Pi/π (1998) - Aronofsky's mystical thriller shows wild promise

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+ Best B/W Movie of the Year + Best Debut of the Year + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

 

A mysterious poster that seems to promise a demanding watch here for Darren Aronofsky's Pi

Max Cohen is a mathematical genius and a pill addict. He is working on mapping out the mathematical pattern that may lie behind everything in the world but instead uncovers a number with 216 ciphers, which may be God.

 

Pi is written and directed by debuting New-Yorker master filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler (2008)) with co-writer/star Sean Gullette (Traitors (2013)) and Eric Watson (It Snows All the Time (2016)) contributing story elements.

Cohen, acted truly incredibly by the unknown Gullette, gets hunted by Jewish mystics and capitalists and by his own nightmares.

Pi is an extraordinary film in more ways than one, preceding Aronofsky's horrifying drug movie masterpiece Requiem for a Dream. His unique visual talent is already wide awake here with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Chi-Raq (2015)) handling the film's gritty B/W images, which finds patterns in everything. Pi is a beautiful film.

 

Related posts:

Darren Aronofsky: mother! (2017) - Bring a flask with you to this one!
Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Fountain (2006) - Aronofsky's sensorial meditation on mortality 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 134k $

Box office: 3.2 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Mega-hit (returned at least 23.88 times its cost)

[Pi premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 84 minutes. The film's tiny budget was reportedly collected through donations from family and friends. Shooting took place in New York from October - November 1996. The actors were paid 75$ a day, locations, the camera and costumes were loaned, and the production shot without permits in New York and instead used a crew member as a lookout in case police was coming. Post-production costs eventually totaled more than the production costs at 68k $ against 60k $ for the production. The film opened #20 to a 31k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America. It was also released in several foreign markets and screened at festivals, but regrettably the foreign grosses are not made public. It won 1/3 Independent Spirit award nominations, a National Board of Review award and a prize at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Aronofsky returned with Requiem for a Dream (2000). Gullette returned in Joe's Day (1998). Pi is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pi?

The Fountain (2006) - Aronofsky's sensorial meditation on mortality

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+ Best Psychedelic Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year

A truly striking, space-set poster for Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain

The Fountain is a strange journey in three ages: Thomas struggles to save the woman he loves; as a 16th century conquistador in New Spain, protecting her from attacking Mayans; as a neuroscientist in present time, dealing with her cancer diagnosis, and in an organic spaceship in the future.

The Fountain is a highly unusual, psychedelic and metaphysical triple story about the search for immortality, which isn't held together by a central suspense curve, SPOILER but one that does find its final release in our natural conclusion: death.
Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)) and Rachel Weisz (The Whistleblower (2010)) play the loving, troubled couple, and Weisz relates all of creation to Mayan myths in The Fountain, which is interesting.
The Fountain is written and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (Pi (1998)), with Ari Handel (Noah (2014)) contributing story elements. It did not grab me as strongly as Aronofsky's preceding, harrowing drug drama Requiem for a Dream (2000), but it is a sensual, aesthetic waterfall of beautiful sounds, images (cinematography by Matthew Libatique (Ruby Sparks (2012))), music (score by Clint Mansell (United (2011))) and lights. A rare experience and obviously the result of serious, painstaking efforts.

Related posts:

Darren Aronofsky: mother! (2017) - Bring a flask with you to this one!
Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 16 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Fountain premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 96 minutes. Aronofsky developed the film after Requiem for a Dream as a 70 mil. $ package with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett for Warner Bros. But as Pitt dropped out weeks before shooting, the film fell apart, and the sets, including a Mayan temple, were auctioned off. Aronofsky attempted to recast with Russell Crowe, but he was too exhausted after Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Aronofsky was able to reshape the film to a budget half the original size, and the project was again green-lit. Jackman prepared extensively for his performance, training t'ai chi and yoga for many months before shooting. Aronofsky cast his girlfriend Weisz, who visited terminal patients and witnessed brain surgery as preparation. The budget was kept low by minimizing the use of CG effects and using macro photography instead, (blowing up extreme closeups, including deep-sea images of micro-organisms shot by Peter Parks). Shooting took place in Guatemala, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over 60 days in 'early 2005'. The film opened #10 to a 3.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 10.4 mil. $ (65 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.3 mil. $ (8.1 %) and Russia with 0.6 mil. $ (3.8 %). It was nominated for a Golden Globe. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Jackman returned in The Prestige (2006), Weisz as a voice in Eragon (2006) and in a physical part in My Blueberry Nights (2007). Aronofsky returned with The Wrestler (2008). The Fountain is rotten at 52 % with a 5.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fountain?

mother! (2017) - Bring a flask with you to this one!

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+ Best Feel-Bad Movie of the Year

The freaky, yet beautifully rendered, painted poster for Darren Aronofsky's mother!

