Spotlight On Directors: Darren Aronofsky

 

Darren Aronofsky

(1969-Present)

Filmography as Director:

Pi (1998) ***+

Requiem For a Dream (2000) ****

The Fountain (2006) **+

The Wrestler (2008) ****

Black Swan (2010) ****

Academy Awards:

2010: Best Director (Black Swan) (Nominated)

Darren Aronofsky is one of today's finest filmmakers. Even though he has to date produced only a small handful of films, he has been gaining more and more notoriety with each subsequent film he has directed.

Aronofsky finally gained major recognition by the Academy in 2010 with his film Black Swan  about a ballerina who becomes terrified of her body. As a matter of fact, all of Aranofsky's films feature that same motif. He often makes his audiences fear their own bodies, either from mental illness (Pi and Black Swan), drugs (Requiem For a Dream and The Wrestler), self-inflicted violence (The Wrestler), or disease (The Fountain). What is truly remarkable about Aronofsky as a filmmaker is his consistent ability to be emotionally resonant in every movie, be it from thrills, passions, or what-have-you.


I foresee many great things to come from Darren Aronofsky in the future. He is still a relatively young, filmmaker, with his career and voice even still developing.

Spotlight On Failure: Caligula (1979)

 

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Director: Tinto Brass

Writer: Gore Vidal

Principle Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud

Cinematographer: Silvano Ippoliti

Music by: Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturyan, Paul Clemente

Caligula is a 1979 NC-17 film starring some of the most famous and greatest actors of the day, including Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and Peter O'Toole. This is also a film that is mesmerizing with its ability to fail on nearly every conceivable level. This movie is not just bad. It is confusingly bad. It's preposterously over the top, makes no coherent sense, and is just plain stupid. The sex is ridiculously over played, as though it were a selling point the director wanted to just capitalize on as much as possible. And for those audiences who might be wanting to check out this movie because of the NC-17 rating, don't. This movie is many things--including bizarre and absurd--but it is not erotic.

This film is about the Roman leader named Caligula and his rise to and fall from power. But don't expect a well-rounded drama from this premise--the screenwriter decided to take a more comedic approach with the story. My readers may already see the error in this. The end product is an insane amount of goofiness that would make Jim Carrey and Mel Brooks blush in shame. And no Roman Emperor drama should be that over the top and nonsensical.

Nearly everyone involved in this production later disowned the film. This includes the actors, writer, and director. It's sloppily done, a pain to watch, and overall nothing more than a confusing mess.
RottenTomatoes Score: 21%
IMDB Score: 4.9/10
Forrestw2rs Score: 0/4