any message, but to make the audience consciously recall their own past."
Then there is love for people. The prototype of the protagonist Cleo, Libo, is a maid who grew up taking care of Alfonso. She also made a cameo appearance in Alfonso's "The Same with Your Mother". Cleo in the film is full of motherly love, but also shows a sense of vulnerability because of his innocence and tenderness. Only she can complete the "master's stunt" in the training ground, proving that Cleo has a strong mind, which actually embodies Alfonso's sincere love and praise for her.
possibility of rebirth
Alfonso believes that suffering shapes us and sometimes even gives us new life, so he constantly talks about the "possibility of rebirth" in his films, showing the pulse of life surging in despair. Death appears many times in "Roma", such as the dialogue between Cleo and Pepe at the beginning - "I can't speak, I am dead. Well, I quite like the feeling of being dead." There are also crosses in the field, being thrown Broken cups (the cups symbolized the womb in the Mayan civilization), etc.
At the end, the scene where Cleo and Sophia and a few children hugged at the beach was the moment of "rebirth" that everyone, especially Cleo, finally ushered in. The triangular composition is strong and powerful, and the boundless sea serves as the background of the family, and the picture is full of epic sense. This epic feeling reminds people of "A Splendid Life" and "Once Upon a Time in America", they all show the tears of an era through an individual perspective.
The subtitles at the end of the film appear in Sanskrit "Shantih Shantih Shantih." It means the elimination of the triple suffering (the suffering of the body, the suffering of the natural forces, and the suffering of the soul). The disappearance of suffering is the completion of rebirth.
rich imagery
The imagery and metaphorical setting of "Roma" embodies the director's skillful filmmaking skills and is delicately placed within the film. Shortly after the opening, the film took the trouble to use nearly two minutes and 26 shots to show Antonio parking in the garage, most of which were close-ups. The metaphor of the car and the garage was established, and the state of the two also corresponded to the changes of the characters.
There are two story lines in "Roma": private memory and historical background, and the two contrast with each other. For example, Cleo's pregnancy and stillbirth are metaphors for the birth and miscarriage of the revolution; forest fires and the outbreak of the revolution; the capture of lizards and the capture of revolution survivors. The film appears many times before and after the corresponding shots. For example, at the beginning and at the end, there are planes flying across the sky. The difference is that at the beginning, the planes are passing through the narrow reflection frame, and at the end, the planes are actually flying in the high sky. .
The slow rhythm and excessive details weave together historical memory and the changes of the times, grand narrative and daily life, a sense of destiny and impermanence, and the audience seems to be witnessing a turbulent time. Human empathy also fulfills the director's vision of "I hope to make a film that is both personal and universal".
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