Alfonso Cuarón's new film: "Roma"

Saw it Saturday evening (at the Crest, for $4!! For gawdsake Seattle, take advantage of the cinema gift the Crest offers!!) ...

I'm too overwhelmed by it to make much articulate commentary on Roma, apart from the observation that Cuarón assembled a detail-perfect 1971 in all its magnificence. Reminded me a LOT of various European directors who worked in B&W in the Sixties (Fellini, Godard, Bergman etc.) ... if this film garners some awards from the Academy and Golden Globes, it'll be the best -- and most 'arthouse' -- film to do so in some time (in my opinion.) The actor who played Cleo (her first acting job?!) was luminous and affecting in the role.

Anyway, I loved it.

 

Oh yeah, this demands to be seen on a big screen.

 

Waiting to see Roma soon. But if you like black and white foreign movies see Cold War. It deserves a best picture and best director nod.

 

I was underwhelmed. The movie is beautiful to be sure, it has great camera work, and it really feels like life. These are things it excels in, and it truly is wonderful to look at.

Being a huge fan of the directors, I gotta say...this is his Barry Lyndon, except it is much much less. Comparing this movie to Schindler's List in any way shape or form is criminal.

It had meandering of scenes that didn't move the plot along, and it could have stood to have at least 20 minutes cut out of it with ease. I cannot call this a masterpiece, and honestly it feels more like a fairytale then anything.

This is just my take, and don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the movie a great deal. If this was his second or third movie in, I would say the director has great promise. After Gravity and Children of Men??? HELL NO. This was absolutely a step down.

To each his own.

p.s. I did like Cleo. She was very good, and something truly special.

 

The Oscars do include foreign language films for Best Picture at times.

Just like the Best Animated Feature didn't keep "TS 3" and "Up" from BP noms, the Best FL Film Oscar didn't prevent stuff like "Crouching Tiger" and "Life Is Beautiful" from BP noms.

I strongly suspect "Roma" will get a BP nom, along with one for BFL...

 

Never said they didn't. Go back and re-read. What you quoted was pretty clear.

 

Phantom Thread was my favorite film of last year. Thought it should have won over the big fish film. I saw it four times. Different tastes......

 

I didn't think the Phantom Thread was a masterpiece (or perhaps I did and have since changed my mind)...but it is better than this. I feel this is in no way shape or form a put down. They are both fine films in their own way.

 

So you'd prefer that they dump the BFL designation... which would mean 95% of the BFL nominees would never get any Oscar attention at all.

The BFL subcategory exists for the same reason the Best Animated Feature subcategory exists: because those movies don't have much of a shot at BP.

No BFL or BAF subcategory means no attention for those films.

If they axe BFL as you choose, those movies won't suddenly wind up as BP noms. They'll just be ignored...

 

Segragation is not the answer and no I do not believe that will be the result. I say have more nominations that equal all those categories combined.

If films don't get nominated then criticize that instead of having special categories.

Glad you at least tried to get the point for once instead of misstating and pretending it is what I said.

P.S. best animated film can be proven (to a degree). Foreign is relative.

 

its a great movie but it wasn't worth putting on 70mm

 

If Roma isn’t nominated for best picture it will raise serious questions about what a movie has to do to be nominated, and what the Oscars are looking for. It is slow, it requires an attention span, but it tells a story, is full of period detail, lovingly re-created, and is beautifully shot, directed and acted. It won’t be box office popular, but it’s a class above everything else I’ve seen this year in terms of pure film making as an art form (along with Cold War).

 

Only because it was filmed 35mm. It had amazing detail and 70 mm would have been fine. Director can film however he wants and I say why not?

Xxx

Roma is kinda settling with me. I will likely watch again despite my criticism.

 

It was filmed in 70mm. As I said, I don’t think it deserved it. I actually saw it in 70mm and thought it was only mildly technically impressive. The image certainly wasn’t as crystal clear as some of the 70mm imax scenes I’ve seen. It's possible that this was due to a mismatched bulb. The day before I saw it, one of the bulbs blew up. And the 70mm projector use two of them. Big ones... who knows I guess. But more to the point, I don't think the film was really good enough to begin with to deserve the 70mm treatment. That's more of an onus on PTA more then anything though. His decision to create it...

 

Each to his is own but you are completely wrong. It was blown up to 70 mm.

Why the ‘Phantom Thread’ 70mm Screenings Are a Unique Experiment That Could Look Significantly Different

While it was finished 4K that is not and never will be the same thing.

Just like the projector having problems...a 35mm shot film not looking as clear as 70mm is not the director's fault. I can see being let down, but from memory it actually says it in the official program.

Regardless the info is out there in plenty.

I thought the movie was jaw dropping in every regard and the lighting was incredible and all the bluray you can see the director going to great pains to make it right.

Perhaps you visual experience was marred by bad projection...no?

 

The manager for the theater assured me it was shot in 70mm. What an idiot then.

 

I saw Phantom Thread at a 70 mm screening and it looked fantastic. No not crisp like the Master but it worked beautifully with the material.... literally.

 

So common with the staff being clueless. Sorry it wasn't a great experience for you.

I see what ya did there

 

This is what I've found:

"While Cuaron is known to produce big screen experiences, and shot “Roma” on 65mm (the film used the Alexa65 digital camera).

Digital, it looks like.

 

It’s definitely digital.

 

We went off topic and were talking a about the Phantom Thread.

As for Roma doesn't suprie me. I look forward to 4K bluray to see it looking even better.

 

Alfonso Cuarón even did an excellent job with the Harry Potter franchise.

 

I never saw the one of those movies he directed. I wanted to see all his other movies first.

 

The movie is in theaters in many cities but Netflix and their ilk allow a much larger audience to see great films. Especially in the cities that just show blockbusters.

 

It’s an extraordinary movie, easily the best I’ve seen this year—but it’s also a film that could have been a lot more moving. For more on this, look up Owen Gleiberman’s (positive) review in Variety. Just make sure you’ve seen Roma first, because Owen does give away a lot of what happens in the movie.