Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" has attracted a lot of attention, and there are all kinds of film reviews and analysis on the Internet. Here I will focus on a few points to further enrich the connotation of "Roma" and my exacting requirements for this film.
The plane, although it is always in the background when it appears in the frame, is also an extremely important image that runs through the entire film. The whole film shows the life of a maid in a middle-class Mexican family, as well as a re-enactment of Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the film, the plane is always high above and casts a glimpse, it seems to be a symbol of the people at the top of the power - in a small space, strategizing, overlooking all living beings - it is they who control everything, others can only follow the flow, and the middle class. The rich people of the class have nothing to do with the thugs trained by the government, and it has nothing to do with the servants who work for others.
When the opening credits emerge, the background is the puddles of sewage washing the floor, and the sky casts its reflection on the dappled water, along with the planes whizzing across the sky.
This is not only an exchange of texts with the child who was rescued by the waves on the beach later, but also formed a cycle with the last shot of the whole film facing the sky, including another maid who just left for a date, including flying in the sky one after another. of three planes, it seems as if personal twists and turns are still unfolding, as if the prospects for the family's future remain bleak, as if the sheer chaos of the country continues.
Cleo and Fermin kiss in the movie, and the movie on the screen is also related to the plane. The Nazi soldiers shot down their own plane, and the two Allied planes survived and returned with beauty. In an era when there is no way out and no hope, people reviewing the past glory and victory is a paralysis of self and an escape from reality.
For example, in the films "Dunkirk", "Darkest Hour" and the most recent "First Man on the Moon" in the past two years, even if the way the film tells historical stories is not the official mainstream style, but choosing such The subject matter is inevitably contaminated with nationalism, and it also reflects certain anxiety and predicament in Britain, the United States, and even Western civilization.
Fermin and his companions were instructed by Professor Zowick on the training ground, and as the professor demonstrated his stunt, a plane also flew in the sky far above him.
The Tlatelolco massacre took place in Mexico in 1968. Ten days before the Mexican Olympics in the same year, thousands of students took to the streets to march and rally. There is ample evidence that the government hired murderers to maintain stability before the Olympics. Shots were fired at unarmed students, killing hundreds of people, while official government figures show just a few dozen.
The time of the riot in the film was 1971, but according to the information given by the lines, the prototype of this incident had to be the massacre of Tlatelolco. There is news that the US CIA has something to do with this matter, which is not difficult to explain the American and Korean coaches who trained Fermin.
Fermin and his mates were trained by the government to deal with the conflict in response to the tensions ahead of the Olympics. In this way, the meaning of a plane flying over the training ground is self-evident.
Cars have always been "big boys' toys". Cuaron gave ample footage of his father precisely controlling the vehicle in the cramped garage.
He couldn't see his face from the beginning to the end of the parking, but the classical music from the car radio, and his hand movements with the cigarette butt in his hand and the skillful parking, were enough to highlight his status and authority as the head of the family.
The image of the father has been completely formed here, and there is no more ink on it since then.
It is not surprising that such a determined, decisive, ambitious man who knows what he wants has left his wife and children and left the marriage. If the home is the harbor, the vehicle is the ship that comes to dock, and the sailor who is eager for the wind and waves is destined to set sail.
The garage is related to the home and the wife, and the vehicle is related to the husband, so the sexual connotation of parking in the garage is very strong, which also implies that the reason for the husband's divorce is related to sex, and he likes the new and hates the old.
When Kleo gave birth to a child, the husband came out and said some comforting words that were not painful or necessary, in an attempt to impress people other than the parties to the marriage, but he did not dare to meet again. To his own child, it is enough to show that he is a scumbag.
Fermin shows Cleo a stick trick at the hotel. He was naked, with tight and well-defined muscles and a sagging penis. In order to further strengthen the sexual elements, he picked up the curtained stick in the bathroom and slammed it into the air with every move.
