Azor

In a few short sentences:

• Nice cinematography
• Weird and annoying soundtrack
• Ok acting
• Slow pace (slow enough to make me quit watching after 1/3 of the movie)

Very engaging slow-burner that somehow never bursts into flame. The only flaw I find in this movie, is that the ending seems not to have been given too much thought.

But it presents a very unique quality: a perfect depiction of tension. There is tension everywhere, in every scene, in every character, throughout the whole movie. The masterfully crafted soundtrack does a major contribution there. This is a movie where there is no display of action. Every thing is as silent as the atrocities that we know for a fact were being committed while we watch these low voice conversations between wealthy people, bankers, clergy, all the way to the final "deal with the devil" moment.

I saw Azor a week ago. I have been thinking about it ever since.

The word "Azor" as used here is a French expression that means to remain quiet, to play one's cards close to the chest. On the surface, the film looks like a thriller, maybe something that Costa-Gavras might have made. However, like its title, the film is too quiet to be called a thriller.

In 1980, a Genevan private banker arrives in Argentina to do business. He is replacing a colleague who has a controversial reputation with the locals. In fact, there is some question about where this predecessor is currently, most believing that he has returned to Geneva. The banker, Yvan, and his wife, Ines, spend several days in the country trying to woo various clients, but the country's politics keep coming up. One of the clients (excellently played by Juan Trench) is grieving the disappearance of his daughter, who was involved in a political group. Her fate looks dire, but the client hangs on to hope.

Throughout all of this, Yvan and his wife, choose their words carefully and navigate the chilly political waters. The film builds to an ending that I initially thought of as too slight, but the more I think about it, the more I admire its true-to-life quality. There are no chases or shootouts like most thrillers would have for a climax. Instead, the film ponders a question. The story acknowledges that to get ahead one must often remain silent to horrible abuses, but should he do so?

Azor is a nicely shot, eye catching film, with good actors. I especially like Fabrizo Rongione, as Yvan, who has the difficult task of expressing a lot without saying much. I liked Azor a week ago, but I like it even more now.

The title, 'Azor' is translated as a code for, 'Be quiet'. The main characters rarely venture beyond the act of listening as they navigate through a maze of pretense and subterfuge that covers a world of arrogance, oppression and evil.

Fabrizio Rongione and Stephanie Cleau as the husband and wife strategize their pathway among the principals of a financial and political junta. Horrible crimes have been committed and an atmosphere of fear laps at the edges of every conversation. The particulars are never mentioned and studiously avoided. In the end we see that everyone who plays a part is fully complicit in a ruthless pursuit of power and greed.

A period piece that visually could have been made in the period that it portrays, the movie drifts from scene to scene, conversation and conversation in what feels like a dream. What is real is never spoken and everything important is hidden behind a curtain of appearance and language.

Sophisticated banker "De Wiel" (Fabrizio Rongione) heads from his base in Geneva to Buenos Aires to take over from his colleague who has mysteriously vanished. Now this story is set in the 1980s so his destination is still under the slightly anachronistic control of a military junta and the Catholic church. Rumours are abounding about the nature of the role his colleague had in some murky financial dealings and so aside from appeasing their clients, he is to try and find out just what happened to "Kies". Upon arrival he is quickly exposed to the corruption that prevails at just about every level of society and his job is to make them as much money a possible - regardless of the ethics or risks of any such transactions, whilst maintaining an high degree of discretion (aka secrecy). I could have done with just a little more pace from director Andreas Fontana here, but what he does provide is quite a compellingly presented assessment of just how venally menacing things were. His "associates" realising that the writing might be on the wall for them desperately trying to liquidate assets which may, or probably did not, belong to them to insulate themselves in an haven abroad. His encounters are not just with the upper class, but all with all strata of a community that had spent it's life turning a blind eye or being passively complicit. The photography works well with the limited amounts of dialogue, and this is quite an effective psychological thriller that leaves us to do much of the heavy lifting - and judging - ourselves.