The Story so Far

With Roma feeling like the creative capstone of an astonishing career, we take a look back at its maker’s diverse filmography, from sex comedies right through to space odysseys.

QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME

While studying at Mexico City’s Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC), Alfonso Cuarón made three 16mm shorts. It was the third, Vengeance is Mine (1983) that saw him expelled for daring to produce a film in English. The film itself – along with preceding short, Who’s He Anyway (1983) – isn’t readily available, but his debut effort, the 24 minute Quartet for the End of Time, was included on Criterion’s DVD release of his feature debut, Sólo con Tu Pareja.

Taking its title from Olivier Messiaen’s 1941 composition, the film is largely set in the apartment of a self-inflicted recluse, a young man barely filling the days in the lead up to his apparent suicide. By his own admission, Cuarón had no script, and the film plays out like a mood exercise captured on-the-hoof. Still, it’s not without a few strong images, tied