Ongoing adventures at TIFF
During Oscar season awards journalists often receive little bits of swag in the mail, cupcakes when Jennifer Aniston was trying to get nominated for Cake, a lux coffee table book on Los Angeles when La La Land was in the race, a stuffed Olaf during the Frozen year. That sort of thing. My favorite mail came from the creative and memorable campaign for Black Swan. The first thing to arrive was a black envelope with no return address. Inside were three black and white feathers. That was it. No message, no card, no return address, no explanation. Creepy. By the time the season was in full swing and the movie was familiar a mirrored music box was the perfect curio to arrive.
I thought of that feather-filled envelope when I finally sat down to see Darren Aronofsky's mother! The director's latest mindf*** has arrived preceded by a cryptic website, a baffling teaser, painted symbol-filled posters and a red-herring poster that makes the film look like a remake of Rosemary's Baby especially given its title (spoiler alert: the actual films bear almost no resemblance). Some journalists even received a cake that looked like a charred heart -- the organ, not the ♥ -- though I did not. (What, I'm not bitter. Just hungry). The invitation for the premiere said to "dress for a funeral." Jennifer Lawrence wore a white dress suspiciously like the one in the movie's teaser poster, absent the blood stains.
The theater of the film continues even before it begins. When we arrived to the press screenings at TIFF, we were given a white card with mother! debossed on it in that floridly curling font. On the other side a poem.
mothers prayer
our mother who art underfoot,
hallowed be they names,
thy seasons come, thy will be done,
within us and around us,
thank you for our daily bread, our water, our air,
and our lives and so much beauty;
lead us not into selfish craving and the destructions
that are hungers of the glutted,
but deliver us from wanton consumption
of they vast but finite beauty,
for thine is the only sphere of life we know,
and the power and the glory, forever and ever.
amenadapted by rebecca solnit
If all movies were released with this much creativity and suggestive atmosphere rather than spoiler-filled trailers, moviegoing would be so much more exciting.
new couple Jennifer Lawrence and Darron Aronofsky at the NYC premiere yesterday
My full review will be up tomorrow but I won't leave you hanging about La Pfeiffer. Michelle Pfeiffer is sensational as "woman" (no characters have names in the film) in her big screen return. I could watch her scenes on loop for days and plan to when screener season begins.
P.S. if there's enough interest in the film post release maybe I'll write multiple reviews that you'll give me obstructions for... like you're Lars von Trier or something for curveball 'how about these insane directors?' kicks. More details (perhaps) to come.