The Vulnerable Spectator

Abstract

FQ Columnist Amelie Hastie offers a unique and personal meditation on cinema's affective qualities, particularly the sentiment of love. She traces Cuarón's exploration of cinema's fundamental humanism back to Jean Renoir and continues through the Italian Neo-Realists, particularly Vittorio de Sica. She discusses Cuarón's intellectual formation as a student of cinema, and finds a consistent emphasis on women's experiences throughout his films. Introducing Cuarón's description of Roma as an “inquiry” into the relation between “foreground” and “background,” she delves into scenes where character and social environment converge.