Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón won the best director and cinematography awards at the Oscars for 'Roma' which was also adjudged the best foreign language film at the 91st Academy Awards on Monday. Cuaron's 1970s black and white Spanish drama, which is based in the Roma suburb in Mexico where he'd grown up as a child, is indeed a must-watch.
In a bleak setting, we are introduced to a middle-class household, doing normal things with their normal lives. Here, we meet Cleo played by debutant Yalitza Aparicio who is a domestic help to the family and a nanny to the children.
We find ourselves first in a slow tile washing scene in the opening credits, a shoddy reminder of what to expect in a slow-paced ensuing drama. It then heads over to a politically turbulent Mexico city of the 70s, with the events taking place in Cleo’s life and that of the others she’s related to.
Roma swerves from banal normality to extreme drama, with a hint of magical realism at some places.
The movie is a winner when it comes to the technicalities. With a beautiful monochromatic camerawork, tonality and composition of subjects are well maintained even in black and white. For a director who’s given us masterpieces like 'Children of Men' and 'Gravity', Roma yet again pushes the limits of cinematography and filmmaking. The camera is constantly panning in one direction, while scenes are meticulously crafted one after the other.
'Roma' is also a nod to womanhood.
Cuaron is an existentialist filmmaker and a genius when it comes to portraying human connections.
A movie stripped of 'mass' and 'class,' it experiments with every trick in the book when it comes to cinematic execution. It had received 20 nominations, with 10 being for the upcoming Academy Awards before going on to win a few Oscar laurels
Yalitza Aparicio, a nominee for Best Actress, has had no formal training. (On Monday, she lost the Oscar race to Olivia Colman for her role in 'The Favourite'.)
'Roma' is not to be missed as it runs subtly in a mobile device next to you.