One of the actions is to point a stick at Cleo, which clearly shows that some of the "love" between the two is just sex, and the tragedy that follows is already foreseeable.
And the next time Fermin pointed at Corio, it was no longer a stick, but a pistol, a symbol of absolute violence. A stick was pointed at her to impregnate her, and a gun was pointed at her to give birth. Here, the gun and the club can still be regarded as symbols of the phallus.
But its destructive power is more significant, so it is also to be expected to give birth to a dead baby - guns cannot bring new life, only death, just like the bloody conflict in the indoor street at this moment, it does not bring order, only brought confusion.
Rich people also have guns and shoot competitions at parties and they just use guns for entertainment, like toy guns in their children's hands, they don't actually shoot, they don't have the power to shoot. Guns, too, are unprofitable in the chaos of shooting.
Then only people like Fermin can do it, and they are just thugs, doing dirty work for the government and making a living in troubled times.
In this middle-class family, both father and mother have their own jobs, and the children depend on the maid Kelio to take care of them. The children naturally develop deep feelings with Kelio, and there are a lot of details in the movie. to perform.
Corio's close relationship with children is in some ways stronger than children's relationship with their parents. Putting the child to bed at night and waking the child patiently in the morning will naturally lead to a close relationship.
In this family, the father is missing to some extent, he is rarely at home, and he does not have much time with the children.
Although the movie opens shortly after the father comes home from get off work early, he then quarrels with his wife in the room at night, implying that the purpose of his return is related to a showdown with his wife.
He left in a hurry the next morning, and so far his father never appeared in the family.
After the father left, the mother had to be strong. On the one hand, when the mother was emotionally out of control, on the other hand, her requirements for the child became stricter.
Due to the absence of the father, the mother is becoming the father's role, working full-time, earning money to support the family, and the mother's role begins to be played by Corio, who is meticulous and considerate.
And when Kleo risked his life to save the children from the waves, and gave Kleo the trust of his life, the maid, who originally only had a money employment relationship, became fettered with the family.
After saving the children, Cleo also untied the knot, let go of the past, put down the dead babies, hugged the children in front of them, and rebuilt a new family with their mothers.
And is such a family really indestructible? the answer is negative. They hugged together on the beach, as if a wall had been built up in the wind and waves. But in the same frame as them is the "castle" that the children had previously built with gravel on the beach. Such small details suggest that such a family relationship is fragile and may fall apart at any time.
Then the children say "Kleo she saved us" in the first sentence and "I want a smoothie" in the second sentence, we can't tell whether this still puts Kleo in the servant's position, nor It's impossible to tell if they actually accepted her, but there's something to be said for sure - class differences can't be so easily erased.
"Roma" is so beautiful, so beautiful, that I couldn't find words to describe it until my friend uttered those two words—craftsmanship—and it was so fitting.
"Craftsmanship" is not a derogatory meaning. Every shot in Caron's film is so perfect, as if the craftsmen have carefully carved and polished it, creating a continuous visual spectacle.
My first impression after reading "Roma" is that I have no feeling, and I am stable. Although I can still be moved by the entanglement of new life and death in it, it still lacks a deeper touch.
Lack of touch, I analyze, there are three reasons. One is the choice of black and white colors, and plain colors are always alienating colors. The second is the camera lens. There are a lot of long and steady pushing shots, and there are almost no close-ups of the characters. The audience has been placed in the position of a bystander from beginning to end, and has not really entered the hearts of the characters.
The third is the subject matter, such as people of color, class, and women. If such a "multiple identities" heroine has obvious tendencies in emotion or attitude, it is easy to become a "politically correct" movie, such as some recent movies. Movies "BlacKkKlansman", "First Reformed".
On the other hand, the "Rome" constructed by Cuaron is in line with people's imagination of the third world, and this is more convincing from the mouth of the director from the third world.
As for how much truth there is, it's hard to tell. It's not that the director's presentation is unreal, but the truth that hasn't been revealed. This is what I hope to see.
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