TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Psychological Drama, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Psychological Sci-Fi, Urban Drama
Key Collaborators: Matthew Libatique (Cinematographer), Clint Mansell (Composer), Mark Margolis (Character Actor), Andrew Weisblum (Editor), Scott Franklin (Producer), Eric Watson (Producer), Ellen Burstyn (Leading Actress), Jennifer Connelly (Leading Actress), Arnon Milchan (Producer), Ari Handel (Producer), Jay Rabinowitz (Editor), Sean Gullette (Leading Character Actor)

"Aronofsky is drawn to characters in the grip of compulsion and addiction. Requiem for A Dream, like Pi, is powered by its protagonists' desperation and their descent into various private hells... Like Pi and Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain centers on the self-isolation of a character trapped in his own bubble of existence. Whether by choice or compulsion, Aronofsky's films ask if everyone is fatally trapped in their own private worlds." - Matt Hills (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"The unifying theme of Aronofsky's work – epitomised by The Wrestler – is a fixation on the body and its fragility. Mickey Rourke's character is unable to surrender the spotlight despite the havoc his vocation wreaks on his ageing body. The obsessions of Pi's protagonist are manifested in crippling migraines. Requiem for a Dream's haunting depiction of drug addiction makes it an ultra-effective, 102-minute public health warning: one character loses his arm, another her sanity." - Tim Walker (The Independent, 2011)

"Darren Aronofsky secured a reputation as a brash, intelligent filmmaker at the age of 29, with Pi, his 1998 feature directorial and screenwriting debut... A self-described "Brooklyn hip-hop kid," Aronofsky was born in the borough on February 12, 1969. His upbringing was marked by his Jewish heritage, painting graffiti art on subway cars, and filmgoing in Times Square. An alumnus of the New York public school system, he attended Harvard, where he studied live action and animation and met future collaborator and Pi star Sean Gullette." - Rebecca Flint Marx (All-Movie Guide)

"From his emergence with the breakout indie feature Pi (1998) - a sci-fi meditation on life, death and the cruelty of fate - writer-director Darren Aronofsky became something of an indie wunderkind who made the leap to directing big-budget Hollywood features. Although detractors would claim that some of his films -- particularly time travel fable The Fountain (2006) and philosophical meditation Mother! (2017) -- fell prey to artistic hubris and creative excess, the writer/director consistently managed to turn grim subject matter into exciting cinema.... Nonetheless, Aronofsky remained a dedicated artist, steadfastly refusing to succumb to studio pressures on his way to making visually flamboyant, metaphysically probing and emotionally engaging films like The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan (2010)." - Turner Classic Movies

"It's easy to say that only extraordinary talent could make Requiem for a Dream. And it's hard not to be intimidated by the controlled frenzy of the montage. But notice, too, the chronic misanthropy and the barely concealed torture of Ellen Burstyn. Time will tell. Aronofsky helped write the screenplay of the very dull Below (02, David Twohy), and eventually made The Fountain, a film to divide all groups. It is a love story set in three separate centuries - as ambitious as it is pretentious but with no certainty of tone. By contrast, The Wrestler (Mickey Rourke's comeback) was a very crude, very obvious picture and the work of a man who seemed afraid of being out of work." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2010)

"To me, watching a movie is like going to an amusement park. My worst fear is making a film that people don't think is a good ride." - Darren Aronofsky

"I think it's important as a creative person to keep challenging yourself and keep doing new stuff. If you end up trying to repeat yourself it's death. It just becomes boring and takes the passion out of it. You gotta find stories and characters that you really want to hang out with." - Darren Aronofsky