Script Analysis: “Roma” — Scene By Scene Breakdown

Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: Roma (2018). You can 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.

Roma
Scene by Scene Breakdown
By Julianna Hartke
GoIntoTheStory.com

P 1–3: September, 1970. Mexico City. Cleo Gutiérrez (26), a Mixtec woman mops a small indoor patio. She makes her way through the large, antique house, decorated to look more modern. She gathers laundry and makes up the double bed in one of the four massive bedrooms. From downstairs Adela, another maid, calls out that it is almost one. Cleo rushes out the door and we finally see the exterior of the house: Tepeji 21.

P 3–9: Cleo arrives at the kindergarten as the students are just getting out and she picks up her employer’s son, Pepe (5), and returns to the house. Adela tells her to hurry up: Fermín is on the phone. Adela teases Cleo about their relationship, but Cleo insists they’re just friends. The rest of the children of the household arrive: Toño (12), Paco (11), and Sofi (8). While they eat, Paco shares that his friend’s cousin was shot after throwing a water balloon at a group of passing soldiers. Señora Sofía, a professor and the woman of the household, arrives presently and the children great her warmly. She instructs Cleo to send Señor Antonio’s suits to the dry cleaners in preparation for his conference in Quebec on Friday.

P 9–15: Paco and Pepe play as gangsters. When Pepe refuses to “die,” Paco leaves in a huff. Only when his brother leaves, Pepe fakes his death, refusing to get up when Cleo find him. Cleo lays down beside him and they both watch a DC 8 plane flying overhead. As they lay there, it’s calming and Cleo remarks, “I like being dead.” Later, while Cleo is bathing Pepe and Sofi, Pepe asks her if she thinks she’ll go to heaven or hell. He tells her Paco wants to go to hell because there are naked girls there.

P 15–21: Señor Antonio meticulously pulls his pristine 1970 2-door Black Galaxie 500 into the patio. It inches forward and backward, trying to fit in the too-small patio, screeching in sync with the waltz playing on the radio. The whole family, including Cleo, sit together and watch Los Polivoces on the television. The children are more affectionate to Cleo than they are with Antonio. Cleo puts them to bed and says a prayer with Sofi. After cleaning up, Cleo joins Adela and they stretch and work out together in the maid’s quarters.

P 22–29: Weeks later, Cleo and Adela race down Independencia Ave. They stop at a torta stand where Adela shares how Moises, a man infatuated with her, has been sending the same letters to multiple girls. As she finishes her story, her boyfriend, Ramón, and Fermín meet up with them for a double date to the movies. Fermín instead convinces Cleo to go to a hotel with him. There, Fermín shows off his martial art skills, telling Cleo that martial arts saved his life. They make love.

P 29–40: Weeks later, Cleo awakens with morning sickness. Still, she helps Señora Theresa, the children’s grandmother, send the children off to school. Paco, Toño, and Sofi pile into the Valiant with their driver, Ignacio, and Cleo gets Pepe ready for school. He tells her that he had a dream where he remembered when he was older. Cleo was there, too, but she was “different.” Antonio prepares to leave on his two-week trip, stepping in dog feces on the way out. A Jr. High marching band files down the street as Sofía tearfully says goodbye to an indifferent Antonio. Sofía takes Pepe to school as Cleo cleans up the feces.

P 41–44: Cleo and Fermín make out in the back of a theater. Cleo tells Fermín she’s pregnant and after she gives him a blow job, he excuses himself to the bathroom. He doesn’t come back.

P 44–50: Sofía and the children sit in the living room, now decorated with a Christmas tree and a hand-crafted nativity scene. Cleo attempts to talk to Sofía, but she tells Cleo to wait. Sofía turns back to the children, explaining Antonio’s research has been delayed and he may not be back by January. Sofía explains he sent paper so the children can write to him while he’s away. Sofía’s clearly nervous, but tries to hide it from her children.

