Jump to content

The Aura (film): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Fix runtime and add ref
Add ref for Oscar
Line 46: Line 46:
|language = Spanish
|language = Spanish
|budget = $2.8 million<ref name="ScreenDailyFeb2005" />
|budget = $2.8 million<ref name="ScreenDailyFeb2005" />
|gross = $1,785,981<ref name="BOM" />
|gross = $1.78 million<ref name="BOM" />
}}
}}
'''''The Aura''''' ({{lang-es|'''El aura'''|links=no}}) is a 2005 [[neo-noir]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Means|first=Sean P.|title=Aura (El Aura) The|work=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]|url=http://entertainment.sltrib.com/movies/view/aura_el_aura_the/tribreview|accessdate=22 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spicer|first=Andrew|date=19 March 2010|title=Historical Dictionary of Film Noir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixVekSdvQCMC&q=el+aura+neo-noir&pg=PA437|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0810859609|accessdate=22 October 2013|page=437}}</ref> [[psychological thriller film]] written and directed by [[Fabián Bielinsky]] and starring [[Ricardo Darín]], [[Dolores Fonzi]], [[Pablo Cedrón]] and [[Nahuel Pérez Biscayart]]. It was Bielinsky's second and final feature film before his death in 2006. The plot revolves around an [[epileptic]] [[taxidermist]] who often fantasizes about committing the [[perfect crime|perfect heist]], and who suddenly has the chance of making one happen after he accidentally kills a man who was in fact a career criminal.
'''''The Aura''''' ({{lang-es|'''El aura'''|links=no}}) is a 2005 [[neo-noir]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Means|first=Sean P.|title=Aura (El Aura) The|work=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]|url=http://entertainment.sltrib.com/movies/view/aura_el_aura_the/tribreview|accessdate=22 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Spicer|first=Andrew|date=19 March 2010|title=Historical Dictionary of Film Noir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixVekSdvQCMC&q=el+aura+neo-noir&pg=PA437|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0810859609|accessdate=22 October 2013|page=437}}</ref> [[psychological thriller film]] written and directed by [[Fabián Bielinsky]] and starring [[Ricardo Darín]], [[Dolores Fonzi]], [[Pablo Cedrón]] and [[Nahuel Pérez Biscayart]]. It was Bielinsky's second and final feature film before his death in 2006. The plot revolves around an [[epileptic]] [[taxidermist]] who often fantasizes about committing the [[perfect crime|perfect heist]], and who suddenly has the chance of making one happen after he accidentally kills a man who was in fact a career criminal.


''The Aura'' received mostly positive reviews from critics upon its release, particularly for its screenplay and ambience. It won the [[Silver Condor]] for Best Film and was the Argentine entry for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] at the [[78th Academy Awards]].
''The Aura'' received mostly positive reviews from critics upon its release, particularly for its screenplay and ambience. It won the [[Silver Condor]] for Best Film and was the Argentine entry for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] at the [[78th Academy Awards]].<ref name="Oscars" />


==Plot synopsis==
==Plot synopsis==
Line 113: Line 113:


<ref name="BOM">{{Cite Box Office Mojo |id=0420509 |title=The Aura |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630083510/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0420509/ |archive-date=30 June 2021 |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>
<ref name="BOM">{{Cite Box Office Mojo |id=0420509 |title=The Aura |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630083510/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0420509/ |archive-date=30 June 2021 |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>

<ref name="Oscars">{{Cite web |date=1 October 2005 |title=''El aura'' irá al Oscar |trans-title=''The Aura'' heads to the Oscars |url=https://www.laprensa.com.ar/El-aura-ira-al-Oscar-301690.note.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216031627/https://www.laprensa.com.ar/El-aura-ira-al-Oscar-301690.note.aspx |archive-date=16 December 2023 |access-date=21 December 2023 |website=[[La Prensa (Buenos Aires)|La Prensa]]}}</ref>


