Darren Aronofsky discusses insulting Christians with ‘Noah’ and insults Christians
The Black Swan director continues to discuss the fallout from his Noah film and the negative reaction from the Christian community. Darren Aronofsky always dismissed news that images from his film are being used as propaganda by Islamic State in Syra and Iraq.
While at home at NYU, Lakeshore Films President Gary Lucchesi asked about the film after noting he thought it was “terriffic.”
“We went through a very, very long, silly preview process,” Aronofsky said. “It’s a very unique situation because it’s a character that is incredibly well-known, and preconceptions for people are so different.” As Deadline summarizes: “Basically, Aronofsky said, he knew the film was destined to offend certain mainstream sensibilities—those who were expecting a version of the ‘Playmobil toy.'”
“When you read the story, it’s so mythological, everything that happens is a miracle,” Aronofsky said. “What we were trying to do is, say, ‘Look, there’s incredibly poetry’ in the story; that is more powerful than any argument about literal truth.”
Christians have turned for many faith-based films in 2014, so to demean this audience further isn’t going to help turnout for future projects, Ridley Scott’s Exodus film being the first. Moreover, THR captured his comments in ISIS using the film as part of their propaganda.
“I don’t think anyone’s gonna use [Noah] to recruit people to become true believers — that’s definitely not the message of the film. … But I just found out ISIS in their newsletter is using imagery from my movie to make a point — which is hilarious because we were banned from so many Muslim countries!” said the director while being honored as New York City’s New Museum’s 2014 Stuart Regen Visionary. “If they actually knew the source of the material!”
He then expanded on the literalism arguments that surrounded the film’s release. “There is more power in accepting these old books as mythology, … instead of fighting over, did it really happen?” he told novelist Lynne Tillman in a comprehensive conversation.
“We were trying to recapture these stories away from true believers and say they are our stories, just how you look at Ulysses and The Odyssey; they belong to the world. I tried as hard as possible to stay away from literalism. … Whether it’s ISIS or the heartland here, … let’s leave that behind and look at the lessons here, but we don’t have to live exactly by the word,” he added, evoking applause from the audience.
