{"id":16268,"date":"2014-03-27T02:04:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T09:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=16268"},"modified":"2014-09-07T08:12:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T15:12:05","slug":"noah-interview-round-up-director-darren-aronofsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/03\/noah-interview-round-up-director-darren-aronofsky.html","title":{"rendered":"Noah<\/i> interview round-up: director Darren Aronofsky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>When I interviewed Darren Aronofsky<\/a> in New York four weeks ago, it was the first time I had heard him discuss his film Noah<\/a><\/i> in the context of midrash, a form of Jewish narrative interpretation of the scriptures. But he has certainly brought it up quite a bit in the interviews he has done since then.<\/p>\n

For example, it\u2019s right there in the headline that sits atop the interview that Huffington Post religion editor Paul Brandeis Raushenbush<\/a> did with Aronofsky and his co-writer Ari Handel (\u2018Noah<\/i>: A Midrash by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel\u2019). A couple sample quotes:
\n<\/p>\n

Paul: I love the idea of Noah<\/i>, the movie, as midrash, you really studied the text?<\/b><\/p>\n

Ari: We tried to read everything and talk to everything we could for guidance. Ultimately in the midrash tradition the text has purposeful lacuna; it has questions that are posed in the very words, so the closer we read it, the more questions arose from it. . . .<\/p>\n

Paul: What is the role of the apocalypse in your thinking of Noah? Did you look at apocalyptic or end-times literature?<\/b><\/p>\n

Darren: Not as much. The apocalyptic nature of the story is right on the top. We went more to the midrash when we were trying to get underneath. The apocalypse is the story on the face of it \u2014 it is the destruction of everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aronofsky also reveals that he and Handel thought<\/i> about making Noah a descendant of Cain\u2019s, because the genealogies of Cain (in Genesis 4) and Noah\u2019s ancestor Seth (in Genesis 5) have so many names in common. But, much to the relief of this<\/i> Bible-geneaology buff, they decided to \u201chonor the text\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

The subject of midrash also comes up in an interview that Aronofsky did with my friend Steven D. Greydanus<\/a> for The National Catholic Register<\/i>:<\/p>\n

You find really interesting ideas in rabbinic texts. There\u2019s the word sohar<\/i> [in Genesis 6:16], which rabbinic scholars have thought about for a long time. Some said it refers to a window; others have talked about this magic stone that glowed brighter during the day and darker at night. So we decided to follow the magical-stone idea, because it kind of fit into this idea that the antediluvian world was somehow different from today. It helped us build this fantastic world that was so close to creation. It was a different time from now. . . .<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s that midrash where they talk about the idea that the world was destroyed many times before. So there\u2019s the idea that the Noah story is not the first apocalypse \u2014 that God had actually reset the world before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The subject of midrash also comes up briefly in The Jewish Journal<\/a><\/i>, though it is not elaborated on very much there. Handel does offer one interesting quote, though, on the relationship between Noah\u2019s righteousness and his darker side:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone would react harshly to witnessing the destruction of everything. Noah is said to be a righteous man, so to resist the human impulse to save [everyone] takes a lot of will and energy, and it\u2019s very painful. You\u2019re going to have a kind of hangover from that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Turning to other interviews that don\u2019t<\/i> mention midrash, Aronofsky revealed to Cathleen Falsani<\/a> of The Atlantic<\/i> that his interest in the Noah story actually goes back even further than the poem that he\u2019s talked about before:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always talking about the poem I wrote when I was 13. But just last week, I was talking to my co-writer, and I kind of had a flash of a memory before that that I can\u2019t place. I remember the feeling of being afraid, of terror. And I think hearing the story of Noah, I thought about, What if I was not one of the good ones to get on the boat? And I recognized that there\u2019s wickedness in all of us. . . .<\/p>\n

So, why go through this? What is the reason for it? To me, that\u2019s what\u2019s powerful about it. It\u2019s meant as a lesson. It\u2019s poetry that paints images about the second chance we\u2019ve been given, that even though we have original sin and even though God\u2019s acts are justified, He found mercy. There is punishment for what you do, but we have just kind of inherited this second chance. What are we going to do with it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Discussing our stewardship of creation, Aronofsky also notes:<\/p>\n

Leviticus, also in the Bible, talks about how every seventh year we\u2019re supposed to give the land a rest. When\u2019s the last time our land has gotten a rest? We\u2019re way overdue for that jubilee. And I think that\u2019s what I want. That\u2019s why I made the film. For that reason.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sarah Pulliam Bailey<\/a> of Religion News Service also spoke to Aronofsky:<\/p>\n

Q: If I were to guess which scene would make some people uncomfortable (without revealing spoilers), it seems like there\u2019s a part where Noah appears to be in almost direct disobedience to God.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: All of it\u2019s a test. We were trying to dramatize the decision God must have made when he decided to destroy all of humanity. At the beginning of the Noah story, everything is wicked and God wants to start over. The pain of that, the struggle of that, must have been immense. To basically go from creating this beautiful thing to watching it fall apart, and then doing this horrible thing where you have to try and start again.<\/p>\n

So we tried to take that huge cosmic idea and put it into a human\u2019s hands. That\u2019s what Noah\u2019s story is. If you think about that moment, when God looks at the wickedness, it grieved him to his heart. We wanted to get that grief, that struggle, and stick it into Noah, so we can understand as people what it must have felt like. What would hurt more than to do \u2014 in vague terms \u2014 what Noah is about to do? Which for us was an exact metaphor for what the decision was, what the Creator went through. But he chose love! He chose mercy, which for us is the exact same story as the story in the Bible, just put into human terms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Speaking of the poem Aronofsky wrote when he was 12 or 13, he quotes part of it in the interview posted by Matt Joseph<\/a> of We Got This Covered:<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually just had it scanned and sent to me,\u201d replied the director when we asked about the poem that inspired the film. \u201cLet me read you some of it.\u201d Opening it up on his phone, he started reading, \u201cevil is hard to end and peace is hard to begin, but the rainbow and the dove will always live within every man\u2019s heart\u2026..It goes on but it\u2019s a little embarrassing,\u201d said Darren with a laugh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aronofsky also discusses how the studio has been downplaying the Watchers or Nephilim and similar \u201cfantastical\u201d elements in its marketing \u2014 and he notes that the religious audience members might actually be into that stuff more than the non-religious ones:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe religious people really dig it, they love it,\u201d exclaimed Darren. \u201cIt\u2019s the most bizarre thing,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201dI think it\u2019s the more general audiences that will have a problem with this stuff. Russell Crowe is so real, and the film is so real. You feel the wind and you feel the nature. Then suddenly these strange things appear and it might take people a while to get into them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Turning to non-print interviews, in an audio interview with EURweb, Aronofsky talks about how his efforts to make the story more \u201chuman\u201d are more clearly rooted in the Bible than certain other people\u2019s attempts to make the story \u201chuman\u201d:<\/p>\n