A couple live in a large, isolated house in the country, where she spends her days fixing the house and caring for him, as he attempts to write another novel. Now a stranger pays them a visit, and their life comes apart at the seams.

mother! is the 7th feature from New-Yorker master writer-director Darren Aronofsky (Pi (1998)). It is easily his wildest and most traumatic film to watch since his tough-as-nails drug addiction-themed masterpiece Requiem for a Dream (2000).
mother! is an instance of a perfect conversation and disagreement-sparking mystery for its audiences, because it invites many kinds of interpretations. As a film, it struck me as if Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) was meeting Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (1973), perhaps in a bar that also had Lars Von Trier's Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011) sitting up, ready for a fight.
mother! is a star-studded movie, and probably a poor sense of knowing what the film would be has led to some very poor audience reactions to it. - Expect a just somewhat conventional horror or mystery thriller, and you might be disappointed. - Expect another fierce, empowered - and empowering - Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games (2012)) vehicle, and you may leave it positively furious. mother! is a prestigious, high-budgeted art film, essentially, and we don't see many of them come out, which may also account for some of the raging reactions. It is also a very negative film, because it grows out of creativity based on negative emotions.
Lawrence gives another good performance, - although I couldn't help but wonder, if she would have been even better equipped for it, if she had been a mother herself. Javier Bardem (Goya's Ghosts (2006)) adds another eerie, troubling performance to his list of credits as Him, and Ed Harris (A Crooked Somebody (2017)), Michelle Pfeiffer (Up Close and Personal (1996)) and real-life brothers Brian Gleeson (Logan Lucky (2017)) and Domhnall Gleeson (Dredd (2012)) are effective as the intolerable, rude and outrageous outsiders that make it into Lawrence's home.
As stated the film can be read in a multitude of ways, but one is as a statement about the socio-societal subjugation of women, - here even a modern, privileged woman, - also in some way elevated through her own extreme attachment to her home and role as something of a servant to her husband. The more or less intended demeaning behavior and insults that Lawrence bears are so replete here that I couldn't help but be thankful that I wasn't born a woman myself. SPOILER As the plot unspools in something like cataclysmic insanity towards its end, - that will have some remembering the heated rallies of the 2016 US election and other cult-ish mass movements through history, - the mistreatment of Lawrence intensifies to a violent crescendo that brings the awful The Killer Inside Me (2010) to mind and was too much for my taste. Not least because I know that there is a small minority of men in the world who will enjoy this sickness.
mother! is made sparing no expense, it seems, with another (for me and many others in the cinema I saw it in) surprising major star appearance towards its end, an elevated fondness and use of the CGI effects that Aronofsky has become intimate with through The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010) and Noah (2014), - his only film I haven't yet seen, simply because it doesn't look too interesting.
Prepare to be provoked, shocked, mystified and above all else made uncomfortable, - in short, given a good spin for your money, when you head out to see mother!.

Related posts:

Darren Aronofsky: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 35.9 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[mother! premiered 5 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 121 minutes. Aronofsky was working on creating a children's movie (!), when he had the idea for this film and reportedly wrote the screenplay in 5 days. The cast rehearsed for 3 months prior to filming. Lawrence was paid 8 mil. $ for her performance. Filming took place in Quebec, Canada from June - August 2016. Lawrence has described the film as an allegory of "the rape and torment of Mother Earth", while Aronofsky has called it a "psychological freak-out", a "punch", and a "punk movie" made on "a lot of anguish". The film opened #3, behind holdover hit It and fellow new release American Assassin to a disappointing 7.5 mil. $ in North America, where it fell to #5 in its second week and then left the top 5. It has grossed 17 mil. $ domestically so far, far below expectations for a Lawrence, Aronofsky or Bardem movie of this magnitude. While many critics have lauded it, audience scores were disastrous, and mother! is one of very few major releases to receive the "F" CinemaScore by audiences. Aronofsky has blamed the reaction on modern people's "rejection of science." mother! is fresh at 67 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of mother!?

Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance

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2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Lead Actress: Natalie Portman (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)
Best Costumes: Amy Westcott (lost to Pat Field for Sex and the City 2)  

+ Best Dance Movie of the Year

Natalie Portman freakishly made up as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

Nina is a ballerina in the New York Ballet, where Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is the coming production, and she gets elected to play the swan queen. But the demanding duality of the part, the director's advances, the competition, a traumatized ex-star and her own and her mother's insatiable ambitions make everything fall apart for the young woman.

Natalie Portman (Léon (1994)) gives the performance of the year in a film so laden with pain that it literally hurts to watch it.
The ending of the utterly fantastic Black Swan is emotionally overpowering, but, comparing the film e.g. to its great American director Darren Aronofsky's earlier works such as Pi (1998) and his ultimate masterpiece Requiem for a Dream (2000), (not to mention The Wrestler (2008)) Black Swan's falls a little short. It nearly becomes a special effects-fueled horror movie, and for my taste, Aronofsky could have saved himself a swan effect or two for a bit more chilling realism towards the end. Bear in mind, though, that this is a minor impediment for the toweringly strong ballet psycho-thriller that Black Swan is.
For it is a wildly intense experience, beautiful and disturbing, and also a treat for classical lovers of Tchaikovsky's marvelous ballet. It was 5 times Oscar-nominated, and deservedly won Portman her only Oscar so far for her uncompromising performance in the lead.
We are at the moment fearfully awaiting Aronofsky's next film, the Biblical epic Noah (2014) with Russell Crowe. Its trailer is online for the curious.

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Click to enlarge this other delicious, uncanny poster of Natalie Portman breaking like porcelain

Watch the goose-bumps-inducing trailer for the movie here

Budget: 13 mil. $
Box office: 329.3 mil. $
= Unbelievably successful

What do you think of Black Swan?
Other ballet or classical music films that are equally incredible?