P 51–58: As all the children begin writing their letters, Sofía turns back to Cleo. Cleo tells Sofía about her pregnancy, expecting to be fired, but instead, Sofía insists she will take Cleo to the doctor to get checked. On the way to the doctor’s, Sofía squeezes Antonio’s Galaxie between an old jalopy and a truck, scraping up the pristine car and taking off the side mirror. Sofía doesn’t care. Doctor Vélez, Sofía’s old friend, examines Cleo. She’s the only doctor Cleo has seen, and Cleo’s last appointment was over three years ago. Cleo is ten weeks along and her baby is healthy. In the maternity ward, Cleo studies the newborns, fascinated with a premature baby in an incubator. Suddenly, a block of plaster falls from the ceiling, covering the incubator completely.

P 58–62: New Year’s Eve. Sofía, Cleo, and the children drive along the Puebla Freeway in the ’64 Valiant. In the back, Pepe sees LEA carved into one of the slopes. Toño explains to Pepe that Luis Echeverría Álvarez is the new president and Cleo likes him. She agrees, saying he likes indigenous people like her. Toño argues that Álvarez was the one who ordered students to be killed two years ago (the Tlateloco massacre). Sofía cuts the grim conversation short.

They arrive at their friends’ enormous beach-side hacienda. As the children reunite with the family, Cleo reunites with Benita, one of the household servants. They carry bags into the children’s room. The walls are lined with mounted dog’s heads, each one a former hacienda dog.

P 63–73: At the New Year’s celebration, kids play flag football and shoot off firecrackers, while the men shoot bottles and the women recline in folding chairs. Except for the servants and Sofía’s family, everyone is white. Later that night, inside the parlor, an adult chases some of the children, dressed as a monster resembling a pagan spirit. As someone puts on a Mambo, Benita pulls Cleo into the kitchen to have a drink with the other servants. Although she refuses at first, Cleo accepts a drink of pulque. The first cup shatters on the floor, but she’s given another. A bit tipsy, she sees Alejandro, one of the guests, drunkenly hitting on Sofía. Sofía rejects him and Cleo hides behind a pillar before either of them notice her.

After Sofía leaves, Cleo stares into the night, watching the soft glow behind the tree line. The glow intensifies and calmness gives way to panic as someone yells “Fire!” The clearing where guests were previously shooting is now engulfed in flames. Everyone pitches in to help put it out while the “monster” now drunk, counts down to the New Year and begins singing a Norwegian song.

P 74–75: The children run through the fields, looking at the mountains. The boys harass some of the girls, looking up their skirts. Cleo enjoys the view of the mountains, remembering her own village.

P 76–81: A month later we are back at Tepeji 21. The Galaxie has been repaired and Cleo’s belly is starting to show. The children ague about who should go to the movies and what American movie to see, Sofía explodes, saying either everyone goes, or no one does. They decide everyone goes. Cleo and Theresa accompany them. On the way, Cleo and Toño spot Antonio with another woman, clearly flirting with each other.

P 82–89: Cleo, now six months pregnant, makes her way through ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, much poorer and dirtier than Roma. She finds Ramón, who in turn takes her to Fermín. Fermín is in a group of about a hundred uniformed men, all watching a Korean man, Professor Zorvek. (These are the Halcones.) He blindfolds himself and raises his left leg to his right knee and holds the position. This exercise, he claims, requires mental and physical development only martial arts masters and a few athletes can achieve. The young men, instructors, and some onlookers, all try and fail, but Cleo succeeds.

After the exercise, Cleo confronts Fermín. He’s kind to Cleo until she tells him the child is his. He hurls obscenities and threats at her, demanding that she never look for him again. Cleo is left alone in the lot.

P 89–94: Sofía is on the phone behind closed doors, crying and talking about Antonio’s affair in hushed tones. Cleo spots Paco eavesdropping and gestures for him to go away. He doesn’t and when Sofía catches him, she slaps him to the floor. Immediately realizing what she’s done, Sofía holds him, apologizing profusely. That night, Sofi and Pepe ask Cleo when the baby is due and what she will name it. Cleo responds she is due in a month, doesn’t know if it’s a boy or girl, and doesn’t have a name. Sofi hopes for a girl.

