![]() ![]() ![]() The client’s father called the area the grand boulevards, invoking Haussmann, the 19th-century French official who, in service of Louis Napoleon, remade Paris by razing slums and forcing out the poor. Instead, when a sympathetic client (Juan Trench) takes Yvan and his wife, Ines (Stéphanie Cléau), on a ride, he speaks about a stand of trees planted by his great-grandfather. The land, of course, was stolen long ago, though no one, Fontana included, puts it like that. Yet, for the most part, Yvan’s clients, with their money, landed estates and thoroughbreds seem largely indifferent to the evil informing their lives. There’s chatter about Swiss schools, fine hotels, family castles, the good old days - all of which helps maintain the veneer of normalcy. There is instead a lot of seemingly innocuous small talk, the kind often tucked in amid a movie’s narrative leaps forward. There are no louche, swaggering spies in “Azor,” no dashing heroes, no swoony villains and very little of what could pass for Hollywood-style action. Rather than stuffing the movie with incidents, with clever turns and sexy characters, empty moralizing and political grandstanding, he has whittled it to the bone. For his part, the colorless Yvan, with his stiff politesse and old-world firm, presents the very picture of a useful patsy.įontana, who is Swiss but has lived in Argentina, takes a sideways, insistently oblique approach to intrigue. Robinson’s claims adjuster, Keyes, in “Double Indemnity.”) Certainly “Azor” has a smattering of suspense-film essentials: hushed conversations, clouds of cigarette smoke, heavily armed soldiers. With its swampy air of unease and the figure of the enigmatic missing man, the key to the story as it were, “Azor” vaguely evokes films like Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” (written by Graham Greene), though without the narrative pulse and concerns or Hollywood glamour of that cloak-and-dagger thriller. A Supporting-Actress Underdog: In “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” don’t discount the pivotal presence of Stephanie Hsu.Sundance and the Oscars : Which films from the festival could follow “CODA” to the 2024 Academy Awards.An Andrea Riseborough FAQ : Confused about the brouhaha surrounding the best actress nominee? We explain why her nod was controversial. ![]() The Tom Cruise Factor : Stars were starstruck when the “Top Gun: Maverick” headliner showed up at the Oscar nominees luncheon.Kyle Buchanan is covering the films, personalities and events along the way. The Projectionist Chronicles the Awards Season The Oscars aren’t until March, but the campaigns have begun. It shapes every gesture, sidelong glance and oblique comment, turning an outwardly routine business trip into a mystery unlocked only through Keys. As the story unfolds, this perturbation suffuses the movie. He suddenly looks like a man searching for an exit. As the camera holds on him, he seems more ill at ease and his laughing smiles give way to unexplained agitation. It has you in its cool grip from the opening shot of a shambolic-looking Keys standing in suit and tie before a flat, blurred backdrop of jungle greenery. Written and directed by Andreas Fontana, making a formally precise, tonally perfect feature debut, “Azor” is a low-key shocker. Again and again, Yvan apologizes for the behavior of his missing colleague, René Keys (seen briefly in the opening), a confounding figure intensely disliked by some yet beloved by others. With the junta ruling the country, the wealthy, murmuring about nothing much, sip drinks by their pools, tended by fleets of servants. For most of Yvan’s clients, life seems to go on as before, with little to disrupt their cosseted indolence. Others just smile knowingly, betraying their loyalties.Ī harrowing vision of evil from the inside, the movie tracks the banker, Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione), as he journeys through Argentina several years after armed forces overthrew the government of President Isabel Martínez de Perón. ![]() Danger is everywhere - people have disappeared, are disappearing - though you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the mansions they visit, where the Swiss interlopers exchange pleasantries with the Buenos Aires elite, some of whom voice vague warnings. It’s 1980 and a Swiss private banker and his wife are traveling through Argentina, taking in the sights while he tries to clean up a mess left by a missing colleague. Tendrils of menace creep through the unnerving drama “Azor,” snaking through every room and scene. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |