The Aura
by Fabián Bielinsky
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dolores Fonzi, Manuel Rodal, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Pablo Cedrón, Ricardo DarínDirector: Fabián Bielinsky
Brand: Generic
Writer: Fabián Bielinsky
Producer: Ariel Saúl
Producer: Augusto Greco
Producer: Cecilia Bossi
Producer: Diego Conejero
Producer: Gerardo Herrero
Producer: José Garcia Espina
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 134 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 79870
Studio: Ifc
Movie Reviews of The Aura
Movie Review: Into the woods . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't be put off by the violence of the image on the DVD cover for this film by Argentine director Fabián Bielinsky. It represents one brief moment in an off-beat heist movie that is full of twists and turns that defy expectations. Focused as it is on the mental and emotional state of the lead character, played by Ricardo Darín, it takes a while to even come together around a heist. Withdrawn and hyper vigilant, he's a detail obsessed taxidermist who goes hunting with an acquaintance in the woods and while in pursuit of a deer shoots a man instead. And thus begins an escapade full of deceit, danger, and increasingly high stakes, all complicated by the main character's epileptic condition that produces seizures at inopportune moments.
Darín is just fine as the taxidermist hero, rarely giving us more than a single intense expression registering puzzlement, concentration, confusion, fear, or fascination with whatever he is observing. A robbery, which he watches from across the street, has the creepy verisimilitude of amateur news media footage, random gunshots fired by unseen shooters and figures running for cover. Meanwhile, scenes set in deep woods alternate with barren and desolate expanses crossed by hard-top roads leading to distant towns. As with Bielinsky's previous feature "Nine Queens," this film mixes genres that lead to interesting ambiguities and unexpected results. Recommended for fans of crime films with some psychological depth.
Summary of The Aura
There is something criminalabout his dreamsProductInformationIn The Auro Espinoza is a taxidermist marked with strange qualities -a photographic memory and random fits of epilepsy. To escapehis lonely everyday life he spends hi time lost in fantasy about theperfect heist. When a fatal hunting accident presents agolden opportunity he takes the chance to put his plot into action.But living in a world of real violence might bring a lethal dose ofreality to Espinoza - and the beautiful young woman he's brought intohis plan. Now he must decide if criminal perfection is worththe ultimate price.Product Features The Making of "The Aura" Behind-the-Scenes: A Musical Montage Theatrical TrailerSpecificationsSpecifications: Stars: Ricardo Dar?n ManuelRodal Dolores Fonzi Format: Color DVD-VideoWidescreen Language: Spanish Subtitles: English Spanish Number of Discs: 1 Rating: Not Rated Run Time: 138 minutes Directed By: Fabian BielinskyThe Aura will go down in history as a great film with a tragic loss attached to it. This totally original and deeply involving thriller was the second and final feature film by Fabián Bielinsky, a gifted Argentinian writer-director whose debut feature, Nine Queens, earned global acclaim and introduced Bielinsky as a talent to watch. Sadly, Bielinsky died of a sudden heart attack in June 2006, at age 47, and we'll never know what other great films he might have made. The Aura stands as testament to Bielinsky's masterful skill, on full display in this riveting study of a sad and lonely taxidermist named Espinosa (played by Ricardo Darín, who was also in Nine Queens) who compensates for his disappointing life by imagining elaborate crimes that he's planned to perfection. When a hunting accident results in the death of a criminal mastermind who'd been planning a casino heist, the taxidermist (who possesses a photographic memory and suffers from occasional blackouts caused by epileptic seizures) assumes the dead man's role, improvising his way through the crime-plot with untrustworthy partners and the constant threat of danger.
The film's title refers to the semi-conscious fugue state that precedes the taxidermist's epileptic seizures, inducing a sense of disorientation and dread that Bielinsky uses to deepen the film's psychological impact. Darín's dour, worried expression is a fascinating focal point for his character's unpredictable journey into the heart of darkness, and The Aura's primary setting, in the thick forest of Patagonia, is a perfect complement to the film's ominous atmosphere and deliberately paced intrigue. As far-fetched as it may seem at times, the plot's heightened reality remains utterly convincing, and Bielinsky demonstrates an uncanny knack for escalating suspense in quietly intense situations. From start to finish, The Aura is clearly the work of a filmmaker with seemingly limitless potential, and we can only wonder about the excellent films Bielinsky would have made had he lived. Unfortunately, two slight DVD extras on The Aura give us no insight into Bielinsky's too-short career: the "making of" featurette is very brief and consists primarily of an interview with Ricardo Darín, and the behind-the-scenes musical montage is an equally short and perfunctory assembly of production video set to the moody, electronic tones of Lucio Godoy's subtly effective score. --Jeff Shannon
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