I have never seen a film that speaks of "women as self-reliant" as gently as "Roma".
All black and white, every frame is beautiful and picturesque. If you're only obsessed with popcorn movies, please don't choose it; if you're a fan of literature, this movie will love it.
The film was written by Alfonso Cuarón, one of the "Three Masters of Mexican Cinema", and Rome is a self-directed and self-written work about a catastrophe experienced by his mother and maid who accompanied him throughout his life.
It is a very personal work, but it interprets the fate of the characters in the special social context of the whole of Mexico.
The work received rave reviews when it debuted at the film festival, and it was regarded by industry insiders as the biggest dark horse in this year's Oscar-winning films, and the Douban score was as high as 8.1 points.
Before watching the film, the audience is advised to have an idea of the background of the film and Alfonso Cuarón.
Because this work is a very special film for Alfonso Cuarón, it is a love poem left to Mexico when he returned to his homeland after 18 years, and it is also a remembrance of his childhood.
According to the director himself, more than 90% of the work comes from his childhood memories. The story he recorded happened to take place during the most turbulent years in Mexico.
Alfonso Caron had an unpleasant childhood, although he was born into a middle-class family with material conditions and lived a much happier life than other civilian children.
However, the discord of the family and the instability of society cast a shadow over his childhood. Especially in his family, the long lack of paternal love has led to his works often having a one-sided tendency towards women. In particular, the greatness of maternal love shines even more in his self-written and self-directed works.
In the film "Roma", Alfonso Cuarón portrays two women whose maternal brilliance is more dazzling. They are tough, kind, intelligent, and sincere, in stark contrast to the men in his shots.
Cleo, the film's number one heroine, a maid in a middle-class family, is kind and gentle. Even when scolded loudly by her parents, she never complained, just silently took care of their family.
Sophia, the hostess of the family, mother of 4 children. The first time she appeared on the screen, she was a sharp and decisive woman, taking care of her family in an orderly manner and full of love for life.
There is an old Chinese saying called "creating and making people", but this seemingly happy and peaceful family suddenly changes, giving these people who have happy smiles on their faces a heavy blow.
Sophia's husband took advantage of a business trip to elope with his lover. To this end, Sophia had to shoulder the burden of taking care of the family alone.
She was strong for the sake of her children, not only hiding from them the fact that she had been abandoned by her father, but also trying to make them have a pleasant holiday time at Christmas.
Of course, she also has times when she can't hold back.
A family that depends on her husband's salary suddenly has no source of income, which undoubtedly pushes Sophia to the edge. The husband avoided and refused to raise the children, which led to her behavioral hysteria.
Her son hid in the doorway of her room listening to her growl and was caught squarely by her. Instinctively, she slapped her son hard. When he came back to God, he found that he had vented to the wrong person, and immediately sat on the ground with his son in his arms and cried out in pain.
Just one movement, you can see the restraint of a mother, the arrogance of a miserable woman.
Faced with the fragile Sophia, the maid Cleo chooses to care for the family in the simplest way possible. However, Cleo was not much better than Sophia at that time, and even the events she experienced were more difficult than Sophia's.
Cleo hangs out with his friends over the holidays and meets Fairman, a man who plays martial arts, and the two do unspeakable things in a humble hotel.
It didn't take long for Cleo to find out that he was pregnant without marriage, so he told his lover who was kissing him passionately. Unexpectedly, the man who had just been enthusiastic instantly calmed down and left Cleo in the movie theater and fled.
Cleo told Sophia, who was worried about not being able to find a husband.
The hostess showed deep sympathy for Cleo in shock, did not drive Cleo out of the house, and took her to the hospital for a maternity examination to ensure the safety of the mother and child.
In this way, the two women were in pain and related to each other through one peaceful day after another.
Seeing Sophia holding Cleo's hand and caring for her body, she seemed to feel a warm current rushing from the screen.
Seeing his stomach grow bigger day by day, Cleo went through several tossing and turning and once again found Fairman who was practicing at the training ground.
A wonderful thing happened in the middle of this.
A martial arts instructor known as a master is teaching his "apprentices" to move upright pull-ups on one foot. None of the people present could maintain their standing posture.
Only Cleo, standing there steadily, was really nice to be with the master at both ends of a straight line.
Director Cuarón gave each side a wonderful backlit shot.
For a moment, you will feel that Cleo is like the Virgin Mary, radiating a holy, soft glow all over her body.
After the exercise, everyone left.
Cleo stopped Fairman, who pretended not to see her, and told him again of the news that she was pregnant. But the man, like a monkey with a tail lit by fire, danced his teeth and claws in front of Cleo, threatening her not to appear in front of him again.
Disappointed, Cleo could only go back in silence.
In the blink of an eye, Cleo's due date was approaching. Grandma takes her to the furniture store to buy a crib, encounters a student riot, and meets Fairman.
Fairman panicked as he pointed his gun at Cleo, and his companions reminded him several times to leave without hearing him.
Cleo was overly frightened by his behavior, which caused the amniotic fluid to rupture and was rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, a dead baby was born in the end.
Sophia takes her children on a beach holiday and invites Cleo, who is immersed in the loss of her son, to join her. Cleo follows him to the quiet seashore and is infected by Sophia's strong and optimistic attitude.
While playing, Sophia's two children did not heed the warning to swim in the deep sea, and almost lost their lives when the sea waves hit. Fortunately, Cleo risked his own safety and rushed into the waves to save the children.
Returning from her horror, Cleo realized that apart from the dead child, the most important thing for her now was the family that took her in and loved her.
Since then, the family has developed a closer connection with Cleo.
At the beginning of the film, it is already hinted at the importance of Cleo in this family.
At that time, while Cleo was drying clothes on the balcony, his little son, who was playing, was lying on the stone platform pretending to be dead, and Cleo was lying on the other end saying that he was also dead.
The picture is simple, there is not much language, but it is full of power and emotion.
The story of the scumbag and the "goddess" ends completely on the beach.
But the story of the two women had only just begun, and the children who had returned home looked at the room that seemed to have been looted, and despite the sighs, there was no sadness.
It's all over again here.
The two men in the film, Fairman, eventually choose to escape, the most "feminine" way of avoiding; Sophia's husband simply pretends that he can't see anything, and uses hiding to trick himself into being single.
It seems that the director is telling the audience that the more brutal and strong, the more weak and incompetent. Alfonso's critique and satire of the scumbag is crisp and neat, and every shot is full of power.
As for the baby girl who died before she was even born, perhaps it was Heaven's pity for Cleo, and she did not want her to be tormented by this painful "relic" for a lifetime.
The film went through several twists and turns, eventually passing through Cannes, but it caused a frenzy of audiences at the Venice Film Festival.
At the Venice Film Festival, many media gave the film the highest praise.
Many viewers can't help but sigh when they watch it, Alfonso has created a real "goddess", and the scumbags who created the goddess are a hateful faces.
In the film, Fairman and Cleo meet in the furniture store on June 10, 1971.
Mexico City was the day of the world-shattering Corpus Christi massacre, in which more than 100 students were brutally killed by the Mexican military during the march.
Whether Cleo and Grandma really experienced this tragedy is unknown - but that day, that scene, Cleo was arranged by the director to be the witness, as if in the context of metaphorical turmoil, the fragility of the lives of the little people and the helplessness of fate can be easily reversed.
(Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Board: Dan Dan)