“The Aura” unfortunately the final feature of the late director Fabián Bielinsky impressed a lot more than the Oscar winning “No Country for Old Men” a similar type of crime drama where in the movement of the film becomes a melancholic yet scary entity in the story. In this film it is about a silent loner who dreams of doing a great clean robbery is in a very situation after a hunting ends as an accidental shooting of a guy. It is a methodical crime drama which never lets to know about this person apart from his passion for the job which too he rarely exposes in expressions.Beielinsky either hides us in the thick bush of the woods hardly letting sun light or openly lets us into the barren suburbs. But the barren property has a carelessness for the things which are about to happen later in the film. The loner played again by Ricardo Darín is a taxidermist who joins his friend Sontag (Alejandro Awada) on a hunting trip. Before that with precise timing he explains to Sontag on how to loot the place they are about to get paid. He inscribes everything he sees and assembles those pieces to form a plan. According to him, there is a clean get out with zero calamities.
The IMDB says the character name as Espinoza played by Ricardo but hardly does it get mentioned or as in “Layer Cake” it is not something to be identified upon. His existence is merely by the witness of some of the people who got to talk with him, rarely. I think that’s the reason when he seizes into unconsciousness in many of his epileptic attack, Beielinsky chooses no one to notice him. Either the place he faints is devoid of human existence or people are too busy. The attack as expected happens in a crucial moment still managing to surprise us. The film uses it as a tool but also conceals it as a natural process.
The photography Checco Varese closes us with trees when the protagonist is clueless and opens up the blue sky with dry lands when he has a chance to be free and explore. It is amply supported by the music of Lucio Godoy. The momentary lapse from the realization of getting into an Epileptic attack and the actual attack, he calls it as the aura. A perfect moment wherein you are free of everything but completely out of control of yourself. It is a pain and pleasure. The film metaphorically represents the phenomenon to the character. As he accidentally kills a man, he panics but covers it up. Slowly when he learns the truth about the actual heist, he follows the notes, photos and voices left for the guy he shot. The killing vanishes and as him we too get into the plan. The money is irrelevant but without knowing what the plan is, his quest to solve it and mainly build it up becomes his new project. This soon catches on us.
It is a patient movie and that is how it should be. The DVD cover explanation gives it as a part character study and part crime drama but the character we study is a fantasy in real life of this strange lonely introspective person. We know nothing of him except for his obsession on doing a robbery. He is not a killer, nor a person of conscience. He is the average guy who visualizes in his thoughts of flying, shooting and the fantastic thrills of it. Logically he is aware of the terror yet he cannot stop himself from thinking about it. The situation this person stands on is the blend of his logic and fantasy. He surrenders to his instincts and takes it wherever it goes and adapts his story accordingly. Soon he gets mixed up with the actual players and he goes along with it.
It does not resolve nor do we learn something about the person or the film as such. It is simply the pleasure of the realistic dream we can delve. “No Country for Old Men” is considered master piece and experiencing this film makes me understand the people who call it a work of great art. The style of Coen brothers of course is enigmatic, mysterious and deadly but the time of its stay in my mind is limited. In “The Aura”, after a point we give up to understand this character because this is going on a ride which is a cinematic experience rather than a life lesson. “No Country for Old Men” tries that, may be a little too hard and abruptly stops.
No comments:
Post a Comment