EL AURA
/
2005
DIRECTOR: Fabián Bielinsky
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Checco Varese
WRITER: Fabián Bielinsky & Pablo De Santis (collaborating writer)
BUDGET: ?
GROSS: $1,805,261(worldwide)
Director Fabian Bielinsky’s directorial debut was a great movie called Nine Queens, released in 2000. Five years later he directed El Aura. And with this great film he completely avoided any kind of "sophomore slump" - let’s call it the sophomore bump.
The film is about an epileptic taxidermist who has criminal fantasies about being able to pull of almost any kind of heist with enough attention and planning. Then one day, while hunting in the woods, one pull of the trigger brings him the ability to put his theory to a real world test (how vague yet intriguing is that summary. Am I right?).
There’s a lot that one could talk about with this film, but in the case of El Aura what stood out for me was just how incredibly well made the film was. The New York Times is quoted on the back of the film’s DVD case: "demonstrates a mastery of the form that is downright scary". I remember reading that after having watched the film and I don't think it can be stated any better. Bielinsky was a master and it can be seen in every frame of El Aura.
Every camera angle, the framing of every shot, the lighting, every edit and pan of the camera. It’s all just beautiful and done with a sure hand and a confidence that you rarely see - and even less so with a director that has only made two films.
As I watched this film I remember my excitement as I started to think about Bielinsky's next film and the potential career he could have. It was just his second movie but I just knew, in my "film gut", that there was something great there.
Unfortunately, what I didn't know until after I had watched the movie, was that Fabian Bielinsky had died from a heart attack in 2006 at the, way to young age of 47. So, while there will never be a "next film", I guess the most I can do is highly recommend the two films he did make, Nine Queens and El Aura.