The opening shot of Roma, director Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film, is decidedly unremarkable by Cuarón standards. You see a black-and-white tile with water pouring slowly onto it, and hear the faint echoes of a dog barking in the distance. Gradually, the camera zooms out to reveal a young woman, Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a domestic worker for a well-to-do family in Mexico City, in the early 1970s. Distantly, you hear shouting, and the faint murmur of a marching band.
It's a significant departure from many of Cuarón’s other films, which include blockbuster science fiction hits Children of Men and Gravity. Roma, which has already garnered a huge amount of critical acclaim, is unusual in other ways too. After a limited theatrical release, it is now released almost exclusively on Netflix – almost unheard-of for a film touted for an Academy Awards best picture nomination.
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Roma is based on Cuarón’s own life, a passion project which he had wanted to create for 15 years and a paean to the woman who raised him. With the exception of Marina de Tavara, who plays Sofia, the mother of the family, none of the actors or actresses are professionals. The film was shot chronologically, and actors in every scene rarely had scripts to work from. The furniture, including the portraits and sofas in the family home, are actually from Cuarón’s childhood home, and the locations in the film are the exact places Cuarón spent his younger years (with the exception of his house, which a new family had moved into).
That said, Cuarón’s own life barely figures in the film at all. Set amidst the the tumultuous social and cultural transformation of Mexico in the early 1970s, Roma follows unlikely protagonist Cleo as the family she works for undergoes its own upheaval, suffering tragedy and heartache. Some of the film’s most intense moments – such as when the bloody student demonstrations of 1971, which led to what's known as the Corpus Christi Massacre, collide with Cleo’s journey to a furniture store nearby – are all the more arresting because the film itself seems so true to real life.
Despite the naturalistic style, however, Roma also feels expansive, in a way reminiscent of Gravity. Shot lovingly by Cuarón himself in black and white in 65mm, a great deal of Roma’s visual impact comes from the contrast between the focus on Cleo and the stunning backdrop of the Mexican countryside and city. Jaw-dropping, immense landscapes punctuate the film, from one surreal scene where a group of young men undertake intense training in martial arts, framed by an arid desert, to another on the beach, where foamy waves rise so high, and in such detail, that you could almost close your eyes and feel the spray on your face.
Considering the subject matter of Roma, it is all the more remarkable that it’s on Netflix – black and white, entirely in Spanish (Chilango, which is a kind of slang specific to Mexico City) and centred on a young, indigenous woman’s life. But Roma could well be the platform's first Oscar-winning film. Cuarón himself has welcomed Netflix's distribution as a way to attract audiences who might not otherwise seek out the film.
The unconventional release of the film has made it a flash point for larger discussions around the future of the film industry. Despite Roma’s rave reviews, it wasn’t screened at the Cannes Film Festival, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious in the world – because it was going to be primarily distributed on Netflix, and the festival requires films to have a French theatrical release, which Roma did not. As a result, Netflix not only pulled Roma from the festival, but four other films too.
“Releasing Roma on Netflix is a brave and experimental step – normally, Netflix-based content is exceptionally narrative-centric, and so Netflix films and television series usually include lots of characters and complex narrative structures with multiple plot-lines, fast-paced dialogue,” says Sarah Atkinson, head of the Culture, Media and Creative Studies department at King’s College London. In an interview, Cuarón himself acknowledged that it may not be typical Netflix fare, and asked viewers to give the film a chance despite the slow pace.
Yet Netflix has been making inroads into the “serious film” category for many years now, and Roma is not the only film with which it has acquired serious award potential. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, by the Coen Brothers, is available for streaming on Netflix, as is Cary Fukunuga’s award-winning 2017 film Beasts of No Nation. Roma wouldn’t even be the first film on Netflix to potentially receive Oscar nominations – Dee Rees’ Mudbound garnered four nominations last year – but, given the buzz around Cuarón's offering already, it could be the first to win. And that would mark a big victory for Netflix.
“The industry will certainly be watching the success of this film closely - how many people it reaches, how this will impact on box offices, and if it is profitable,” adds Atkinson. “If the economic signs are positive, then others will surely follow, and we could start to see a new trend of exclusive releases, or ones which would blend online with cinema distribution strategies.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
