Our first special guest this month is Tarja Laine, author of “Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky”, first published in 2015. Tarja is the Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Our second special guest this month is Jadranka Skorin-Kapov, author of “Darren Aronofsky’s Films and the Fragility of Hope”, first published in 2015. Jadranka is a Professor in the College of Business, Affiliate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
We’ve touched in the episode on President Donald J. Trump’s association with professional wrestling, which began with his hosting WrestleMania IV in 1988, and was capped off with his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Here’s some interesting reading on the President’s time in wrestling, and his relationship with the McMahon family.
The history of professional wrestling is a rich and interesting one, with many melodrama-style stories of betrayal and reconnection. Perfect fodder for a filmmaker such as Darren Aronofsky. Here’s one of the best non-industry write-ups on what made the sport what it is today. ‘Breaking Kayfabe: An inside look at WWE’s unlikely business empire’ (VICE Sports)
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/breaking-kayfabe-an-inside-look-at-wwes-unlikely-business-empire
Aronofsky is a director of details, and The Wrestler has them in abundance. He even created a fully-functioning video game for one scene. ‘The Making of Wrestle Jam: The Wrestler’s unsung hero’ (Kotaku)
http://kotaku.com/5158834/the-making-of-wrestle-jam-the-wrestlers-unsung-hero
IFC (formerly the Independent Film Channel) ran an interview with Aronofsky around the time of the film’s release back in 1988. His favourite wrestler was Ivan Putski (not Putsky).
http://www.ifc.com/2008/10/darren-aronofsky-on-the-wrestl
The visuals of The Wrestler are grainy, realistic and entirely different from anything Aronofsky had done in the past. Part of that was due to cinematographer Maryse Alberti, who shot on 16mm to increase the grain and bring out the grit. She’s spoken about the movie several times, including to the Museum of the Moving Image.
http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/making-the-wrestler-real-20090213
If you want to follow us on Letterboxd as well, we’re always logging and rating films we’ve been watching and occasionally Luke will do some pretty in-depth reviews, too.
Luke Kane: http://www.letterboxd.com/overbreakfast/
Cameron Crothers: http://www.letterboxd.com/crot00192/
Damien Heath: http://www.letterboxd.com/jedikaos/
Thanks again for checking out Celluloid Junkies. We’ll see you next month with a close-up, in depth look at Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters”.
