
Darren Aronofsky is an independent American filmmaker who explores various psychological themes in his movies. While all of them are different, they may be classified as psychological thrillers, with surrealism and magical realism elements. In his various films, Aronofsky shows themes of deep psychology: love, hate, addictions, genius, relationships between humans. Mysticism and surrealism are often present: paranormal phenomena and fantastical events interrupt the main realistic narrative to highlight the central ideas of each film. Archetypical plots, such as biblical legends, are used by Aronofsky as a basis for films mother! and Noah . He often changes the original plot to make it more suitable for modern realities. In other films, such as Requiem for a Dream , and Black Swan , he explores the various pathological states of human consciousness.
Films Analysis
Mother!
The film’s main heroes are the couple living an ordinary and happy life. They both have self-describing names: a man is called Him, and a woman’s name is Mother. Him is a poet, and at the beginning of the film, he is struggling with writing block; while he is doing that, the house where he lives looks like burned remains. He places the crystal object on a pedestal, and then the remnants transform into a full and beautiful home. This fantastic scene symbolizes the power of creation, and one may already see the allegory to the creation of the world by God, and the name Him may as well be an allegory for God. Mother is his wife and muse, inspiring Him to write poems, which are usually commercially successful: he has many fans. Then, a stranger appears in Him’s house, who presents himself as Man; he pretends to be in search of a bed, but it turns out that he is the admirer of Him’s literature (Given 117). Him is generous, and he agrees that Man may stay in his house and obtain help.
Soon, he and Mother notice that Man has a deadly wound and will probably die shortly. Before that, there are several scenes of the beating heart; their meaning will be revealed at the film’s end. After some time, Man’s wife arrives, whose name is Woman, and they both stay at the Him’s house. One may see that their names symbolize manhood and womanhood in general and are allegories of biblical legend about Adam and Eve, the first people on Earth. Mother is dissatisfied by their presence and is visibly annoyed while preparing food for them (Given 117). Him, however, argues that they have the right to obtain help, as they are in a hard situation. Soon, two sons of Man and Women arrive, quarreling about their father’s will; Mother becomes even more displeased. Sons’ argument becomes brutal, and in the end, one of them kills the other.
In the second part of the film, which starts the next morning after their intercourse, Mother understands that she is pregnant, and Him is inspired by that. He writes much more actively, and his poems have an enormous commercial success (Given 118). Their life with Mother becomes happy and fruitful; however, when they organize a lunch, the mob of savage Him’s fans appears. The film ends tragically: while covering him by adulation, the mob behaves themselves as beasts and smashes Him’s house. He does not know how to stop this and is seemingly passive and disoriented (Given 118). When pregnant Mother tries to stop them, they rape and maul her, and she eventually retreats to the basement. Then, she burns out the house, leaving the burning remnants seen at the beginning of the film.
mother! has many hidden meanings, connected with symbolic representations used widely throughout the film. Names of characters are chosen carefully, and scenes are designed to show the dramatism of the situation. An example is the close-up scene of bleeding Mother, which is repeated at the beginning and at the end of the film (Given 120). Aronofsky implied a strong environmentalist message in the film: the rape and killing of Mother by the crowd symbolize the terrible and unstoppable consumption of Earth resources by people; Mother refers to Mother Nature (Given 120). When she is brutally mauled at the film’s end, it is a bright metaphor to the unconscious mob of humans who maul the Earth ecosphere similarly (Given 119). Him symbolizes the God who creates the Earth and Nature again and again: at the end of the film, he asks Mother for her love. When she consents, he takes her heart and creates a new crystal object. It reveals the sense of the beating heart, shown at the beginning of the film: it is the heart of Mother Nature, beating to support life.
Noah
The biblical plot also inspires this film, but it interprets the legend more literally, unlike the previous one. While events in mother! take place in modern reality, being only an allusion to the biblical events, Noah resembles the actual ancient times of the legendary Great Deluge. Muffled lights are used to show the visions of Noah, the main hero, about the coming Deluge, at the beginning of the film (Skorin-Kapov 121). Scenes are edited to show the blunt colors and mists, emphasizing that those are the visions in Noah’s head, not the reality; then, he consults with his grandfather about his visions. After that, Noah starts to build his ark, where he, his family, and animals will survive the Deluge. Tubal-Cain, a vice young king who previously killed Noah’s father, tries to seize the ark, but Watchers stop him. They are stone angels sent by God on Earth to defend people. It is one of the film’s fantastic elements, designed by Aronofsky by using motion design (Skorin-Kapov 124). After the retreat, Tubal-Cain starts finding people and weapons to attack the ark again.
Along with that, Noah travels to the closest settlements trying to find couples for Ham and Japeth, while Shem already has a girlfriend, Ila, rescued by Noah after the massacre. However, they see that people are extremely cruel and shameless; they threaten Noah, and he retreats with his family to their home. Noah is shown reflecting in various scenes, and this plotline is the main for the film. Meanwhile, they continue to build the ark, and Noah starts to be utterly disappointed by humanity. He thinks that God wants to wipe out humanity completely, without any recovery, and that only plant and animal life are good to live.
