Roma

This movie has been called "the event of the year" in film industry and I am not sure if it is up to this statement. Of course Aristarain knows what he is doing, the cast is really good (even Botto, whom I hated in "Martin (hache)"), photography, edition. It is a very beautiful product indeed. But the plot seemed a bit weak and the pace is quite slow. I didn't get it: if the intention was to pay homage to that great woman that Roma is, it wasn't fair enough, it was too focused on Joaquin; if it was to tell the story of Joaquin, the I couldn't see the point, because I don't think it was a deep story, with any turning point; then, if Aristarain was trying to show the history of Argentina, he was quite vague and used too many time jumps. Finally, if he was trying to do all three things, he of course was being too ambitious! I'm sure a lot of people was waiting for Aristarain's next movie. Will they be pleased? I really don't know. Maybe he reached his peak with "Un lugar en el mundo". What I'm quite sure about is that, if this film was the event of the year, I will be very disappointed in Argentinian film till 2005.

This movie is Aristarain's best in my humble opinion, what a beatiful picture.

Few times in my life I have seen such an intense drama. Intense in the dialogues, superb in acting. The life as it is, not an idealized bit of it, as in conventional films. Characters are deep, well developed, they don't act the standards, but seem to be much more "human" than in conventional stories. Almost every scene is a virtuoso acting near-monologue. But you have rests, including the whole Chopin nocturne's filmed in a way that, only with the actor's expressions, something is still happening into the characters, and the story doesn't suffer for such a long quiet time. Yoy can save a lot of dialogs as a treasure. OK, it is not as much as an archetype of filming language. OK, it is nearly theater. But only nearly. I cannot imagine me enjoying all of the subtleties in actor's faces from so far, in a theater. A tasty drama, full of good philosophy about life, love and feelings, expressed trough complex characters and scenes. Too bad for those who find it "slow" or "overlong"... in my opinion, they just didn't catch it. To me is seemed pretty dense, full of things... I couldn't stick out until the end. I didn't like it. Just the last minute. But it is my opinion. All the rest is more than enough to make the movie a masterpiece. In my opinion.

This is a beautiful film. A first-rate script, first-rate direction, first-rate photography, top-notch acting by simply everyone. This films makes you "taste" good emotional music (classical, tango and jazz), and makes you "taste" great literature since the Director throws all this into a pot and cooks a delicious real-life recipe. The base of the film is the true and deep love of a mother for his only son, who she believes has a relevant stage in history destined for him. I cannot but strongly recommend that you see this film which will keep you watching and keep you delighted throughout the 2 1/2 hours which pass so fast (than the real time) you could swear you have just discovered Einstein's relativity theory to be utterly true!

I happened to watch this film on "the small screen" in Spanish, which was somewhat of a challenge. My linguistic limitations notwithstanding, I felt intrigued enough to put in the effort to follow the dialogue, pacing, and emotional pull. I have not seen other works by this director, but felt rewarded for my time. It was refreshing to see a film discuss philosophy and intellectual points in the context of a Latin American family. The plot revolves around a mother and son through time, utilizing media references such as scenes from the film Grapes of Wrath to embellish this central theme. I enjoyed revisiting the 60s and 70s in Roma, the classical lines and designs, Jazz and literature references. A thinking person's film, regardless of one's language capacity.