Script Analysis: “Roma” — Part 4: Themes

Read the Oscar-nominated screenplay and analyze it this week.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Themes.

I have this theory about theme. In two parts. First, a principle: Theme = Meaning. What does the story mean? Second, while there is almost always a Central Theme, there are multiple other Sub-Themes at play in a story. Therefore the question, What does a story mean takes on several layers of meaning?

Time to ponder themes in Roma. You may download a PDF of the script here.

Written by Alfonso Cuarón.

IMDb plot summary: A year in the life of a middle-class family’s maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

Writing Exercise: Explore the themes in Roma. What is its Central Theme? What are some of the related Sub-Themes?

Tomorrow we shift our focus to the script’s dialogue.

Major kudos to Julianna Hartke for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown. Julianna is a DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts senior getting a B.F.A. with a concentration in screenwriting and took time out of her busy academic schedule to read the script and do the breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Roma, go here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Major Plot Points discussion, go here.

For Part 3, to read Characters discussion, go here.

To access 70 analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Roma.