Darren Aronofsky
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6 Lessons on Filmmaking From Darren Aronofsky
Last evening, The New Museum held a conversation between Lynne Tillman and Darren Aronofsky as part of their annual Stuart Regen Visionaries Series. Tillman began with an excerpt from Genesis, a winking reference to Aronofsky’s Noah as well as the frequent depiction of beginnings — of identities and obsession — in his work. Over the next hour and a half, the two parsed through his filmography in chronological order, weighing in on themes and construction. Below are a few major takeaways from the discussion, and if time is not of the essence, the full version can be viewed above. Using Format to Create Cohesion Per […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 1, 2014 -
Watch: Creation Sequence from Noah
I didn’t see Noah, but if critical consensus serves, it seems the crown jewel of Aronofsky’s Biblical blockbuster attempt is now online. This three-minute, seemingly computer generated sequence re-imagines Genesis, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel to aesthetically pleasing and compact effect. Set against Russell Crowe’s narration, the evolution of animals and man is particularly striking. One bone to pick: before gifting Eve with the apple, snakes could walk.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 12, 2014 -
Cutting for Story: Editor Andrew Weisblum in Conversation
Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese. Walter Murch and Francis Ford Coppola. Tim Squyres and Ang Lee. For many an editor, these longtime creative partnerships represent the most alluring and elusive of career ideals. For editor Andrew Weisblum, that ideal is well on the way to becoming a reality — twice over. Since 2007, Weisblum has cut all of both Wes Anderson’s and Darren Aronofsky’s feature films, ranging in style from the witty charm of Fantastic Mr. Fox to the demented psychodrama of Black Swan (for which Weisblum was Oscar nominated). Kicking off this year’s Manhattan Edit Workshop series “Inside the […]
by Heather von Rohr on Feb 27, 2013 -
DARREN ARONOFSKY’S UNSETTLING ANTI-DRUG ADS
Likely thanks to his work on the still-disturbing Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky was recently tapped to direct a series of anti-drug commercials for non-profit organization The Meth Project. The use of scare tactics in anti-drug campaigns is no new innovation (remember what happened to Rachel Leigh Cook’s brain?), but one has to wonder if the people responsible for commissioning these ads, which are set to air during an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl, would turn out quite so unsettling. Watch all four ads below. This one takes the cake for 30-second spot that you’d least expect to see […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Nov 11, 2011 -
IFP’s ANNUAL SCRIPT TO SCREEN CONFERENCE
Ah, there’s nothing quite like the smell of pitches in the morning. This past Saturday, the IFP kicked off its annual Script to Screen Conference with five brave writers pitching their scripts to a panel of producers and agents. Although all the panelists agreed that it was useful for writers to compare their projects to other films (a practice known as “using comps”) Peter Van Steemburg, the Director of Acquisitions at Magnolia Pictures, warned against using obvious ones such as “Juno or Napoleon Dynamite,” recommending that if you are pitching something that’s a lot like another movie, you should […]
by Mary Anderson Casavant on Mar 7, 2011 -
“BLACK SWAN” WINS BIG AT SPIRIT AWARDS
The Film Independent Spirit Awards just wrapped (see it on IFC tonight @ 10ET) and Darren Aronofsky‘s thriller Black Swan was the big winner taking home four awards, including Best Feature, Best Director for Aronofsky and Best Female Lead for Natalie Portman. Winter’s Bone won the supporting acting prizes with John Hawkes taking it for actor and Dale Dickey for actress while James Franco won Best Male Lead for 127 Hours, Banksy‘s Exit through the Gift Shop won Best Documentary and Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg won Best Screenplay for The Kids Are All Right. Also, “25 New Face” alum […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 26, 2011 -
TURN OUT: DARREN ARONOFSKY’S “BLACK SWAN”
This piece was originally printed in the Fall 2010 issue. Black Swan is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Darren Aronofsky), Best Actress (Natalie Portman), Best Cinematography (Matthew Libatique), Best Editing (Andrew Weisblum). Darren Aronofsky was developing a project based on Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novella, The Double, when he happened to go to a production of another Russian work, Swan Lake, the 1875 ballet composed by Peter Tchaikovsky. Seeing the ballet’s White Swan and Black Swan played by the same ballerina, Aronofsky experienced what he called a “Eureka” moment, realizing that The Double’s themes of splintering identity and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2011 -
Darren Aronofsky’s Top 5 Books On The Movies
Over at The Browser, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky names and discusses his top five books on films and filmmaking. There’s an obvious one (Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies), an unexpected autobiography (Kirk Douglas’s The Ragman’s Son), and then the following screenplay tome. From Aronofsky’s piece: The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler. It’s the Bible for screenwriters. I think it’s the best book on how to write a screenplay ever written. It helped me get through so many roadblocks as a writer. Vogler adapted the work of Joseph Campbell, an American academic, to the art of screenwriting. Vogler’s approach to screenwriting was […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 11, 2011 -
Into the Splice: Black Swan
Things didn’t bode well from the beginning. The crowd in the theater was restive. People shifted uncomfortably in their seats even before the movie began. I was alone, and sat in the back, the projector whirring somewhere above and behind me. But that was only the beginning. As it turns out, I had been editing Alla Gadassik’s remarkable video-essay for the Requiem // 102 project, and had learned of an obscure Italian Jennifer Connelly film from 1988, Etoile (directed by Peter Del Monte), which also happens to be a nightmarish film about Swan Lake that also features a monstrous black […]
by Nicholas Rombes on Jan 10, 2011 -
“BLACK SWAN” CHOREOGRAPHER IN ROMANTIC TANGO SHORT
Director Asa Mader and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, currently being celebrated for his choreography for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, have collaborated on a short starring Millepied and French actress Lea Seydoux. (Update: Millepied is also being reported as Natalie Portman’s fiance and the father of her baby.) From Nowness: After meeting at a dinner one night about five years ago, director Asa Mader and current principal of the New York City Ballet Benjamin Millepied struck up a friendship. “We immediately had a connection,” says Mader. The duo subsequently holed up over a long weekend in the Hamptons (they stayed at the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 12, 2010
