Return to Roma

ALFONSO CUARÓN HAS a good memory. And after a decade spent in the Hollywood system, dabbling in space epics ( Gravity ) and wizard franchises ( Harry Potter ), the Mexican filmmaker wondered if that memory might be a good setting for his eighth film. The result was Roma , a staggeringly rich stew of life, in all its chaotic glory. Shot on his home turf, it meticulously recreated middle-class family life in early 1970s Mexico City, as he remembered it — from violent political upheavals to undisposed-of dog turds. After winning a clutch of Oscars last year, including Best Director for Cuarón, the film now gets the full Criterion Collection treatment, the ultimate honour for any cinephile completist, marking the first time the film has arrived on Blu-ray or DVD. With the Criterion release imminent, we asked Cuarón about the experience of making the film, and how it feels to enter Criterion’s hallowed collection.

This is one of the quickest film ever to make it to the Criterion Collection. Are you excited?

I’m very happy about it. Most of my non-studio movies are on Criterion. Some of the others, we’re trying to, but it’s a matter of rights.pleased with the work done in this edition. I mean, not only in terms of all the time that we took to do the transfer for the DVD and the Blu-ray — the Blu-ray, I think, looks particularly amazing — but also the whole edition that Criterion put together. It’s really, really good.