an actors director ... and good guy

So I finally watched The Wrestler last night. It serves to reinforce my huge geekdom when talking about Darren Aronofsky. This post should serve as a sort of pre-rambling to a massive oscar-prediction write-up.



One of the downsides to living in a small town is that we have one ten-screen movie theater. So our cinematic choices are often limited. It must be said that whoever is in charge of movie selection over there is doing a much better job than in years past. I've actually had the opportunity to watch 3 of the 5 nominees for the Best Picture Oscar in the past two months. He balances crappy horror drivel with films that appeal to our sizable geriatric demographic on the Outer Banks. When Gran Torino opened up to wide release in early January, I was shocked at how full the theater was on its first night here in KDH. And even more shocked at the number of high school kids I saw in the audience.

Unfortunately I had to resort to alternate means to view the latest film by one of my favorite filmmakers...Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. It involves identifying with Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffery Rush (virtually speaking anyway). So my viewing experience did not have the grand scope of a film theater, but I was deeply impressed by Aronofsky's work, as per usual. I can actually point to a viewing of his work as being one of those aha moments, where I realized I was really into film.

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It was Thanksgiving 2000, and I we were visiting our Arlington, VA friends as per usual. A quasi-tradition we have to is to try and squeeze a movie theater outing into our visit, but this year not everyone was interested. Zag the oldest son of my mom's best friend Linda, had recently gotten into film making, and we had talked some during our visit. I had taken in a seminar in my last semester at high school that dabbled in film analysis, but had been unable to register for any film classes in school due in large part because I registered for all my classes late, but also because the program was small, and the classes filled up very quickly (I guess the idea of watching movies for class appeals to college kids).

Zag and I decided to go out to Georgetown to find a small screening of Requiem for a Dream. And I was awash in greatness. The arresting cinematography by Matty Libatique and the ominous tones composed by Clint Mansell, coupled with incredible performances, were married to Aronofsky's haunting screenplay and direction to culminate in this eruption of a cinematic experience. With Zag there to help point out particularly impressive tones, themes, and techniques employed by the filmmakers, I was hooked. I wanted to drink in all that film analysis and theory had to offer, in a way that my former English teachers had wanted us to think about the dreary literature in which they drowned us.

Requiem got moderate love from the awards circuit. Most notably was the notice of the strong performance from Ellen Burstyn. She won the Independent Spirit Award for best Female Lead, but lost the Oscar to that horse-toothed Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich. Looking back it was a very strong year for film so I'm not surprised that Darren got lost in the academy shuffle. Another his collaborator's who scored an ISA was Libatique for his cinematography. I actually watched the next two films he DP'ed for solely based on Requiem. The second was the god awful Josie and the Pussycats, that I will still defend to this day (to some degree) based on Libatique's involvement. The first, however, was Joel Schumacher's Tigerland, which featured the role that essentially started the meteoric rise of Colin Farrell. I was impressed when he turned out to be Irish, as I was convinced he was actually from Texas. Another one of his cast-mates captured my attention. He appears here sitting on the bunk on the right.



I knew I had see him before. After I IMDB'ed him, I had to pick my jaw off the floor. (Here's a hint: "How can I have s'more when I haven't had any yet," "You're KILLING ME Smalls"). I watched that flick so many times growing up, and I always wondered what happened to those kids. I even rented that god awful sequel they cranked out because on the back it touted a where-are-they-now featurette.

Anywho, I digress (as is my nature). Libatique has DP'ed for Aronofsky for all his pictures...until The Wrestler. Matty forced Aronofsky to find a new DP for The Wrestler, most likely because Matty was off working on a little picture called Iron Man. Matty's also established a new collaboration trend, having framed each of Spike Lee's pictures since She Hate Me. But never fear...Libatique's hopefully tied to Darren's next two projects.

But perhaps Matty wasn't the right choice for The Wrestler. Maryse Alberti did the lighting and framing for this picture, and his pedigree is not be scoffed at. Most notably when scanning his filmography I saw a few highly touted documentaries, and The Wrestler plays very close to that type of tone. But it wasn't as if Aronofsky wasn't completely w/o his regular collaborators. He had his steady music man Clint Mansell whose provided the score for each of his movies.

My friend Jason liked his music so much that he used it in a clever youtube video,


I still believe a better name for the clip would have been "Requiem for a Wii'm"

...

When I was a sophomore in college I had the good fortune to meet both Aronofsky and Mansell.

We had a screening of Aronofsky's breakout film Pi, and following the film Aronofsky and Mansell (who of course scored this pic as well as Requiem for a Dream by this point) had a Q and A session.

The first thing I realized was...This guy seems like a regular average human being: How in the world did come up with such a depressing, visceral experience like Requiem. When I got a chance to shake his hand and get an autograph, I simply told him that it was a relief to find out that he had a normal sense of humor. There was also much speculation at this Q and A session about the much hyped Batman Year One project that Aronofsky was rumored to be developing. Aronofsky got shafted by the studios on this (I suppose you've seen the two somewhat successful movies starring Christian Bale have you?)and his next big project The Fountain. (I remember reading an early script review when Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt were attached, and he a $75 million budget...this was in 2002; then EVERYTHING WENT WRONG; long story short he had to make the movie for $35 million with Hugh Jackman, and his fiance Rachel Weisz and it was released in 2006)And yet he keeps on trucking despite Hollywood horror stories.

What I've come to realize is that Aronofsky is very much an actor's director. He sets the stage so well for an actor to deliver a monster performance. Burstyn in Requiem got an Oscar nod. Hugh Jackman proved he's a legitimate triple threat by showing dramatic chops in The Fountain, to go along with his action star clout and his Tony-award winning musical theater career. And now he's given Mickey Rourke the best gift he could possible get.

This film was tougher financially for them to make with Rourke as the headliner. And Aronofsky persisted that he be cast. I found his lack of bankability a little surprising given that Rourke had lit up the screen as Marv in Sin City in 2005, but that was not a headlining role by a longshot. But no one could play this role but Rourke.

So yeah Aronofsky didn't get nominated for an Oscar, but you can bet your sweet ass that win Rourke takes it down, he's gonna give up the love for Darren.