Darren Aronofsky

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Darren Aronofsky

Born February 12, 1969 (1969-02-12) (age 39)
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Domestic partner(s) Rachel Weisz (2004 - present; fiancée)

Darren "Dare" Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer.

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[edit] Early life

Aronofsky was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Abraham "Abe" Aronofsky and Charlotte, both school teachers. His father taught science and was a dean at Bushwick High School.

He graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Upon graduating early, he backpacked around the Middle East, Europe and Guatemala for six months and, in 1987, entered Harvard University where he studied anthropology, live action film and animation. His senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, starred his fellow student and friend Sean Gullette. It was a finalist in the 1991 Student Academy Awards. He graduated in 1991 with honors, later attending the AFI Conservatory and graduated with an Master of Fine Arts degree in 1992.

[edit] Features

[edit] π

Main article: π (film)

The film is about a mathematical genius, Maximillian Cohen, who narrates much of the movie. Max, a number theorist, theorizes that everything in nature can be understood through numbers, and that if you graph the numbers properly patterns will emerge. He is working on finding patterns within the stock market, using its billions upon billions of variables as his data set with the assistance of his homemade supercomputer, Euclid.

The film opens with Max narrating about a time when he was very young and tried to stare directly at the sun, despite his mother's warnings not to. His eyes were terribly damaged, and his doctors were not sure if they would ever heal. They did, but immediately thereafter he began to be plagued with headaches. The headaches are severe enough to drive him to the brink of madness, and he often passes out from the pain. He also suffers from extreme paranoia, manifested in menacing hallucinations, and a crippling form of social anxiety disorder. Throughout the film, it gets increasingly difficult to differentiate what is real and what is a product of Max's hallucinations.

In the course of his work, Max begins making stock predictions based on Euclid's calculations. In the middle of printing out the picks, Euclid suddenly crashes, but first spits out a 216-digit number that appears to be nothing more than a random string. Disgusted, Max tosses out the printout of the number. The next morning, Max checks the financial pages and sees that the few picks Euclid made before crashing were accurate. He searches desperately for the printout but cannot find it.

The only social interaction Max seems to have is with Sol Robeson, his old mathematics mentor, who regards Max as his prize student. Sol had been a leading figure in research into the nature of Pi in his earlier years, but gave it up for reasons that are made clear later on. He sympathizes with Max about the loss of Euclid but becomes unnerved when Max mentions the string of numbers, asking if the string was 216 digits long. When Max questions him about the string, Sol indicates that he came across such a number many years ago. He urges Max to slow down and try taking a break.

At a coffee shop, Max meets Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who does mathematical research on the Torah. Lenny demonstrates some simple Gematria to Max and explains how some people believe that the Torah is a string of numbers that form a code sent by God. Max takes an interest when he realizes that some of the number concepts Lenny discusses are similar to other mathematical theories, such as the Fibonacci Sequence. Lenny also mentions that he and his fellow researchers are searching for a 216-digit number that is repeated throughout the text of the Torah. He eventually decides to abandon working on the stock market and assist Lenny.

Max is also being pursued by agents of a Wall Street firm, who are interested in his work for financial reasons. One of the agents, Marcy Dawson, offers Max a powerful new computer chip called "min mekka" in exchange for the results of his work. Max insists that he is uninterested in profit but takes the chip to help his new research into the Torah.

Utilizing the sophisticated chip, Max has Euclid analyze mathematical patterns in the Torah. Euclid crashes again, but once again spits out the 216-digit number. When his computer refuses to print out the number, Max begins to write it down. Midway through the writing, Max realizes that he knows the pattern, undergoes a sudden, intense moment of self-realization, and passes out. Thereafter, Max appears to become clairvoyant and able to visualize the stock market patterns he had been searching for. His headaches also increase in intensity, and he discovers a strange vein-like bulge protruding from his right temple.

The next day, the stock market has crashed and that the financial world is in chaos due to the unexplainable drops in value. During a visit with Sol, his old mentor warns him that the mysterious 216-digit number is more than Max realizes, and seems to have powers of its own. Sol insists that trying to understand it years ago had caused him to suffer a stroke, but Max angrily dismisses Sol's concerns as cowardice.

Marcy Dawson and her henchmen grab Max on the street, and try to force him to explain the 216-digit number. They had found the original printout and were trying to use it to manipulate the stock market to their own ends; however, their lack of comprehension regarding the number had led them to unwittingly crash the stock market. Lenny and his fellow Hasidim rescue Max, but soon make similar demands on Max to give them the number. They believe the number was meant for them to bring about the Messianic Age. Max refuses, insisting that whatever the source of the number, it has been revealed to him alone.

