The Aura (2005)

Thanks for the memories!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Very refreshing and intriguing movie about an -nearly- ordinary person getting involved into a gangster business.I love this movie. It is slow, but that just gives you the time to think "what would I do ?". Unique story, unique colors and pictures. Very good characters and actors. Just watch it if you can.

The Argentinian writer-director Fabián Bielinsky gained international fame and recognition for his twist-filled feature length debut feature "Nine Queens" in 2000. Sadly, he only completed one more film before dying unexpectedly in 2006. "The Aura" is a much more obscure film that did not receive anything like its predecessor's worldwide distribution and attention, and when you see it you kind of understand why - it's a less accessible, less enjoyable film. That does not mean it's not worth seeing, though. First of all, you should know that - despite what the title or the poster might suggest - there are no supernatural elements here; it is, essentially, a heist movie like "Nine Queens", albeit a more serious one. Bielinsky directs with a sometimes mesmerizing virtuosity, but his script could have been tighter; the film is overlong at 2 hours plus. Darin's mostly impassive performance also requires some audience adjustment. But the final 15 minutes are quite suspenseful, and overall it is clear that Bielinsky was a gifted artist. **1/2 out of 4.

I can't think off hand of other directors who showed so much promise yet left us so early and with such a few films to remember them by. In any case and in light of his final film, the amount of great film-making we were deprived with Fabián Bielinsky's untimely death at the age of 47 simply boggles the mind. I remember seeing years ago upon a friend's enthusiastic recommendation his previous film, NINE QUEENS, and thinking to myself how it was a darn good crime movie. But this? This plays with the greats.I won't go into plot specifics. This is the kind of film you have to soak up with no prior knowledge. Not because plot is inconsequential to the movie, it IS after all a noir film at heart, but for the fact that putting the plot in words is bound to miss the point. I'll only post the keywords IMDb associates with it and let you fill the gaps; Heist | Epilepsy | Neo Noir | Taxidermy | Armored Car Robbery What Bielinsky does brilliantly, and what is indeed the mark of all great cinema, is that he writes scenes we're familiar with from prior cinematic experience, scenes that in paper might sound anticlimactic or generic, but writes them in completely different, unexpected ways. But even before the heist-goes-wrong scenario of every good heist movie comes into play in ways at once unexpected but vaguely familiar, with a palpable sense of "that's how a heist would go wrong" not with a bang but with a whimper, Bielinsky has piled the atmosphere so thick and built for himself such an engrossing movie, that the outcome of the heist is largely inconsequential.The beauty and power of the movie rests exactly there. That it's in no rush to explain anything, that it's not anxious to impress or please yet precisely that it does. You don't meet halfways with EL AURA, you meet it on its own terms. Not as a character study of a would-be criminal (the motivation of the protagonist remains vague), but as a mood piece, a fantastical world of possibilities where the course of action seemss stunningly real.Compared to the flashy crimedies of our days where things go wrong so characters the sum of their external quirks can spout cutesy, clever dialogue at each other, EL AURA seems of another time and place. The only other film this decade that can look it straight in the eye and be worthy of its company is NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Dripping with rural atmosphere, graced with amazing camera-work and cinematography and meticulous attention to sound detail, EL AURA is nothing short of one of the greatest movies of the decade. How it didn't win major festivals is one of the great mysteries of our time. 10

Films like El Aura are why I seek out foreign language pictures and take the time to sit down and watch them. In short, El Aura is brilliant; it grips you from the off and does not relent until it has delivered its twisting, turning, noir fuelled narrative about one man in way over his head. The film grabs you and does not relent its grip until the final few frames after which you remain inclined to sit there, absorbing the experience. Maybe that's been said a million times by a million people about a million films but not many cases have they been praising Spanish language, South American produced neo-noirs that carry as much substance as they do style.The film's theme is mistaken identity and its reoccurring idea is to do with blurring the boundaries between reality and non-reality. If the film is supposed to be a dream then the lead character of the piece is adopting a fake identity within a world that is manifested within his own psychosis anyway, which is a smarter set up than some thrillers of this nature can manage in 90 minutes. But the film's biggest compliment has to be paid to its attention to film theory in general. I believe it was Janey Place in the 1990s who wrote about noir being the supposed ultimate male fantasy on screen and she might well have been onto something – male leads living in criminal infused worlds in which the boundaries between good and evil are blurred at their leisure; places full of alluring women and hardened gangsters, not to mention an alluring lifestyle of adventure revolving around petty crime, amidst a playground of shifty, moody city streets.It is this writing El Aura seems to have clicked with and the visual results are this: a pounding and unpredictable thriller with a heist as its narrative drive and neo-noir as its back drop. Ricardo Darín plays Esteban Espinosa, a taxidermist working an unspectacular and pondering life in Argentina, who goes on the proverbial crime-fuelled male fantasy of death; mystery; betrayal and interaction with a mysterious member of the opposite sex. It is the ultimate trip within a trip, a few days away with a friend as they shack up in a lodge for a weekend of hunting.I suppose everyone can relate to Espinosa's setting up of events. He has managed to get away from his job for a few days and is miles away from anywhere on a holiday of sorts. It's from here that he is given time to himself; time to think and time to dream, but to dream of that fantasy Place may have written about and incorporated oneself in a noir-infused tale. Most interestingly, The Aura (to give it its English title), takes place in a rural setting and rarely branches out to locales that are built up. There is an isolated casino but that's about it and this further blurs the lines between what the noir lead is capable of in a rural or urban location and what he isn't capable of.To give away the entire premise would be a spoiler of sorts; The Aura being the sort of film you need to enjoy without knowing what awaits you around the corner. Needless to say, there is an accidental death and an adopting of an identity on Espinosa's behalf. Soon, Espinosa is involved in a heist plan once he discovers some shady criminals have also used the lodge retreat as a base for their scheme. We feel Espinosa is up to the task because he's a taxidermist and his job demands he be precise and very careful, similarly to planning and executing a heist – it's a delicate and articulate activity. This is something Espinosa himself talks about very early on in the film when he fantasises that a robbery occurs in a bank he is waiting in line at.There is another tell-tail sign of a neo-noir, the manipulation of time and space but this time, not for sake of flashback nor flash-forward, more so a fantasy of what could, but won't, occur in the immediate future. Additionally, Espinosa's brilliant memory and uncanny ability to recall numbers and details gives him certain credentials that make us think he's able to cut it in this chosen lifestyle he's planted himself within.I read that The Aura didn't get released here in Britain and what a huge shame. At a time when this was first released, in late 2005, we were being treated to films such as Adam Sandler's venture into remake territory with The Longest Yard and another here-and-there heritage film that doubled up as the zillionth adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. It is rather a shame this was the case but an even bigger loss is the fact the maker of The Aura is no longer with us, Fabián Bielinsky, you went out in style. If you are a fan of the genre or indeed foreign language films in general then I recommend The Aura and for everyone else – this isn't a bad place to start.