Roma
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2018 As a Year in Double Features
Every year, when looked back upon in its final days, reveals patterns. For the past four years, I’ve capped the holiday season with a list of 10 double features from the year in film here at Filmmaker. Each capsule review is, in essence, a mini-thinkpiece on a cinematic trend from the year. This past year gave us many such boomlets: the year of the horse movie, the year of the “white voice” movie, the year of the movie set entirely on digital screens. A delightful interplay emerges when you watch, or think about, films in pairs. One movie brings out […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Dec 31, 2018 -
Skip Lievsay and Craig Henighan on Designing the Sound of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma
You should be able to watch a movie with the sound off — even before Mac Miller’s 2013 album, this was a phrase you’d hear from some producer or director extolling the necessity of purely visual storytelling. But if this dictum is true, then the inverse should be true as well: You should be able to listen to a movie with the screen turned off. Anyone wanting to try this experiment should start with the soundtrack of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, which is an astoundingly artful, immersive and intoxicating work. In addition to the crystalline dialogue tracks, Roma uses bespoke background […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 17, 2018 -
Filmmaker‘s Look at the Below-the-Line Stars of Some of the Awards Season’s Best Films
Movies aren’t just willed into existence, however much Alfred Hitchcock might have wanted them to be. We love to talk about visionary directors, but we often fail to properly acknowledge the artists, craftspeople and technicians who make their works possible. Luckily, many of these individuals — the below-the-line talent, as they’re sometimes called — receive some recognition during awards season, particularly from the guilds and, ultimately, the Oscars. And those who look at the late-year awards rush only through the lens of who’s going to win the big prizes — picture, director, performance, etc. — risk missing out on some […]
by Bilge Ebiri on Dec 17, 2018 -
You Can Go Home Again: Alfonso Cuarón On Sound, Vision and Memory In Roma
Alfonso Cuarón reached the point in his career when he could do whatever he wanted. His last film, Gravity, was one of those that checked off all the boxes: It was a hit. It was critically adored. It won Oscars, including one for him. It was progressive, with a strong female lead (Sandra Bullock). It pushed the limits of filmmaking, commercial and otherwise. It used special effects in creative and innovative ways. It told a small, borderline minimalist story, focusing on at most two characters, but usually just one. And all this after such acclaimed pictures as Children of Men, […]
by Matt Prigge on Dec 17, 2018 -
New York Film Critics Circle Announce 2018 Award Winners
The New York Film Critics Circle announced their 2018 award winners this afternoon, with three of the top prizes going to Alfonso Cuarón for his autobiographical epic Roma. First Reformed scooped up Best Actor and Best Screenplay, repeating its Gotham haul, and Regina Hall became the first Black performer to win Best Actress for her excellent turn in Support the Girls. The full list of winners is below. Best Picture: Roma Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed Best Actress: Regina Hall, Support the Girls Best Screenplay: Paul Schrader, First Reformed Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 29, 2018 -
Five Questions with Our School Director/Producer Mona Nicoara
The Roma, more commonly known by the derogatory term “Gypsies,” are Europe’s largest and most oppressed ethic minority. Despite being enslaved in some regions into the 19th century, Western literature, art and culture has long masked the ugly truths with the romanticized notion of the Roma as a free-spirited, nomadic people. Unfortunately these people are subjected to much crueler stereotypes in their day-to-day lives: that they are lazy, dirty, diseased and violent, uninterested in education or holding a job. Far from the truth, the Roma hope for betterment and claw desperately to break free from the cycle of poverty and […]
by Billy Brennan on Jan 18, 2013
