I read Svet Atanasov's DVD review of The Aura at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27465 and I wanted to encourage other viewers to see the film. I don't have a huge t.v., so much of the disappointment that Svet had, I didn't experience. However, I am compelled to say that if you don't have access to non-R1 dvd's (or are unable to play them), I would still seek out the R1 release.

I thought the film was wonderful. I am a big fan of Ricardo Darin, and also enjoyed Bielinsky's previous flick, _Nine Queens_. This had a wonderfully different feel, and the 138 minute running time never seemed burdensome. I thought the sparse/ambient music was a wonderful complement to the cinematography, and I found the film beautiful to watch. The cinematography, as well as a couple other things (landscape plays an important role, ambiguous bad guys/good guys, etc.) brought to mind _History of Violence_ several times.

Viewers--don't be detered by Svet's review of the DVD. Maybe he's right that you don't want to buy the DVD, but when he says rent it, you should rent it.

I am going to agree with you that this is a wonderful film and certainly one that deserves to be seen (I've made my feelings about it clear long time ago in the International forum).

When it comes to the DVD however, meaning technical presentation, there is no way in HELL i can recommend that anyone spends money on this. I can not take it upon myself to mask a poor presentation such as the one provided by IFC Films - Seeing the film is one thing (as you rightfully suggest in your post) but encouraging other people to spend money on the DVD is a travesty. And I don't want to be a part of it!!

How could you have an Oscar-nominated film, literally less than a year after it premiered in theaters, and not have it 16/9 enhanced??

As we are part of a site where people come to read both about film(s) and technical presentation "Rent it" is as far as I could go. This is very simple, I can not have angry people questioning me why I promoted a disc that is not 16/9 (maybe an obscure, cult title...difficult to locate in an English-friendly format picture....perhaps...)!

And finally I agree with you: Darin's performance with the ambient soundtrack is something special, indeed!

Pro-B

Good. We agree: see the film.

Watched this last night.

Wow. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

American cinema these days pales in comparison with incredible films like this. Sad.

I don't believe it was nominated Pro-B. It was the official Argentinean entry, but not chosen as one of the five nominees.

I see what you are saying but...

If it is submitted for Oscar consideration then it becomes nominated (there is a process that each country's Film Academy must follow, here this being the Argentinean Film Academy...and then the Academy formally accepts the entry...remember how Cache for example was not approved). The final five films are just that: finalists.

Pro-B

Some good news to those of you looking for a better R1 release of this film - I picked up the Seville Pictures dvd of this in Canada which was released last month, and it is 16x9 enhanced. The picture quality looks quite good and it looks like a progressive transfer to my eyes. Of course the only downside is the bilingual packaging, which is surprising to me since Seville usually does the reversible packaging instead. Unfortunately it looks as if they have gone the same way as everybody else releasing dvd's in Canada.