Driven to the brink of madness, Max experiences another headache and resists the urge to take his pain medication. Believing that the number and the headaches are linked, Max tries to concentrate on the number through the pain. After passing out, Max has a vision of himself standing in a white void and repeating the digits of the number. Whether he is facing God or the vision is just another product of his own mental disorders is not confirmed. The vision breaks with Max hugging his beautiful female neighbor, which turns out to be an illusion. Max is standing alone, clutching himself in his trashed apartment. Giving up, Max trepans himself in the right temple, where he believes his mathematical genius is located. Whether this actually occurs is left ambiguous. Later, Max sits on a park bench and reveals that he is no longer able to perform complex mental calculation. He observes the trees blowing in the breeze, at peace.

[edit] Batman project

After Joel Schumacher's box-office bomb Batman & Robin in 1997, many directors tried to bring a darker take on Batman to the big screen. Aronofsky came close to getting one started by coming up with the idea of doing a low-budget take on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Christian Bale even said that he was about to sign on to the project just before it stalled in 2002. After Aronofsky's project failed, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer developed and completed Batman Begins in which Bale did eventually play the title role.

[edit] Requiem for a Dream

Main article: Requiem for a Dream

One of Aronofsky's favorite books is Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn.[citation needed] While editing π, producer Eric Watson convinced Aronofsky to read another Selby book, Requiem for a Dream, which Aronofsky had actually started reading years before but never finished. He was moved by the novel and wanted to film an adaptation, quickly beginning work on the script with Selby. Aronofsky delivered a relentless and disturbing movie of hopes and dreams shattered and lives laid waste by drug addiction. The film was a clinical depiction of the depths to which some people will sink to in the hope of attaining their dreams. The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was greeted by a 13 minute standing ovation. It was released in the United States in October, 2000. Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Sara Goldfarb.

[edit] The Fountain

Main article: The Fountain (film)

Aronofsky next commenced writing an original screenplay entitled "The Last Man", later changed to "The Fountain" to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. In 2002, days away from the start of filming, Pitt pulled out due to "creative differences", and the film collapsed. Sets were auctioned off once Warner Bros. Productions shut down filming. Warner Bros. however, decided to simply shelve the project and keep it as an option, so long as Aronofsky could find the proper cast. In 2005, The Fountain was resurrected with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. However, the film was not a commercial success, with world-wide box office sales of only $15 million from a $35 million budget.

The Fountain was released in the United States on November 22, 2006. It was released on DVD in the United States and Canada on May 15, 2007.

[edit] Future projects

Aronofsky has signed on to direct The Fighter, the tale of the rise of Boston boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, who nabbed the world lightweight title with the help of his once down-and-out half-brother Dicky, who became a trainer. The film is expected to star Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg.[1] In an appearance on Friday night with Jonathon Ross, Mark Wahlberg informed Jonathon Ross that he was training for a boxing film, which was due to begin production in October.

While The Fighter is still in development, as of February 2008 Aronofsky is directing the similarly-titled The Wrestler, about professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Set in the 1980s, the film will tell the story of Robinson's decline, and eventual reentry into the pro wrestling scene. Filming began late January 2008 and wrapped two months later.[1]

Other future projects that Aronofsky has been linked to include the Biblical story of Noah's Ark, in which the title character would be portrayed as an alcoholic[2], an adaptation of Theodore Roszak's novel Flicker, Dan Simmons' novel Song of Kali, and Black Flies which is based on the novel Safelight by Shannon Burke. However, Aronofsky denies his next films will be Lone Wolf and Cub or Flicker in an interview by the AV Club.[3]

[edit] Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1990 Supermarket Sweep Director Student film — never distributed
1993 Protozoa Director Student film — never distributed
1998 π Director, Producer, Writer
2000 Requiem for a Dream Director, Producer, Writer aka Delusion Over Addiction
2002 Below Producer and Writer
2006 The Fountain Director, Producer, Writer, Composer
2009 The Wrestler Director, Producer, Writer,
The Fighter Director
Future Black Swan Director and Producer
Black Flies Director
The Hunt Producer
Song of Kali Producer

[edit] Personal life

Aronofsky is engaged to English actress Rachel Weisz. They began dating in 2002 and have a son, Henry Chance, born on May 31, 2006 in New York City.[4][5] The couple reside in Brooklyn.

His upbringing was marked by his Jewish heritage, although in an interview he once disparagingly referred to himself as a "classically hypocritical high holiday Jew"[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Darren Aronofsky to Direct The Wrestler", ComingSoon.net, 2007-10-18. Retrieved on 2007-10-18. 
  2. ^ "Aronofsky Might Tackle Noah’s Ark", Cinema Fusion, 2007-4-30. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. 
  3. ^ http://www.avclub.com/content/node/55490/2
  4. ^ wire reports. "Oscar winner Rachel Weisz has baby boy", USA Today, 2006-06-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  5. ^ Rachel Weisz Has a Boy - Birth, Rachel Weisz : People.com

[edit] External links

[edit] Websites

[edit] Interviews

v • d • e
The films of Darren Aronofsky
π (1998) • Requiem for a Dream (2000) • The Fountain (2006) • The Wrestler (TBA)


Persondata
NAME Aronofsky, Darren
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Film director
DATE OF BIRTH 1969-2-12
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn, New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH