Alfonso Cuarón left today triumphant of the Royal Albert Hall of London, with four Bafta of the British cinema, among them those of better film and director, some prizes that in the case of the direction have coincided in the last years with the result of the Oscar, but not like that in the queen category.
In the last five years, the Bafta and the Oscars have coincided four times in terms of better direction: Alfonso Cuarón, for “Gravity”, in 2014; Alejandro González Iñárritu, for “The revenant”, in 2016; Damien Chazelle, for “La La Land”, in 2017, and Guillermo del Toro “, for” The Shape of Water “, last year.
They only missed in 2015, when the Bafta opted for Richard Linklater, for “Boyhood” and the Oscars for Iñárritu, for “Birdman”.
In better film, however, only one coincidence, that of 2012, when the British and American prizes considered “12 Years a Slave” by Steve McQueen, the best film of the year.
But beyond whether the Bafta are or not the advance of the Oscars, what is clear is that the film Cuarón (Mexico City, 1961) has attracted this year a huge and unusual unanimity.
And this despite being a complicated project. Filmed in black and white, in Spanish and Mixtec, with actors in their immense majority debutantes, and produced by an audiovisual platform, Netflix, which at first did not even think about releasing it in cinemas.
But the success that the film had in its premiere at the Venice Festival, where it was made with an undeniable Golden Lion, marked the beginning of a successful international career.
The Venice award opened the doors to the film premiered in movie theaters, in a limited way yes, but enough to opt for the great prizes of the season and to show that good cinema is no matter the support for the one that occurs.
From the first moment, critics and audiences agreed that “Rome” is a masterpiece, the culmination of Cuarón’s career and his particular tribute to his family, to his childhood in Mexico City, to his neighborhood (that Rome of the title that many believe is in Italy) and, above all, Libo, the maid who took care of him and his brothers.
On the screen Libo becomes Cleo and takes on the appearance of Yalitza Aparicio, an indigenous school teacher and debutant in this film, who has been amazed by the naturalness with which she has faced the cameras.
So much so, that she is nominated for best actress in the Oscars, as well as her co-star, Marina de Tavira, almost the only professional among the performers of the film.
There are a total of ten Oscar nominations that “Rome” has achieved: best film, director (Cuarón), actress (Aparicio), supporting actress (De Tavira), non-English speaking film, photography (Cuarón), script (Cuarón), production design, sound editing and sound mixing.
Some candidacies that could lead Cuarón to make, again, history in the cinema.
Five years ago he became the first Hispanic director to achieve an Oscar for “Gravity” and now his “Rome” could be the first film in Spanish to achieve in Oscar for best film.
To achieve this, you will have to beat “BlacKkKlansman”, “Black Panther” -the first superhero movie to get this recognition-, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “The Favorite”, “Green Book”, “Vice”, and “A Star is Born “.
At the moment, today the Bafta has been taken to a better film and a better foreign film. A record double that could be repeated in the Oscars. (EFE) .-
