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.

The Aura (2005)A special film, set in southern Argentina, that plays with the interior mechanizing thoughts of a taxidermist with epilepsy who by accident is on the fringe of a major crime. The leading man, Esteban, played by Ricardo Darin, is penetrating and subtle and persuasive. The story supports his high level of sheer acting by turning and turning further as you go. There are times it seems slow, for sure, but the deliberate pace is something like the deliberate thinking done on screen by Esteban.One of the brave strengths of the style of filming has become common in the last decade or two--we see something happen and only later realize it is completely imagined by the character. The surprise is fun, and your mind has to quickly reposition yourself as a viewer to what the current reality actually is. This happens right away and it's a brilliant kind of storytelling. In a similar way, we see Esteban's thoughts race visually as he thinks through his answers--a fast series of mental images from earlier observations has him logically assembling his next move right before our eyes. The effect is both fast and engaging. And Darin is so likable and respectable in his quiet brooding, it's easy to join him in his head.Director and writer Fabian Bielinsky shows brilliant planning and a lyrical photographic vision (with cinematographer Checco Varese), and it's a sad loss to read he died just after the release of this movie. If you can adjust to the methodical pace, and enjoy the construction and psychology of movies like this ("Memento" comes to mind as a flashier American film in a similar vein), you'll really appreciate it. Yes, it reveals its cleverness a little too much sometimes, or adds characters (like the guy at the casino) who are interesting and yet end up a it peripheral. You can study and quibble over the details in a movie like this. But overall it's a special film, worth watching with appreciation.

I am trying to understand the contribution of sound to cinematic narrative. It seems multidimensional compared to the linearity of the delivered narrative and three dimensional nature of the cinematic vocabulary. Though the detail we need to sustain narrative is missing, music (and sound generally) can form the skeleton of a rich narrative. It will take me some time to wade through this with the Zimmers and Elfmans distracting.Meanwhile, here is a film that understands the power of silence. The story revolves around man who takes dead things and makes them look as if they were alive and making noise. He himself has seizure disorder and often crosses that boundary between silence-blindness and speaking-seeing. In between, right on the edge of that transition, is "the aura," a strange supernatural state where dreams diffuse. Some people experience it as colors or sound; range pretty much covers everything. This man experiences it as a narrative, which form the "film within." Spanish-speaking filmmakers have a long tradition of interweaving realism with other layers, sometimes unfortunately called magical. The evolution of this explores all sorts of folds, and I believe that the possibilities are roughly the same explored by those trying to mix on-screen singing into a realistic narrative. It is not a reach to see the taxidermy and abandoned wife segments as more "real," and the heist segments as "in aura," with a transitional segment early in the movie where the heist is imagined from the alert state. Describing it this way does not do justice to the construction.The inner bits are noir-driven, meaning that there is an inevitability, a conspiracy of the cosmos. It has gambling, accidental engagements, partial but not adequate glimpses of what is going on. This filmmaker's last film worked this sort of thing with the imposition of the con game on "reality." Here he is much more masterful, seamless enough that he is able to give us both noir and an outer awareness, that recognition of the aura.If you think of it, the power that noir has over us is the way we see ourselves as helplessly buffeted by forces. But the form has become so formulaic that it loses its effectiveness, its art. This solution, what this filmmaker has done here is brilliant. Unfortunately forces beyond his control took him away from us into his own world now.The effectiveness of the noir dynamic here is accentuated by what he takes away. He takes the sound away. There are long pauses here. Time stands still for the viewer while the world moves. It is more effective than any score could be.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

It's way bad Fabián Bielinsky died (young) after making this film because Le Aura demonstrates clearly that its director has mastered his domain. There are a few puzzling moments in the script and its characters, but this isn't one of those "Don't go in that room!" thrillers, it's old-school/neo-noir; quietly intense and full of suspense.Ricardo Darín's peculiarly charactered performance is executed with such subtlety and nuance that it's hard to believe he's acting. The sound design and original score are beautiful, and so perfect for the film, they seem to be growing out of it rather than being imposed upon it. There are times when the lack of any soundtrack is deafening. The droning tensions and lilting piano ennui disappear, punctuating the moments of action with a moribund silence.Sometimes I complain when a film ends with such ambiguity it appears to be a cop-out. But not here. The ending will make you rethink the journey you were just on but it won't devalue its magnificence. This is one of those rare films where the ride is so engaging that its hard to imagine anything but disappointment merely because it does end."Aura" is what doctors use to describe the moment before falling into epileptic seizure. Ricardo Darín's character describes it as a moment of pure freedom. The inevitable is so clear that decisions are impossible, hence ... Freedom. Clarity. Bielinsky's film.