<!-- PRODUCTION -->
<!-- PRODUCTION -->

Revision as of 02:01, 22 December 2023

The Aura
Theatrical release poster
SpanishEl aura
Directed byFabián Bielinsky
Written byFabián Bielinsky
Produced by
  • Ariel Saúl
  • Victor Hadida
  • Cecilia Bossi
Starring
CinematographyChecco Varese
Edited by
  • Alejandro Carrillo Penovi
  • Fernando Pardo
Music byLucio Godoy
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 15 September 2005 (2005-09-15) (Argentina)
  • 21 October 2005 (2005-10-21) (Spain)
  • 29 March 2006 (2006-03-29) (France)
Running time
129 minutes[1]
Countries
  • Argentina
  • France
  • Spain
LanguageSpanish
Budget$2.8 million[2]
Box office$1.78 million[3]

The Aura (Spanish: El aura) is a 2005 neo-noir[4][5] psychological thriller film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky and starring Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi, Pablo Cedrón and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. It was Bielinsky's second and final feature film before his death in 2006. The plot revolves around an epileptic taxidermist who often fantasizes about committing the perfect heist, and who suddenly has the chance of making one happen after he accidentally kills a man who was in fact a career criminal.

The Aura received mostly positive reviews from critics upon its release, particularly for its screenplay and ambience. It won the Silver Condor for Best Film and was the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards.[6]

Plot synopsis

In neo-noir fashion El aura narrates 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, Espinoza accidentally kills a man who turns out to be a real criminal, and he "inherits" his latest scheme: the heist of an armored truck carrying casino profits. Moved by morbid curiosity, and later by an inexorable flow of events, the taxidermist discovers the price it takes for his dream to come true, all the while and 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

Production

The Aura began filming in mid-October 2004, taking place in primarily in Bariloche and Buenos Aires City.[7] In November 2004, shooting began at the Llao Llao Hotel in Bariloche, lasting around 40 days.[8] In December, scenes were shot at the La Plata Museum with Darín and Awada.[9] Filming concluded in late December 2004 in Buenos Aires.[10]

Release

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. It was theatrically released in Spain on 21 October 2005,[11] whereas it opened in French theatres on 29 March 2006.[12]

Many international companies bid to purchase the international sales rights to the film. French film distribution company Celluloid Dreams acquired the rights after the 55th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2005. Metropolitan Filmexport released the film in France and Alta Classic released it in Spain.[2]

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.

Reception

Critical response

El aura garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 48 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Aura is a highly original and cerebral thriller that maintains its suspense from start to finish."[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[14]

Critic A.O. Scott, who writes for The New York Times, liked the way 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."[15]

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."[16]

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."[17]

Awards

Wins

  • Cartagena Film Festival, Colombia: 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.

Nominations

  • San Sebastián International Film Festival: 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.

See also

References

  1. ^ "El aura (+13)". National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 December 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b Frater, Patrick (22 February 2005). "Bielinski's Aura shines on Celluloid". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  3. ^ "The Aura". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  4. ^ Means, Sean P. "Aura (El Aura) The". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  5. ^ Spicer, Andrew (19 March 2010). Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Scarecrow Press. p. 437. ISBN 978-0810859609. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  6. ^ "El aura irá al Oscar" [The Aura heads to the Oscars]. La Prensa. 1 October 2005. Archived from the original on 16 December 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  7. ^ Montesoro, Julia (8 August 2004). "Cine argentino" [Argentine cinema]. La Nación (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Darín filma en el Sur" [Darín shoots in the South]. El Día (in Spanish). 5 November 2004. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  9. ^ "«El aura» se filma en el Museo" [«The Aura» filming at the Museum]. El Día (in Spanish). 21 December 2004. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  10. ^ Montesoro, Julia (5 December 2004). "Cine argentino". La Nación (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  11. ^ "El aura" [The Aura]. Fotogramas (in Spanish). 29 September 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  12. ^ "En grande première suisse au cinéma" [A major Swiss cinema premiere] (PDF). L'Impartial (in French). 29 March 2006. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  13. ^ "The Aura". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  14. ^ "The Aura". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  15. ^ Scott, A.O. The New York Times, film review, "An Argentine Director's Unsettling Oeuvre", 17 November 2006.
  16. ^ Holland, Joanathan. Variety, film review, September 19, 2005. Last accessed: 17 February 2008.
  17. ^ Wiegand, David. The San Francisco Chronicle film review, page E-6, 5 January 2007.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Aura_(film)&oldid=1191190462"