On Skorin-Kapov's Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope and Laine's Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky

Abstract

On Skorin-Kapov's Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope and Laine's Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky Benjamin Franz Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope. By Jadranka Skorin-Kapov. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. 216 pp., ISBN 978-1501306976. US $32. Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky. By Tarja Laine. New York: Berghahn Books, 2015. 194 pp., ISBN 978-1782385752. US $115. These two books, written in the past few years, seek to delve into the cinema of Darren Aronofksy. A strong filmmaking presence, Aronofsky has created a cinema of psychological melodrama, according to these scholars. The films discussed in these volumes are magnificent works,1 which to this reviewer belie a deep understanding of Judaism and rich a Jewish background. If either of these authors delved into Aronofsky's background as a Jewish filmmaker, these volumes would have been elevated to must-reads for subscribers to Jewish Film & New Media. However, neither Laine nor Skorin-Kapov seem to have any interest in exploring that crucial facet of Aronofsky's approach to storytelling. Instead, both books are deeply rooted in surveying the psychological topographies of the mind that Aronofsky's films dwell on and the manifestation of pain and trauma his protagonists' experience in their particular cinematic worlds. [End Page 114] Were these books being reviewed for any other publication, it would have sufficed to summon citations bearing out the thoughtful and clear methodologies provided by these scholars on the subject of Aronofsky's films. However, as this journal's agency is to explore the Jewish nature of Aronofsky's body of work, I must admit that these volumes are quite lacking in that regard. Particularly painful is Skorin-Kapov's monograph. She has clearly mapped the psychological subtext of each Aronofsky film from Pi (1998) to Noah (2014). Her summaries of each film are clear. The theories she uses to summon the intent and delivery of scenes in these films is profound. However, not once does she connect a praxis from Aronofsky's psychological and artistic ideas to his innate Jewishness. This will disappoint people looking for a clear explication of how Aronofsky's identity as a secular Jew informs his art. For example, consider her approach to Pi. First she presents an overview of the film's story. Then she dissects its protagonist, Max Cohen. She explores his psychology and how it aligns with various theorists. Then she looks at the intentionality of Max's actions as he pursues the mathematical proof of God: the repeating perfectly self-replicating string of numbers that verifies the creator's place in our universe. The gallery of film scholars she cites to discuss this idea is robust and deep. I found great pleasure in reading many of the threads she chose to weave to create a full psychologically examined portrait of this character. Unfortunately, this is not further tied into the Kabbalistic ideas or the places Aronofsky may have learned of such mystical Jewish concepts. We are bereft of any interrogation or inquiry into the filmmaker's Brooklyn-based background, which would have granted a young Aronofsky access to glean details of Kabbalah, Hasidut, or even any Aggadata, which may or may not be relevant to these films. It just does not happen here. Laine is more interested in exploring the manifestations of physical agony portrayed by the protagonists of each film. Where Skorin-Kapov mines the psychological background of lead characters, Laine wants to understand how the physical meets the neurological. For Laine, the emotional outbursts of characters bring clues to the meaning and intent of each film she elaborates on. Here is a bold, inspired attempt to connect Randy the Ram's heart condition in The Wrestler (2012) with his most rewarding identity as a former professional wrestler. To watch Randy's tragic story unfold as expressed through the varying amounts of chest pain he experiences is quite the heady material for melodrama. If only there was a thought [End Page 115] given to how this could be derived from the Ashkenazic Jewish obsession with the sicknesses, plagues, and diseases that afflict us...