The director says that dialogue can be used to denote power – indicating the balance between who speaks and who is silent.
azorro A quietly disturbing film follows Yvan (Fabrizio Rongione), a private banker, who arrives in Buenos Aires with his wife Inés (Stephanie Klau) in an environment dense with sinister sophistication. It’s the 1980s and in the middle of a military dictatorship; Time of uneasy alliances. Yvan must negotiate a path across this pan of cut-throat suspicion, in search of clues to his mysteriously missing ally, Rene Keys, who is variously charming as well as untrustworthy.
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The names are important for director Andreas Fontana (39), who makes an assured debut with azorro, “The name is a small thing, but it defines your history,” the Swiss director says over a video call from Geneva. “It’s like a historical or social code. It was important for me to play with him. So Keys is definitely the key to the movie, but there’s also a reference to Colonel Kurtz in Joseph Conrad. heart of Darkness,
There are echoes of Conrad’s 1899 novel and Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse Now (1979) in azorro, “The structure of the novel, A Journey into the Dark, makes it easy to imagine and adapt to film.”
A still from ‘Azor’
face the problem
Fontana, however, chose not to end. azorro with book-like confrontation or Apocalypse Now, “I didn’t want to disappoint the audience. Their imaginations will always be stronger than my ability to show. I’m sure the keys you can imagine are so much better than anything I can show So I didn’t want to end the movie with a confrontation between Yvan and Keys. The ending is not about Keys but about Yvan and his darkness.”
The reason Fontana ventured into the closed world of private banking was because Fontana wanted to make a film about people whose work is secret. “I found the mindset of the bankers, their way of thinking, their tools and techniques interesting. My grandfather was a private banker. He was very intelligent and I didn’t know anything about his work. After his death, I became interested in his world.”
Fabrizio Rongione in a scene from ‘Azor’
private language
The significance of the title, Fontana says, comes from an argument used by private bankers. “It means being silent, or being careful with what you say. I find it interesting the practice of inventing words to describe the exact feeling or behavior. The language of a closed community tells things about people and what they say.” defines.”
silence is the main character azorro, “I’m a minimalist director and have no interest in using effects. The film is about power. Dialogue can be used to depict power. When four people are in a room, one might that attracts everyone’s attention because they are talking louder. Others may be silent either because they want to be quiet or because the other person is taking up too much space. My entry into this question of power While I can’t imagine how a dictator thinks, I can understand what’s going on when someone talks a lot and someone is silent because he can’t speak.
silent sound
while the silence azorro Strikingly, the film also has a lush soundtrack. “My friend, Paul Courlet, composed the music.” After finishing shooting, Fontana realized that as with all film noir references, he would need a score to match the mood. “I called Paul and asked him for something he wasn’t used to. He sent me some really interesting work that he did. The film is subtle and it was important that the music didn’t happen. I wanted to create a sense of distance. “
The director spent time in Buenos Aires after earning an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Geneva, training as a production assistant. He laughs and says that the research was neither easy nor difficult, but it took a long time. “I’m obsessed. Part of my interest in making movies is research, to be a detective and research something that not many people are interested in. If you’re researching something that everyone is watching So, you’re bound to look at this topic like everyone else.”
A scene from ‘Azor’
Time and Place
azorro According to Fontana is set in Buenos Aires in 1980 as it was a difficult moment in Argentine history. “In the 1980s the dictatorship began to target not only political opposition, but also the rich and powerful. Suddenly everyone in Argentina became potential targets of repression, kidnapping and violence.”
Fontana says the challenge of shooting a period piece was to make sure the film didn’t become a museum piece. “While it was important to be precise with the period, it was also important to be a little chronological because what happened in Argentina in 1980 could happen in any part of the world today.”
Talking about the casting, Fontana says, the film had all non-professional actors from Argentina. “They came from different backgrounds – lawyers, financiers and bakers, they came from the same environment as in the film. The French parts were cast with professional actors. Fabrizio Rongione, who plays Yvan, is not very famous and neither is Stephanie Kleu who plays his wife Inez. He is an amazing actor.”
azorro Currently streaming on MUBI.
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