The aura that Walter Benjamin speaks of in an object is its "value," measured in terms of distance. In Anemic Cinema, the art which is being mechanically reproduced is the sonic pun of the sentences displayed on screen. The original source of the art is the reading or recitation of the sentence from one person to another, or a person to his or herself. By reproducing these sentences on film, Duchamp is affecting the aura of the sentence, from its "original" source. The effect is not quite similar to an instance of one beholding a photograph of the Mona Lisa rather than the actual painting, since the original source of a sentence is not concrete (Though the Ten Commandments or the Magna Carta may suggest otherwise due to their status as "cult objects").
In this case, I don't think the aura of the puns are removed. This is a silent film, and so the important part of the pun is its reproduction in one's mind. If this film were made in 2008 with Morgan Freeman reading the phrases out loud, the aura will have been decreased even more so, I think. It's important to note that mechanical reproduction is exhibited rather literally in this film. The words are physically embedded in a spiraling piece of metal (or whatever it is), and perhaps that says something about the decrease of aura through mechanical reproduction. I really don't think that the aura has been decreased, though, as the art is words and I think the true essence of literary art is in its reproduction.
This is getting a bit confusing.
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