How effective “Azor” is will likely depend on your appetite for an aesthetically pleasing slow-burn, not to mention, one that says nearly the same thing with every scene. These characters are, at once, in danger from some unseen force, and dangerous to unseen others. The more complicated answer involves the structures and people left out of frame, and the unspoken harm these people have done to earn their generational wealth.
You know why each person is there - to find information, to make a business transaction, and so forth - but why they’re really there is a question that gets under your skin, even though the simple answer is obviously money. A dueling sense of morality pervades each sit-down too. Usually, they land on Spanish, English or French. There’s an unease to every conversation, beginning with linguistic disconnects an uncertainty that doesn’t begin to fade until the participants scout out a common tongue. Whether he likes it or not, he’s a part of this sinister culture, though just how much will depend on with whom he’s willing to fall in line. Their fancy, warmly lit spaces and lush estates are almost hermetically sealed even Yvan ignores the public effects of the military checkpoint en route to his hotel, and as he reads an article about local hyper-inflation, he casually trades stock by telephone. The silences are, in a way, complicit, given how removed these characters feel from the on-the-ground reality of mass murder and anti-communist juntas. Yet all the while, neither tight-lipped group sheds their suits and evening gowns, or their “civil” upper-class veneer. They’re dismissive and impenetrable - almost dehumanizing. Some silences are fearful, broken up only by whispers and innuendo. However, these men’s silences around certain topics and certain people creates a mystery around the mass keeping Yvan in orbit. Based on their conversations, Yvan is clearly within the gravitational pull of money and power.
AZOR MOVIE SERIES
A series of powerful men who answer to even more powerful men welcome him with polite smiles, into fancy rooms, smoky lounges, and ornate gardens. He’s a man slotted to fill an empty space in the world of private banking, and he’s often treated as such. The film’s plot is threadbare, since Yvan’s investigation into his partner’s disappearance neither turns up concrete answers, nor forms the central reason for his arrival. ‘The Zone of Interest’ Review: Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust Anti-Drama Is a Chilling Look at the Banality of Evil Anything to do with the government? Not so much. The recent FIFA World Cup is a delightful subject of small talk. This is the world Yvan enters with his wife Ines (Stéphanie Cléau), and as they arrive at their Buenos Aires hotel in late 1970s a brief, hot-and-cold chat with the receptionist hints at the conversational maze they’re about to enter. Perhaps this man is Yvan’s missing business partner, or perhaps he is the idea of an influential outsider under the thumb of vastly more influential local forces. The film seldom wavers from its singular idea and feeling tonally, it’s a stroll across a plateau by design, but it teeters constantly over that plateau’s edge.Ī false tropical backdrop and washed-out footage of a well-dressed man with a forced smile yank us into the story and its permeating sense of artifice. “Conceal, conceal, conceal” responds director Andreas Fontana, whose repetitive-but-impactful debut feature “ Azor” paints a portrait of fear using palpable gaps in conversation. As a Swiss banker, Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione) follows in the footsteps of his missing colleague, and Fontana’s self-assured filmmaking captures a chilling atmosphere against the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War.
“Show, don’t tell,” says conventional wisdom.
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