Aurora
2010, 181 minutes
A man kills his ex wife
It is an opaque existential drama, and Puiu himself stars as Viorel, a middle-aged guy who is apparently at the end of his tether, having endured humiliations at work and at home. And now he has got a gun. Viorel's accumulating Weltschmerz finds expression in this slo-mo 180-minute explosion: I found myself thinking of Douglas Gordon's art installation 24 Hour Psycho. He remains impassive, unemotional – actually, his only emotion is repeatedly and disturbingly to take peevish offence at people "taking a tone" with him. Disconcertingly, intriguingly, nothing is made entirely clear; a formal explanation from Viorel's own lips is offered only very late on, and that is incomplete. A partial view is all we're ever offered.
Connected mandy members:
Michael Butler
Director of Photography