6:00pm, Friday October 5th, 2018. Over 1,000 individuals pour into Alice Tully for the New York Film Festival Screening of Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, his first film following his Oscar winning epic, Gravity, five years prior, and his return to Mexico following his 2001 film, Y Tu Mamá También. Objectively, the film holds the fascinating distinction of being the only film in 2018 to premiere at the Venice (where it won the prestigious Golden Lion award), Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals, respectively. Had the Cannes Film Festival not banned films owned by Netflix, the distributor for Roma, most speculate that the film would have easily won that festival’s ultimate prize, the Palme d’Or. As a result of these factors and the outstanding reviews from the press, industry members, and general public, people whisper their excitement and concerns as Alice Tully Hall fills up with patrons. Going to our separate seats, a friend of mine and I agree that the stakes feel nervously high considering the meteoric rise and biting falls of recent festival darlings, such as La La Land and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.
Despite this general nervousness, the subsequent experience we viewed that evening remains entirely unique. As one of the only filmmakers to alternate semi-regularly between studio and independent features, Curaron blends his personal style with incredibly high production values. The sound travels effortless across the hall through the Dolby Atmos mix. The sets appear reflective of the film’s setting in 1970s Mexico City, yet never intrude upon the characters’ interactions. Without spoiling any key plot points, the actors, a mix of unknowns and non-professionals, perform their characters with both an authenticity and nonchalance that reflect their determination to survive life and the baseline attitude most of us possess to maintain our sanity throughout chaotic moments in our lives, sentiments further reflected in the distant and deceptively-gorgeous black-and-white cinematography.
As alluded to earlier, I believe that Roma constitutes the only film I have experienced rather than simply viewed this year. Like a mesmerizing, yet simple painting, the film remains a joy to ponder over well after the lights rise up on an audience wiping away a few tears. While Roma will start stream on Netflix starting on December 14th, I highly recommend that you view this masterpiece at least once in a well-equipped cinema with a sizable audience. After all, one can only experience The Persistence of Memory at the Museum of Modern Art, not on Bing Images. Why wouldn’t you treat this film similarly?
Stephen Cone is a junior in Columbia College.