ROMA - THE FILM CUARON WROTE FOR ME

Roma is the story of a middle class family in Mexico City during the early seventies. A story told through the eyes of Cleo, an indigenous woman who is the maid of the family.

This film is also Cuaron’s most personal one. He dedicates the movie to the maid he grew up with in the suburb of Roma.

I have to admit that when I watched this film for the first time I thought Cuaron took a gamble. I never thought that the idea of an indigenous maid would be easily understood by Europeans, Australians or even most of the non-Spanish speaking portion of the American population. In these present times, when people keep looking for new reasons to be offended, the idea of a young woman living only to work and care about other people for meagre wages could be construed as slavery. I have been more than amazed about how many people (non-Hispanic) have appreciated the movie not only for its visual beauty, but for the intense emotional content.

The movie is shot in black and white to provide a more realistic view of life in the 70’s where Latin American homes didn’t have access to colour TV yet.

The camera follows Cleo (brilliantly played by Yelitza Aparicio) as she walks up and down the stairs of the ample home carrying out a number of chores. She does the laundry, mops the floors, makes the beds, cooks breakfast and even helps the younger kids to dress for school. In one of the most beautiful and memorable takes of the movie, the camera follows her at night when she closes doors, turns off lights and makes sure the kids are in bed. All in a single take. Then, when the house is silent, dark and everyone is in bed, Cleo and her friend (another maid) spend the only few moments they have for themselves after a long day doing some exercises before going to bed.

The family seemingly treats Cleo as a maid, a person from another social circle who is there only to serve. The only one who doesn’t see her in that way is the youngest boy, still too innocent to understand how his society divides people. Throughout the film we see how sometimes she is treated harshly and even unfairly but at the same time you get a sense of the love between Cleo and the whole family.

A crucial moment in the film is when the family goes to the beach and take Cleo with them. At this point in time the father had already left his wife for another woman so it’s only the wife, her mother, Cleo and the kids. As one of the girls is caught by a strong current Cleo runs into the water and barely saves her from drowning. When the girl is carried out of the water the whole family embraces and recognise Cleo as the saviour. It’s a very symbolic moment when she is finally given the place she deserves as part of the family. It looks like Cuaron needed to openly give his former maid the recognition he never gave her while living at home.

What really got me about this movie was the parallelism with my own experience. Cuaron is just a couple of years older than me so while he was growing up in Mexico I was doing the same in Caracas. And in my house we had Bertha, an indigenous woman who left her family behind in a small coastal town to come and live with us. She became my second mother and has been with our family for 48 years or so. She still lives with my mum although she has her own quarters including two bedrooms and a living room where she receives her daughter or sisters from time to time. Her relationship with my mum in her old age is that of a younger sister who looks after her. Like any pair of sisters they argue but love each other deeply. I personally haven’t seen her in 9 years (the time I haven’t set foot in Venezuela) but speak with her frequently.

To me Bertha signifies stability. Whenever I went to my mum’s house for a visit and sat in the kitchen, watching Bertha walk around her workplace, preparing a meal or cleaning dishes, I felt I was home, and that everything was OK. No matter how troubled I was at work or in my personal life, Bertha was always there to make me feel calm with a delicious meal or a flaming hot cup of coffee.

I’ve always felt like I never gave her back even half of the love she gave me. I feel I owe her. Maybe that’s also what Cuaron felt hence his tribute movie. To a lesser degree, my humble tribute to Bertha was including her in my novel “Memoirs of a Good Boy” as the only completely real character, even using her name. God bless my beautiful Bertha.

Another significant aspect of Cleo’s life is the lack of a personal life and her troubled relationships. Her boyfriend gets her pregnant but doesn’t want to know anything about the baby. In a beautifully shot but tense scene she delivers a stillborn baby. Cleo grieves her loss in silence, not expecting compassion from anyone. She wrongly believes her life and tragedies are less important due to her social status. Brilliantly enough, Cuaron decides that the whole family will look after Cleo and finally give her the love and status that she deserves.

There are many other aspects of the movie worth some consideration. Water is a constant element. The movie starts with Cleo hosing down the car park where the family dog spends most of his time. Then there’s the scene where the residents of a farm house the family was visiting were putting out a fire by passing buckets of water from person to person. And finally the beach scene. Water washes imperfections? Cleo emerges from the waters as a saviour? Only Cuaron could answer those questions, I’m only speculating.

Then there are the references to the Italian filmmakers of the 60’s (most notably Fellini). The ninja wannabe boyfriend and the weird training sessions of his made up army in the middle of nowhere. The man in a (bear?) disguise singing a song in German while the fire is being put out.  Surrealistic images which give more texture to the movie.

And there’s the small detail of Yelitza Aparicio’s performance as Cleo. She was so good in her role that it’s hard to picture her as anything but Cloe. I don’t want to see her in another role. I want her to remain Cloe for me forever.

Given the social and historic similarities between my childhood and Cuaron’s as well as the almost identical profiles of Cleo and Bertha this movie touched me emotionally more than any other I’ve ever seen. I feel like Cuaron wrote this for me.

Thanks Alfonso, on behalf of the Jahn family including Bertha.

This is at least my opinion. And I might be wrong.