Liboria Rodríguez and Yalitza Aparicio, Peter Hapak for Netflix
ROMA
Amor Omnia Vincit
by Paola Herrera
Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma is a personal journey to his childhood memories. It is a painful and visually poetic film which makes a tribute to Liboria “Libo” Rodríguez, his childhood nanny and to all the real-life characters that although might seem invisible on the surface play a radical long-lasting role in our personal lives.
In Cuarón’s own words at the New York Film Festival premiere “[Jorge Luis] Borges talks about how memory is an opaque, shattered mirror, but I see it more as a crack in the wall. The crack is whatever pain happened in the past. We tend to put several coats of paint over it, trying to cover that crack. But it’s still there.”
Liboria Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón, Peter Hapak for Netflix
What is fascinating about Roma is that although it is shot as an objective piece, as spectators we inadvertently enter the crack in the wall and connect with Cleo’s personal journey. We realize that although she is treated with love at the household where she works, most of the time she is overlooked and even taken for granted. Actress Yalitza Aparicio did an extraordinary job in her portrayal of Cleo, it brought Libo to life on the screen.
It is very interesting that Cuarón chose the title Roma for his film, it turns out that this is the name of the neighborhood in México City where he lived during his childhood. It might also be a tribute to the Italian neorealism movement which had a real-life documentary approach to filmmaking. In any case, words are short to describe the gut-wrenching experience of watching Roma: Cleo’s personal struggle and the loving presence that she represents in a household where she was a titanic quiet force that embraced their pain as her own.
Herein an interesting article for Variety magazine by Kristopher Tapley regarding Roma.