January 30, 2019
Page 5
Filmed in gorgeous black and white and prioritizing the perspectives of those who are relegated to the margins, Yalitza Aparicio stars as the live-in housekeeper Cleo in
Alfonso Cuarón’s feature film ‘Roma.’ Portland Observer and Opinionated Judge movie critic Darleen Ortega has rated the film her most favorite of 2018.
A Moving Portrait of Life on the Margins
‘Roma’ is my
favorite film
of 2018
D arleen o rtega
It would be hard to overesti-
mate how much our perspective
on absolutely everything -- from
what happened in history to what
is fair, worthy, or beautiful -- is
affected by privilege. All our in-
stitutions and all our media are
dominated by privileged voices,
which profoundly skews how we
see reality. I would go so far as to
say that, unless we prioritize the
perspective of those who are rel-
egated to the margins, our under-
standing of reality is bound to be
hopelessly flawed and incomplete.
In his gorgeous film, “Roma,”
my favorite film of 2018, Mexican
director Alfonso Cuarón revis-
its a particular period in his own
childhood, but does not center his
own perspective. Instead, while
he has painstakingly recreated the
circumstances, culture, events and
surroundings of his upper mid-
dle-class upbringing in the Roma
district of Mexico City, he centers
his film on the perspective of the
indigenous woman who raised
him (here called Cleo), who also
served as one of three domestic
servants in his household. It turns
out that this marginalized person
-- like many if not most other mar-
ginalized people -- actually is cen-
tral to the family’s functioning. In
a real sense, by centering Cleo’s
by
perspective, Cuarón is capturing
much is what is most essential
about his family’s life during this
period of his childhood.
The film opens with an extend-
ed scene of Cleo washing dog shit
off the floor of the family garage;
throughout the film we never see
anyone walk this dog, and Cleo,
who also tends lovingly to the
four children, cleans the house,
and prepares and serves meals, is
often reprimanded for not tending
to the dog’s manure, as though
that could easily be accomplished
without neglecting her other du-
ties. Her role with the children in-
volves many moments of tender-
ness and intimacy, and the adults
generally treat her kindly; during
the period of this film, she is a
gentle witness as the family pass-
es through a painful period of loss.
Yet no one recognizes how little
they know Cleo, and they all miss
signs of her joys and traumas.
Viewed from this lens, we begin
to tap into the sights and sounds
that bind Cleo’s life with theirs --
and connections that make sense
of the culture beyond this family.
A marching band wanders through
the streets; the father maneuvers
with precision the new and huge
family sedan into their impracti-
cally small city garage between
puffs on a cigarette; Cleo hears the
mother worrying aloud to a friend
about financial pressures and ly-
ing to the children to protect them
from painful news. Cleo travels
across town to locate the former
boyfriend who swiftly abandoned
her upon learning that she was
pregnant, to a neighborhood with-
out sidewalks, where dogs roam
freely, where a browner popula-
tion is vulnerable to powerful in-
terests who can persuade young
men to administer the violence
that keeps inequality in place.
Yet this is no “Upstairs Down-
stairs” or “Downton Abbey.”
Filmed in gorgeous black and
white, each shot feels profound
and packed with significance;
Cuarón’s camera doesn’t miss
much, yet balances social aware-
ness with compassion. And the
sound design captures so perfectly
the sort of quiet that one can find in
an urban neighborhood, the chaos
of a hospital emergency room; the
complex mix of music and voices
one hears in urban spaces; the roar
c ontinueD on P age 14