Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)

Sad Professor

Gravity 2 this ain’t.

Coming to Netflix later in the year.

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

Coming to Netflix later in the year.

Boooooooo!

(Just because it won’t get a bloomin’ cinema release now)

Sad Professor

What I find even more upsetting about these Netflix exclusives is that it also means no Blu-ray release.

p to the e

Interesting. Cuaron has not used his regular cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and has instead co-photographed the movie himself. Maybe he's learned a few tricks from the master.

Sad Professor

Lubezki and Cuaron have known each other since they were teenagers. Most of the really innovative stuff we associate with Lubezki, the long takes etc, he developed with Cuaron. Not to take anything away from Lubezki, who was always a great cinematographer, but he gets too much credit for things he learned from other directors (like Mann and Malick) over the years.

p to the e

Sad Professor wrote: »

Lubezki and Cuaron have known each other since they were teenagers. Most of the really innovative stuff we associate with Lubezki, the long takes etc, he developed with Cuaron. Not to take anything away from Lubezki, who was always a great cinematographer, but he gets too much credit for things he learned from other directors (like Mann and Malick) over the years.

What makes you say he learned from Malick and Mann? Not being an ass just genuinely curious. Did his style change after working with them?

I remember reading about Cuaron and Lubezki knowing one another a long time but pretty much all of Cuaron's films have been photographed by Lubezki with Cuaron having no photography credit. Would you consider him a co-cinematographer in the movies with Lubezki?

Sad Professor

With their exception of his work with Inarritu, I would say that Lubezki's work has generally emulated the established style of the filmmaker he was working with. So if you look at his work with Malick it's pretty much the same style Malick developed with John Toll. Similarly his work with Mann is the same style Mann developed with Dante Spinotti. Ditto the Coens.

With Inarritu (who doesn't have a strong visual style of his own) you are seeing an amalgamation of those different styles let loose on films that didn't have a whole lot else going on in them. In the Revenant, the long takes come from his work with Cuaron, the close-ups from his work with Mann, etc.

As I said, that doesn't take anything away from Lubezki's technique, which has always been impressive. But there's been a lot of claims that he should be considered an auteur in his own right, which I think is over-stating it.

johnny_ultimate

Interesting, Cuaron and a producer saying it'll get a global theatrical release: https://variety.com/2018/film/festivals/alfonso-cuaron-david-linde-assure-that-netflix-will-release-roma-in-global-theaters-1202921680/

johnny_ultimate

A positive update! Hopefully this won’t be a one-off and more Netflix films will get a proper theatrical release.

https://twitter.com/donaldclarke63/status/1064874156477607937?s=21

Sad Professor

They might be free to place it other cinemas but it's highly unlikely anyone but a few arthouse cinemas will want to show it.

El Duda

I watched Y Tu Mama Tambien earlier this year and it is a beautiful, majestic film. I almost felt like i'd been on the road trip through mexico with the main characters after it finished.

I assume this will be in similar vein? I've heard great things.

Goodshape

El Duda wrote: »

I watched Y Tu Mama Tambien earlier this year and it is a beautiful, majestic film. I almost felt like i'd been on the road trip through mexico with the main characters after it finished.

I assume this will be in similar vein? I've heard great things.

Honestly hadn't realised until now that "the guy who did Gravity" was also the guy who directed and co-wrote Y Tu Mamá También! I remember watching that film years ago. Loved it.

Also hadn't realised that the guy who did either of those films also directed and co-wrote Children of Men! Another great film.

I wouldn't have tied those three together at all. I see he also did a Harry Potter film. I can never recall which HP film is which and probably only half paid attention to most them anyway, but that's an impressively diverse list of films.

Sad Professor

Cuaron's Harry Potter film is easy to remember: it's the good one. Or certainly the most distinctive one.

He also made A Little Princess which I think has held up well. Wish he worked more frequently.

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

Cuaron's Harry Potter film is easy to remember: it's the good one. Or certainly the most distinctive one.

