Despair over world’s mess inspires script for ‘Mother!’
DIRECTOR Darren Aronofsky’s says his latest film, Mother!, a dark, allegorical portrayal of an unravelling couple starring Jennifer Lawrence, was born of despair at the way the world is going.
“Most of my films take many many years to come to life. This one happened in five days,” the Black Swan director said Tuesday after his latest horror-infused production had its world premiere in Venice.
“It came out of seeing what is happening around us and not being able to do anything about it,” he said.
A committed ecologist, Aronofsky said his concern over man-made environmental destruction had been compounded by the futility of events such as the siege of Aleppo, generating a rage that enabled him to produce a first draft of his script in days in a process he described as akin to a “fever dream”.
The end result has a trippy, is-it-really-happening quality to it: Lawrence is required to flush a heart down the toilet at one point and there is worse to follow over the course of a nightmarish pregnancy.
“It is a completely different character to anything I’ve done before. I had to get in touch with a side of myself I wasn’t in touch with and Darren helped me do that,” said the 27-year-old star.
“We did three months of rehearsal. It is the most I’ve had to pull out of myself.”
A by-product of the creative process that went into the film is that its director and lead actress are now a couple, something Lawrence jokingly alluded to on Tuesday after co-star Michelle Pfeiffer “dark” directors.
“So am I!” interjected Lawrence with a throaty laugh. “So I’ve heard!” shot back Pfeiffer.
The film starts from the premise that there is nothing as ominous as an unexpected knock on the door. Lawrence’s character hears one and never feels safe again.
The isolated wooden pile that she shares with an older famous poet (Javier Bardem) is already haunted by the ghosts of his previous life with his first wife.
Rebuilt from scratch after being razed by fire, she’s trying to transform it into a cocoon of contemporary chic while he locks himself away in an inner sanctum and battles with writers’ block.
They are not quite in meltdown mode but neither is all completely well between the couple.
The arrival late one night of a visitor who ostensibly mistakes the place for a B&B starts to expose the faultlines in their relationship.
Despite its stellar cast, Mother! was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews and a few whistles of disappointment from the international press audience at its Venice premier last week.
Aronofsky shrugged that off. “Just read the newspaper and try to feel what’s going on,” he said.
“It is a very strong cocktail, it’s a rollercoaster ride. Only come on if you are prepared to loop the loop a few times.” — AFP said she was attracted to