P 95–98: Paco and Toño fight downstairs and outside, pulling hair, spitting and slapping. Paco throws an egg at his brother and it flies past, hitting the Valiant car door instead, leaving a dent. That night, Sofía pulls the Black Galaxie into the tiny patio. She inches it in and scratches the right side. Backing up and adjusting her angle, she scratches up the left side, too. She keeps going until she rips the molding and the mirrors off the car. Clearly drunk, Sofía tells Cleo that they are always alone.

P 99–103: June 10, 1971. Cleo and Theresa shop for a crib as students protest in the street. They are forced to leave Ignacio and the car behind and wade through the crowd on foot. Shortly after arriving in the store, Ignacio bursts in, panicked. Everyone runs to the window to see the Halcones attacking the unarmed students. Shots are fired and the students run, but they are surrounded. One wounded student runs into the furniture store and the manager hides him in the closet. The Halcones follow and, finding the student, shoot him. Amidst the chaos, Cleo’s water breaks. Cleo and the rearguard recognize each other: it’s Fermín.

Passing through the violence and dead civilians in the street, Ignacio, Theresa, and Cleo make it out and to the hospital.

P 104–113: The hospital is chaotic and Ignacio has to scream for Doctor Vélez to have Cleo brought into a room. On the way, she sees Antonio, who awkwardly tries to encourage her. Cleo’s quickly moved into the birthing room. Cleo delivers her baby, but it is stillborn. As the doctors try to resuscitate, Cleo sees that her baby is a girl. Vélez somberly tells Cleo that the baby is gone and asks Cleo if she’d like to say goodbye. Cleo nods and holds her baby girl for no more than a minute before a nurse takes her away.

Sofía takes Cleo home. Cleo just stares silently as Sofía tries to offer support. In traffic, Sofía begins bawling, holding Cleo and ignoring the honking outside as they hold up traffic.

P 113–118: The patio, usually pristine, is covered in feces. The Valiant and Galaxie are both parked outside Tepeji 21. Cleo is still in a daze, but the sound of a new car pulls her from her thoughts. Sofía has bought a new car, a yellow Renault 21, and sold the Galaxie, unbeknownst to Antonio. Sofía plans one last trip in the Galaxie to a beach in Tuxpan.

P 118–122: Sofía checks into a bungalow while Cleo watches the children on the beach, her mind elsewhere. Pepe asks Cleo why she’s so quiet, but she doesn’t answer. Later, at a restaurant, Sofía explains to the children that their father has left for good and she will be working full time as a publicist to pay the bills. She has brought the children on the trip so Antonio can gather his things from the house. Some of the children cry, others fall silent.

P 122–129: On the beach, Sofía tells the children to get out of the water, as Cleo can’t swim. When they complain they want to enjoy their last day at the beach, Sofía relents, telling them to stay close to the edge. Once Sofía is gone, Paco and Sofi drift farther from shore, despite Cleo’s shouting. Pepe tells Cleo about a dream when he was a grown-up sailor who drowned. As he tells his story, the waves pick up and soon Paco and Sofi are struggling to stay above water. Cleo calls for help, but no one is nearby. Braving the water, Cleo fights against the waves. It envelopes Cleo but doesn’t drag her out. Sofi and Paco resurface and Cleo grabs ahold of them and pulls them safely to shore.

Sofía runs back, checks on Sofi and Paco and hugs Cleo, thanking her. Cleo just cries, repeating over and over, “I didn’t want her to be born.”

P 130–135: They return to the house to find Antonio has taken the bookshelves. Sofía tells the children that they may not have money to do the things they could before, they can still go on adventures in the car. Cleo begins gathering the laundry. She passes through the empty hallway, across the tiny patio, and ascends the metal staircase to the roof. She passes the door to her room and continues upwards. The sky above is pure.

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

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

Major kudos to Julianna Hartke for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To see 100+ screenplay scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here.

For an in-depth analysis of Roma, go here.

To read dozens of Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis Series, go here.