Fully agree it's comfortably the best of the Potter film, although he did have a few advantages: primarily that he got the best of the Potter stories (before the series properly disappeared up its extended end game), and that he was following up the two barely adequate (i.e. bad) Columbus films.

He did a really good job with the material as well, although there's obviously more substantial authorial links between, say, Gravity and Children of Men than there is between Prisoner of Azkaban and the rest (Secret Garden maybe excepted, although if I've seen that it's when I was too young to remember it!).

johnny_ultimate

On Roma... stunningly beautiful film. Cuarón is just absolutely in love with the medium - nobody packs the frame with as much life as he does. As the camera casually pans it captures the space, the people, the atmosphere with dizzying intimacy. It’s as comfortable with the raucous moments as it was with those of great stillness. Absolutely leaps off the screen... a cinematic dream to get properly lost in. It’s endlessly beautiful but particularly so in moments such as a late night forest fire which is mesmerisingly, drunkenly gorgeous.

It’s properly emotional material as well. If Cuarón is in love with the medium, this is also a love letter to its characters and evidently the most raw and personal film he’s made (well, unless Y Tu Mama... was based on an actual road trip he took!). Cleo’s story takes some dark turns, but throughout it all Roma is deeply empathetic and respectful. The last act packs some truly devastating punches. But this also a tribute to family - not always the traditional model, but an extended family that truly care for each other (albeit with a bit of heartless exploitation bubbling under the service). As the film delves into issues of class divides and mounting political violence, that intimate focus is never lost.

Definitely one of this year’s very finest films (maybe vying with Burning for my personal top spot) and absolutely Netflix’s best production by the widest of gaps. If you can see it on a big screen, do. But if you can’t, don’t worry - that a wide audience will have instant access to this magnificent film is by far the most important thing, and it’ll look stunning on a TV because it’s a stunning film Just don’t watch it on a bloody phone or tablet, yeah?

Sad Professor

This is on Netflix now in case anyone isn’t following the other thread.

The film’s official website also posted a pretty decent guide to how to set up your tv:

https://myromamovie.com/best-viewing-practices

bogmanfan

This didn't do it for me I must say. Children of Men is one of my favourite films, and I've liked everything else I've seen of Cuaron's but I thought this was just dull. Cinematography was lovely but I can't help feeling if this were in colour and in English there wouldn't be half the acclaim. Not a bad film by any means, but certainly not the masterpiece it's being hailed as.

sacamano

A lot of people are harping on about how beautiful and aesthetically pleasing on the eye it is, but not once did it feel like we were watching scenes from the 70s. Everything was far too clean and far too polished, and ultimately a distraction. Interesting to note that this is Cuarón's first film where he's taken on the DoP role.

And I love the Filmspotting guys but hearing them fawn over him when talking about that opening shot was a little bit cringe. Anyway, no desire to watch this again to be proven "wrong".

Smegging hell

I thought it was fantastic and was glad to see it in the cinema.

Sad Professor

I was deeply moved by this. I was a bit cool on it at first, annoyed by the constant dolly shots, but there's something very poetic about them once you get into the film. There's been a lot of comparisons to Fellini etc, and aesthetically i can see it, but with its humanism and stealthy melodrama it made me think more of Ozu. I found great strength in the main character's stoicism especially as she seems to be constantly in danger of being swallowed by her environment, whether it's the domestic duties of the house or the wide open spaces beyond. There can't be more than a handful of close-ups in the film.

--

I was just reading this LA Review of Books review that trashes the film for not being woke enough! The writer argues the film dismisses Cleo's agency as an indigenous woman and is more interested in depicting wealth porn, accusing Cuaron of making white saviour films.

https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/housekeepings-patron-saint/

I'm perplexed by this on so many levels but in particular his suggestion that the film is a defence of economic injustice which seems to be based on a total misreading of several scenes. If anything the film is about Cuaron working out his class guilt while paying tribute to his childhood caretaker. So what if he depicts her as a silent angel. Maybe that's how she was or maybe it suited the style of film Cuaron wanted to make. It doesn't preclude him from trying to realistically depict the gap that separates her from the family.

