The film Roma is an old story that has a historical content to it , it shows an extraordinary way of how people lived their lives in the early centuries. It’s a black and white cinematography movie. The world of Roma is the world of the writer director’s childhood, which refers to the middle-class Mexico City neighbourhood where he grew up, a housekeeper lived with them called Cléo, the main character of the movie.
The film begins with a close up shot of a marble floor of somebody washing the floor with soap and water, it had an extraordinarily detailed sound which complimented the washing of the floor, no music, no conversation just the sound of the water swishing across the floor.
The main character Cléo the housekeeper spends her days tending to the family looking after the kids, the house, preparing food and constantly washing the floors, dishes and clothes. The film is her story, as a housekeeper, as a woman, and as someone who is truly alone in this world. Her story is one of compassion, loyalty, love, sacrifice, tragedy, heartbreak and loss. It explores the harsh and extreme conditions of war and respectively of how Roma tackles everyday life in Mexico City. But also shows the loving part of a family living together. The dominant sounds of the film Roma are not bomb explosions and gunshots, but of planes flying overhead, dogs barking and street chatter. Every scene displayed, maintained a background noise like the birds chirping, planes/jets engines flying overhead.
The film explores various themes, the first is
LONELINESS;
The theme of loneliness is prominent here, particularly as it applies to women which applies the main characters, the present and future mothers who were abandoned by their significant others. The experience of the main character, Cléo is sad and jarring. Cléo, a young woman who got pregnant after her sexual experience with her boyfriend, finding out later the man who got her pregnant wasn’t willing to stay and take care of the child and help her as a pregnant woman. And this affected her in the way she interacted with the other children, she isolated herself from the children a bit but still showed them so much love and care.
MOTHERHOOD; The theme of motherhood is shown in this film, Sofía the mother of the family. Cléo and Sofía builds a relationship in the film, they become something like friends but not it all, but there was a relationship, it can be seen when Cléo came to Sofía to tell her she was pregnant, Sofía took it in a loving way, and asked who got her pregnant, when Cléo told her about the man and how he left her all by herself , Sofía could relate to it because her husband left her and the kids as well. Sofía took her to the hospital for her to know how the unborn baby is faring , Sofía showed great concern about Cléo and the unborn baby. Motherhood is greatly shown how in this.
LOVE;
Love is prominent here, it is greatly shown how Cléo catered for the children and for the family in general. How she prepared the children for school, waking them early in the morning with a positive atmosphere by singing them songs and tickling them. you can see the loved them and the children loved her too. Cléo made sure everything was in order in the house, and it shows she really liked the atmosphere of the children around her, no matter how sad she was, she made sure it was bestowed on the children .
Love is also shown through how she felt about her boyfriend, but the love wasn’t shown back. He basically used her and dumped her, but Cléo ran back to him to see if he could give and show her the same love in return and at first when they started talking, but sadly that wasn’t the case .
TRAGEDY/LOSS;
This is shown in Cléo’s part of her being pregnant and the loss of her unborn baby. Cléo was such a kind heated fellow and cared for everyone more than herself , the losing of her baby was the worst part because she didn’t deserve it. It was a very sad experience for her, even when her boyfriend didn’t care or want the baby but she did. These are themes explored in the film Roma.
Roma captures a truly memorising insight into daily life. Which gives the audience a sense of the serenity and chaos of life in Mexico City .
Some quotes from the film Roma are;
Sofia; We are alone, No matter what they tell you, we women are always alone.
This first quote explains her talking to Cléo relating to her husband living the house and wanting a divorce and also Cléo’s boyfriend abandoning her .
Dra Velez; Mountains are old, but they’re still green .
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