El Aura
Encyclopedia
The Aura (2005
) is an Argentine
, French and Spanish neo-noir
drama film
, directed by Fabián Bielinsky
, his second and final feature after Nine Queens. The picture features Ricardo Darín
in the lead role, as well as Alejandro Awada
, Dolores Fonzi
, among others.
The drama was the Argentine entry in the 2006 Academy Awards
for Best Foreign Language Film category.
In neo-noir fashion El Aura narrates in the 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 Patagonia
n forest, with one squeeze of the trigger his dreams are made real. Espinoza has accidentally killed a man who turns out to be a real criminal and he 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.
The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Sundance Film Festival
, United States; 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.
Critic A.O. Scott, who writes for The New York Times
, liked the way how director Fabián Bielinsky used the neo-noir
style, writing, "Mr. Bielinsky made use of a familiar film noir vocabulary, but not for the usual young-filmmaker-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."
Film critic Jonathan Holland, film critic for Variety
magazine, liked the film and wrote, "An engrossing existential thriller from Fabien Bielinsky...Leisurely paced, studied, reticent and rural, The Aura is a quieter, richer and better-looking piece that handles its multiple manipulations with the maturity the earlier pic sometimes lacked...Featuring a career-best perf from Ricardo Darin, pic is a must-see in territories that warmed to Queens, while its superior production values could generate even bigger returns from international arthouse auds who enjoy their thrillers with a touch of distinction."
Film critic David Wiegand thought that director Bielinsky tackled a bit too much in this film and wrote, "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 dark 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."
Currently, the film has a 89% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
, based on forty-five reviews.
Nominations
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
) is an Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, French and Spanish neo-noir
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, directed by Fabián Bielinsky
Fabián Bielinsky
Fabián Bielinsky was an Argentine film director born in Buenos Aires.He started to make films early in his life, while still a high school student in the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, after graduation he started studying psychology, a career he shortly followed and dropped out in favor to...
, his second and final feature after Nine Queens. The picture features Ricardo Darín
Ricardo Darín
Ricardo Darín is an Argentine actor, screenwriter and film director.Darín is one of the biggest movie stars in Argentina. He played a number of parts in TV series for several years where he became popular as a young leading actor...
in the lead role, as well as Alejandro Awada
Alejandro Awada
Alejandro Awada is an Argentine character actor.- Filmography :*Bye Bye Life *Ratón Pérez, El *Suspiros del corazón *El Aura *Tigre escondido, El...
, Dolores Fonzi
Dolores Fonzi
Dolores Fonzi is an Argentine TV and film actress active since 1997.Several of her films have received critical acclaim such as Plata quemada , Esperando al mesías , El Fondo del mar and El Aura . Her brother, Tomás Fonzi is also an actor in the Cinema of Argentina...
, among others.
The drama was the Argentine entry in the 2006 Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Foreign Language Film category.
Plot
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
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 Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
n forest, with one squeeze of the trigger his dreams are made real. Espinoza has accidentally killed a man who turns out to be a real criminal and he 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.
Cast
- Ricardo DarínRicardo DarínRicardo Darín is an Argentine actor, screenwriter and film director.Darín is one of the biggest movie stars in Argentina. He played a number of parts in TV series for several years where he became popular as a young leading actor...
as Esteban Espinosa, the taxidermist - Dolores FonziDolores FonziDolores Fonzi is an Argentine TV and film actress active since 1997.Several of her films have received critical acclaim such as Plata quemada , Esperando al mesías , El Fondo del mar and El Aura . Her brother, Tomás Fonzi is also an actor in the Cinema of Argentina...
as Diana Dietrich - Pablo Cedrón as Sosa
- Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Julio
- Jorge D'ElíaJorge D'ElíaJorge D'Elía is a film and television actor.Two of his most recent films have been critically well received: El Abrazo partido and El Aura .-Filmography :...
as Urien - Alejandro AwadaAlejandro AwadaAlejandro Awada is an Argentine character actor.- Filmography :*Bye Bye Life *Ratón Pérez, El *Suspiros del corazón *El Aura *Tigre escondido, El...
as Sontag - Rafael Castejón as Vega
- Manuel Rodal as Carlos Dietrich
- Walter Reyno as Montero
Distribution
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
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, United States; the Toulouse Latin America Film Festival, France; the Alba Regia International Film Festival, Hungary; the Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
; the Film by the Sea Film Festival, Netherlands; the Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland; and others.
Critical response
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, liked the way how director Fabián Bielinsky used the neo-noir
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
style, writing, "Mr. Bielinsky made use of a familiar film noir vocabulary, but not for the usual young-filmmaker-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."
Film critic Jonathan Holland, film critic for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine, liked the film and wrote, "An engrossing existential thriller from Fabien Bielinsky...Leisurely paced, studied, reticent and rural, The Aura is a quieter, richer and better-looking piece that handles its multiple manipulations with the maturity the earlier pic sometimes lacked...Featuring a career-best perf from Ricardo Darin, pic is a must-see in territories that warmed to Queens, while its superior production values could generate even bigger returns from international arthouse auds who enjoy their thrillers with a touch of distinction."
Film critic David Wiegand thought that director Bielinsky tackled a bit too much in this film and wrote, "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 dark 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."
Currently, the film has a 89% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on forty-five reviews.
Awards
Wins- Cartagena Film Festival, Colombia: Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; 2005.
- Clarin AwardsClarín AwardsThe Clarín Entertainment Awards is an award program that have taken place in Argentina since 1998. They are more commonly known as the Clarín Awards....
: Clarin Award, Best Cinematography, Checco Varese; 2005. - Havana Film FestivalHavana Film FestivalThe Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Spanish-language filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, and in English as Festival of New Latinamerican Cinema of La Havana.The festival takes place...
: FIPRESCIFIPRESCIThe International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
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.
Nominations
- San Sebastián International Film FestivalSan Sebastián International Film FestivalThe San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
: Golden Seashell, Fabián Bielinsky; 2005. - Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Art Direction, Mercedes Alfonsín; Best Editing, Alejandro Carrillo Penovi and Fernando Pardo; Best Music, Lucio Godoy; Best Supporting Actor, Pablo Cedrón; 2006.
External links
- The Aura essay at Film Noir of the Week
- El Aura at the cinenacional.comCinenacional.comCinenacional.com is a web portal and web-based database about Argentine cinema.The site provides a vast array of information, including: films, television programs, directors, actors, cinematographers, film editors, production designers, and other production professions in Argentina...
- El Aura film review at La Nación by Diego Batlle
- El Aura film traielr at You Tube by IFC FilmsIFC FilmsIFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....