BEHIND THE SCENES: How ‘Roma’ Turned an Empty Lot Into a Bustling Avenue1 min read
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They paved a parking lot and put up paradise.
To shoot a scene on a vibrant avenue in the period drama Roma, the filmmakers constructed from scratch an immense replica of part of a Mexico City street (and the shops that line it) in an empty lot amid warehouses. They brought in period vehicles, including a streetcar, and built working storefronts, transforming a cracked concrete slab overrun with weeds into a vibrant intersection.
That’s one way to recapture your childhood.
Roma, up for 10 Academy Awards at the Feb. 24 ceremony, is the writer-director Alfonso Cuarón’s semi-autobiographical recollection of his early-1970s life in the Mexico City neighbourhood of the title. To say that Cuarón cared about details when capturing that world is an understatement. With a reported budget of $15 million, the film also includes an elaborate restaging of a student protest, the communal dousing of a large forest fire and a challenging ocean rescue.
Image credit: Netflix