The film’s main idea is the fragile line between good and evil, nature and humanity, and reflections about the actuality of such a line. Noah, initially, tends to separate good and evil strictly and without any compromise (Skorin-Kapov 122). He condemns people, being sure that they are impure and sinister, and he is happy that the Great Deluge will wipe them out. Noah is vegetarian, as he thinks that animals are pure and innocent: only humans make them brutal and evil. He is even ready to sacrifice his granddaughters, born by Ila, to stop the line of human reproduction. However, he stops when seeing that they all sleep peacefully, full of love and not hate. Eventually, he transforms, and his last will to his descendants is to multiply and live well.
Requiem for a Dream
This film is not focused on divine and biblical plots; it shows ordinary people who suffered from drug addiction and all the hardships connected with it. Main heroes want only to live their lives happily and realize their dreams but cannot do that; they all become drug addicts, ending up with that in different ways. One of the main characters, Sara, spends her time watching TV while her son Harry is taking heroin along with his girlfriend Marion and friend Tyrone. The name of this film is connected with the broken dreams caused by drug addiction. Aronofsky uses scenes with close-ups and split screens to show the feeling of despair and hopelessness, typical for this extremely dark film (Skorin-Kapov 22). Various characters described there are all connected by a similar problem. They all want to realize their dreams: Sara wants to look good, Harry and Marion wish to open the cloth shop, and Tyrone to break free from the ghetto he is living in. They try to substitute their problems by taking heroin and methamphetamines; however, drugs only bring them to the bitter end when their dreams are shattered completely.
Black Swan
This film is the story of Nina Sayers, a dancer with good prospects, and is focused on her inner experience. In the ballet company where she works, there are two roles: White Swan and Black Swan, and both of them symbolize two aspects of female sexuality. While White Swan is focused on purity and innocence, Black Swan refers to dark sensuality and the power of seduction. Nina wants to take both roles, but she fails to perform the Black Swan, focused on seduction and dark sensuality. (Skorin-Kapov 95). Her mother, Erica, is overprotective and greatly influences all aspects of Nina’s life; thus, she is oversensitive and insecure, usually unable to organize her life as she wants. Then, she meets Lily, another ballerina who comes to dance in the ballet company, and two women quickly become rivals. As the film continues, Nina starts to experience hallucinations, seeing images of Lily as her “dark” alter-ego: much less technical but sensual and daring (Skorin-Kapov 95). It motivates her to dance better and better but worsens her psychical health.
This film shows the tension between “light” and “dark” aspects of the human soul, which is extremely hard to overcome. While both are interconnected, they are usually divided within a single consciousness. The roles of Black and White Swans are metaphors for such a division, and Nina’s desire to play them both is her willingness to overcome it. Eventually, she plays both roles successfully, and even Lily admits her talent. However, she ends up bleeding, and the film ends on this, leaving the viewer unsure whether she will remain alive after this successful performance. This ending scene is used by Aronofsky to emphasize the hardships underwent by Nina in trying to overcome her inner division.
Discussion
Aronofsky’s films show the extreme aspects of human nature, placing characters in challenging conditions where they are forced to show their true nature. Such positions create dramatic episodes, very bright and full of emotions experienced by characters. He uses cinematographic techniques to create a feeling of constant tension: one who watches his film is always unsure what will be next due to the thrilling and emotional atmosphere. The color range is usually limited: instead of using colors variety, different hues of one-two color are used throughout the film. Combined with slow scenes of characters’ reflections, they create a feeling of something monumental and important.
In addition to that brightness, his films are full of philosophical reflections and archetypical plots, showing the deepest motivations of the human soul. His films are often full of surrealism, exploring the human soul and its psychological archetypes. While the central part of them is realistic, there are mystical and miraculous events that cannot be explained by realism. Those surrealistic inserts aim at attracting attention to the films’ ideas, highlighting them. For example, in the already mentioned film mother! the film is ended by the fantastic transformation of the main heroine’s heart into the new house where she lives peacefully with her husband. They are also used to show the “divine interference” into human lives or depict the deep areas of the character’s psyche. An example of the latter is present in Black Swan , when Nina confronts her main rival, Lily. The film shows that Lily transforms into Nina, and thus, she is confronting herself.

In that way, Aronofsky’s films, while being different in plots, are dedicated to the same subject: the human soul and its elements. He uses allusions and interpretations of biblical myths to show human nature’s strong and weak sides, such as in mother! and Noah . He also shows people in drug addictions and psychical disorders, analyzing reasons which brought them to such conditions, such as in Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream . As one can see, Darren Aronofsky uses various cinematographic technics and plot twists to show the viewer how good and how bad may be a human.