El Aura
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| El Aura | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster |
|
| Directed by | Fabián Bielinsky |
| Produced by | Ariel Saúl Victor Hadida Cecilia Bossi |
| Written by | Fabián Bielinsky |
| Starring | Ricardo Darín Dolores Fonzi Pablo Cedrón |
| Music by | Lucio Godoy |
| Cinematography | Checco Varese |
| Editing by | Alejandro Carrillo Penovi Fernando Pardo |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista International |
| Release date(s) | September 15, 2005 |
| Running time | 138 minutes |
| Country | Argentina France Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Official website | |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
El Aura (English: The Aura) is an Argentine, French and Spanish neo-noir film, released in 2005 and directed by Fabián Bielinsky, the second feature from the maker of Nine Queens.[1]
The picture stars Ricardo Darín.
It was the Argentine entry in the 2006 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film category.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In neo-noir fashion El Aura narrates in first person the hallucinating voyage of Espinoza, a quiet, cynical taxidermist, who suffers epilepsy attacks, and is obsessed with committing the perfect crime.
He claims that the cops are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed, and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way; and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills.
On his first ever hunting trip, in the calm of the Patagonian forest, his dreams are made reality with one squeeze of the trigger.
Espinoza accidentally kills a man who turns out to be a real criminal and inherits his scheme: the heist of an armored truck carrying casino profits.
Moved by morbid curiosity, and later by an inexorable flow of events, the taxidermist sees himself thrown into his fantasies, piece by piece completing a puzzle irremediably encircling him. And he does it while struggling with his greatest weakness: epilepsy. Before each seizure he is visited by the aura: a paradoxical moment of confusion and enlightenment where the past and future seem to blend.
[edit] Exhibition
The film opened wide in Argentina on September 15, 2005. Later in the month it was presented at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival on September 30, 2005.
The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Sundance Film Festival, USA; the Toulouse Latin America Film Festival, France; the Alba Regia International Film Festival, Hungary; the Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania; the Film by the Sea Film Festival, Netherlands; the Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland; and others.
[edit] Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from film critics.
Critic A.O. Scott, who writes for the New York Times likes the way how director Fabián Bielinsky uses the neo-noir style. He said, "Mr. Bielinsky made use of a familiar film noir vocabulary, but not for the usual young-fimmaker-in-a-hurry purpose of showing off his facility with genre tricks. Rather, his movies restore some of the clammy, anxious atmosphere that made the old noirs so powerful to begin with." He also mentions the early death of director Bielinsky. He said, "For his part, Mr. Bielinsky, in what would sadly be his last film, demonstrates a mastery of the form that is downright scary."[2]
Film critic David Wiegand thought that director Bielinsky tackled a bit too much in this film. He said, "Bielinsky's latest film, The Aura, is in some ways more ambitious, which may be one of the reasons it doesn't work as well as it should...the careful camera work, beautifully dank cinematography and the quietly nuanced performance by Darín keep our attention, but in the end, the film's bigger challenge isn't its length, or its deliberate pace: It's that it's overly freighted with symbolism and meaning."[3]
Currently, the film has a 89% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on thirty-six reviews.[4]
[edit] Cast and ratings
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Argentina: | 13 |
| Brazil: | 16 |
| France: | U |
| Spain: | 18 |
| United States: | Not Rated |
- Ricardo Darín as Esteban Espinosa (The taxidermist)
- Dolores Fonzi as Diana Dietrich
- Pablo Cedrón as Sosa
- Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Julio
- Jorge D'Elía as Urien
- Alejandro Awada as Sontag
- Rafael Castejón as Vega
- Manuel Rodal as Carlos Dietrich
- Walter Reyno as Montero
[edit] Awards
Wins
- Cartagena Film Festival, Colombia: Golden India Catalina; Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; 2005.
- Clarin Awards: Clarin Award, Best Cinematography, Checco Varese; 2005.
- Havana Film Festival: FIPRESCI Prize, Best Film, Fabián Bielinsky; 2005.
- Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Actor, Ricardo Darín; Best Cinematography, Checco Varese; Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; Best Film; Best Original Screenplay, Fabián Bielinsky; Best Sound, Carlos Abbate and José Luis Díaz; 2006.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ El Aura at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Scott, A.O. The New York Times, film review, "An Argentine Director's Unsettling Oeuvre," November 17, 2006.
- ^ Wiegand, David. The San Francisco Chronicle film review, page E-6, January 5, 2007.
- ^ El Aura at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: March 8, 2007.
[edit] External links
- El Aura at the cinenacional.com (Spanish).
