Roma and the Art Cinema: Film Practice in Roma - FILM 101B 2019

This essay examines Alfonso Cuaron's film 'Roma' through the lens of David Bordwell's theory of art cinema as a mode of film practice. It argues that 'Roma' qualifies as an art film by fulfilling Bordwell's criteria of realism, authorship, and ambiguity. The essay highlights how 'Roma's autobiographical nature and Cuaron's multiple roles in its creation contribute to its status as an art film, further noting the film's success and critical acclaim despite being aimed at a limited audience. The analysis draws upon Bordwell's article to support its claims, demonstrating how 'Roma' incorporates elements of real-life experiences, directorial ownership, and artistic originality, making it a significant example of art cinema.

Running head: ROMA AND THE ART CINEMA AS A METHOD OF FILM PRACTICE
ROMA and the Art Cinema as a Method of Film Practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ROMA AND THE ART CINEMA AS A MEDIUM OF FILM PRACTICE
Roma is a drama film which was released in the year 2018 by the director Alfonso
Cuaron. Cuaron also had shot and co-edited the film with his other cast and crews. The film
is set in the time period of 1970-1971 and is a kind of autobiographical film which tells the
story of Cuaron’s own upbringing in the Clonia Roma neighbourhood of Mexico City. The
film received worldwide acclaim for the performance of the lead actors Yalitza Aparito and
Marina De Tavira. The film was released for viewing in select number of theatres in the
United States and was later released for viewing in Netflix.
The theme of this essay is to discuss how the film Roma is considered to be an
art film according to David Bordwell theory of Art Cinema as a mode of film practice.
In the film, Roma, the story centres around the protagonist Cuaron and he grows up in
the Clonia Roma city of the Mexico City. Generally, an art film is defined as a type of film
which consists of serious, artistic work and is targeted to a select number of audiences in the
theatre rather than gaining the attention of a large number audience for profit, as is done by
the commercial films. David Bordwell has written an article in which he has talked about the
various ways by which the art films can be used as a mode of film practice by the film-
makers themselves. The author has described three main points to be considered which
should be considered when reviewing any art film is to consider from three different aspects
– Realism, Authorship and Ambiguity. The author has talked about all these elements in the
article that he wrote on the art cinema that can be used as a mode of film practice. Whether
the film Roma can be considered as an art film and whether it fulfils the requirements stated
by David Bordwell is discussed in the following paragraphs.
The first requirement that Bordwell has talked about in his article is realism. Realism is
meant by something that depicts something which is real unlike in fiction movies that depicts
works of fiction. In this case. Roma fulfils the criteria of realism as it is an autobiographical

2ROMA AND THE ART CINEMA AS A MEDIUM OF FILM PRACTICE
movie that is based on the upbringing of the director himself in the place called Clonia Roma
in Mexico City. As Bordwell states in his article, the story in an art film is often considered to
be secondary than of those in the commercial movies where the story plays a primary and
important role. Roma fits the requirement of being an art film based on the ground of realism.
This is because since the film is about the growing up of the filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron.
Therefore the film will be about realism as it will show real places and people that the
filmmaker during his time growing up. Therefore in keeping up with David Bordwell criteria,
the film Roma is an art film because it represents realism in keeping up with the requirements
suggested by David Bordwell. Since the film is about realism itself. Thus Roma is considered
to be an art film itself.
As stated by Bordwill (57), the second requirement stated by Bordwell in his article foe a
film to be considered as an art film is authorship. This second point of the criteria can be
related to the Auteur Theory used by the film-makers of the past. While the Auteur Theory
refers to the film-maker as the sole author or the story teller of the movie. Authorship is also
considered to be quite the same in nature in which the director claims the ownership of the
film himself/herself. In this case, Alfonso Cuaron is not only the director of the film Roma,
but also the co-editor and shot the film. Therefore, it can be said without doubt that the
director is considered to be the author of the film. In this case, the film Roma even matches
with the concept of authorship because it is not only directed by the director but also tells the
story of growing up of the author in a particular part of Mexico City. Thus, Roma matches
the second category of the requirement to make sure that the film falls under the category of
an art film.
Third requirement that is needed to match with the criteria to determine the nature of
the article is ambiguity. Ambiguity refers to presenting the information in such away that
others cannot the claims as made by them (Bordwill, 57) . In this case. Cuaron will be

3ROMA AND THE ART CINEMA AS A MEDIUM OF FILM PRACTICE
responsible for the film’s ambiguity as it was made by the director. Thus, it can be see that
the movie Roma is following the criteria mentioned by David Bordwell in his article. Since
Roma seems to fulfil these criteria by itself it can be considered to be an art film. This is
because it has realism which includes the real people and the places that is shown in the
movie itself, authorship because it abides by the rule similar to the auteur theory which states
that the director is considered to be the author of the film itself. Thus, by following that rule,
Roma can be said to have authorship as the film is not only directed, shot and co-edited by
Cuaron but is also based on his life. Thirdly, just like any other art film, Roma also has
ambiguity in it to make sure that the content of the film is original and has not been copied
from some other place. All these factors helps to establish the point that the film Roma is an
autobiographical art film directed by Alfonso Cuaron which talks about the director’s
upbringing in a particular place of Mexico City. The real life places and the real life people
showed in the film also helps to establish the fact of the film being an autobiographical art
film (Bordwill, 58).
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that a film needs to have certain
qualities in it for it to be considered as an art film. These include David Bordwell’s criterias
of realism, authorship and ambiguity. If the film can successfully incorporate all of these
elements together, then they will be considered as an art film. And it is seen that it is the
presence of these criterias that make Roma not only a good but also a successful art film
world-wide. Although aimed for a limited audience as opposed to a commercial film, the film
has gained favourable acclaim from film critiques all over the world. It is for this reason the
film won the awards for Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Film Awards and Best
Direction as well as Best Cinematography at the 72ND British Academy Film Awards.
Indeed., it is one of the well-known art films to be made .

4ROMA AND THE ART CINEMA AS A MEDIUM OF FILM PRACTICE
Reference List
Bordwill, David. "The Art Cinema As A Mode Of Film Practice". SSRN Electronic Journal,
2013. Elsevier BV, doi:10.2139/ssrn.2318426 Pg 57-61