JohnCreedon81

I finally got round to this, and even though I lowered my expectations considerably after reading many “normal” reviews which found it disappointing, I still felt underwhelmed.

I guess due to the day that’s in it and the Oscar hype, but it did very little for me.

Sure it’s beautifully made, and clearly a passion project for the director. It does a good job of immersing you in that snapshot of Mexico 1970/71. I felt the black and white choice may have been a cheap trick to help emphasize that though.

Beyond that, it bored me silly at times. I’d imagine a good 45 minutes or even an hour could have been chopped quite easily, but even then I’d struggle to relate to it or be moved by it. Sure there are a couple of scenes that would move anyone, but those would be equally as moving if told or shot by an episode of Fair City.

Honestly haven’t a notion how this is so critically lauded. Is it some sort of anti Trump thing I’m missing? Bizarre.

The Princess Bride

I watched it yesterday.
A really good film, almost felt like I was witnessing somebody's real life, rather than watching a film.

A very special film.

Cetyl Palmitate

Went to see this in lighthouse before Christmas.

Thought it was magnificent. Well worth seeing it in the cinema vs tv given the scale of many scenes and set pieces.

I found it emotionally involving and technically fascinating.

Should win best picture and director.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I didn't see the big deal to be honest.

Also, I'm annoyed that it probably prevented Birds of Passage from getting a best foreign language picture nomination.

dublinman1990

I heard some great news about this movie from Cuarón.

A recent post from blu-ray.com suggests that this movie will eventually get a physical home video release on UHD Blu-ray/Blu-ray soon as in later this year. The three contenders for this home video release would either be Criterion, Warner Brothers or Sony. Cuarón said from a recent Q&A session with a select audience of film fans that he loves releasing his films on every & any physical media format imaginable. When he said this to the audience; it was said there was huge applause all around when he mentioned the intention of a physical release for the fans.

This type of news is hugely important for Netflix's pov as this would be their first ever original movie to be released on physical media.

JP Liz V1

It must be a good shot for the Oscars, big winner at BAFTAs

Mantis Toboggan

Cleaning up at the BAFTA's it must be somewhat decent.

xalot

I loved it, spent the first 40 mins a bit 'meh, yeah it's grand but not that good' but when it kicked in it really kicked in.

It lays the ground work in the first half and earns the events that happen later in the film.

dublinman1990

It's looking likely that Criterion will the distributor for the Blu-ray release.

Criterion recently announced the release of Blue Velvet for Blu-ray not too long ago.

dublinman1990

Criterion will release Roma in the U.S. on the 11th of February 2020.

Synopsis: With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuarón recreated the early-1970s Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, in a revelatory screen debut), the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals. Written, directed, shot, and coedited by Cuarón, Roma is a labor of love with few parallels in the history of cinema, deploying monumental black-and-white cinematography, an immersive soundtrack, and a mixture of professional and nonprofessional performances to shape its author's memories into a world of enveloping texture, and to pay tribute to the woman who nurtured him.

Special Features and Technical Specs:
4K DIGITAL MASTER, supervised by director Alfonso Cuarón, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Road to "Roma," a new documentary about the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Cuarón
Snapshots from the Set, a new documentary featuring actors Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, producers Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis, production designer Eugenio Caballero, casting director Luis Rosales, executive producer David Linde, and others
New documentaries about the film's sound and postproduction processes, featuring Cuarón; Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay, and Craig Henighan from the postproduction sound team; editor Adam Gough; postproduction supervisor Carlos Morales; and finishing artist Steven J. Scott
New documentary about the film's ambitious theatrical campaign and social impact in Mexico, featuring Celis and Rodríguez
Nothing at Stake, a new video essay by filmmaker :: kogonada
Trailers
Alternate French subtitles and Spanish SDH for the film
PLUS: Essays by novelist Valeria Luiselli and historian Enrique Krauze, along with (Blu-ray only) writing by author Aurelio Asiain and production-design images with notes by Caballero
STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 11.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=26015&page=