Some critics have invoked John le Carré or Graham Greene when describing Azor’s slow-release malefic mood. For this couple, the inviolable boundary between outer and inner life has long been eroded.įabrizio Rongione as Yvan in Azor. (Rarely without a cigarette, Inés never passes up an opportunity for a languorous swim water-averse Yvan’s lone concession to leisurewear is to unbutton the top of his white dress shirt.) Playing patrician characters whose life work consists of charming, coaxing, and flattering the likewise wealthy, no matter how vulgar or repugnant, Rongione and Cléau adroitly assume the opacity that is the inexorable result of this kind of relentless performance, donning facades not just while trying to woo the rich but also during private moments. The financier’s soigné spouse has a gift for extracting useful intel during insipid conversations-about Gstaad, say-with the privileged matrons of Buenos Aires, desultory chats held in vast living rooms or in Hockney-perfect pools. To aid him in his mission of soothing the skittish plutocrats, Yvan’s wife, Inés (Stéphanie Cléau), accompanies him. Stéphanie Cléau as Inés and Fabrizio Rongione as Yvan in Azor. Set in Buenos Aires during late 1980, at roughly the midpoint of Argentina’s Dirty War-the reign of terrorism perpetuated by the country’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983- Azor follows Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione), a Swiss private international banker who’s come to the capital city on a dual mission: to find out what happened to Keys, his business partner, who was last heard from about a month ago, and to reassure their affluent Argentine clientele, unnerved by Keys’s vanishing. The aural dread matches the unease provoked by this anonymous figure’s unsettling mirth, with its hints of barely concealed mania or derangement.Ī few scenes into Azor, the superb debut feature of Andreas Fontana, viewers will surmise that this fleetingly glimpsed character is a man named Keys, who operates as the film’s structuring absence. He laughs at something, though he’s muted, the audio dominated by the skittish sounds of an electro-harpsichord. Before this one-dimensional, lush greenery stands a shaggy-haired, besuited man who is himself a kind of optical illusion, for he’ll never be seen again. A shot of prodigious verdure, which seems to place us in a jungle, turns out to be only photo wallpaper adorning a conference room. Find out more here.Azor, directed by Andreas Fontana, now playing in New York City opening Septemin Los AngelesĪzor, a slinky political thriller about deception, dissembling, and self-delusion, appositely begins with a bit of trompe l’oeil. Explore the full season here.Īs we move into the next stage of life in the pandemic, you might like to read more our current measures. VISIONS OF EUROPE: From 8-21 April, QFT celebrates the breadth of vision of European cinema, and bids a fond farewell to Europa Cinemas, with a season of 21 handpicked films. Written in collaboration with Argentinian filmmaker Mariano Llinás ( La Flor), Azor is a riveting look at international intrigue worthy of John le Carré or Graham Greene. Moving through the smoke-filled lounges and lush gardens of a society under intense surveillance, he finds himself untangling a sinister web of colonialism, high finance, and a nation's “Dirty War”. Set in Buenos Aires, the film follows private banker Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione, Two Days, One Night) as he arrives from Geneva with his wife Ines (Stéphanie Cléau) to replace a mysteriously missing colleague and placate their moneyed clientele. Atmospheric and slyly seductive, this sophisticated political thriller teems with exquisite scenery and ominous conversation. With the country in the clutches of a military dictatorship, violence is always simmering just under the surface.
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