The Whale
Brendan Fraser stars as a morbidly obese creative writing teacher. The life of a man limited to a single room is suddenly upturned by the appearance of a daughter he abandoned years ago. Aronofsky takes on yet another completely ordinary but fascinating character with total tendernes.
“The Whale” is based on a stageplay by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the script, and the entire film takes place in Charlie’s apartment, most of it unfolding in that seedy bookish living room. Aronofsky doesn’t necessarily “open up” the play, but working with the great cinematographer Matthew Libatique he doesn’t need to. Shot without flourishes, the movie has a plainspoken visual flow to it. And given what a sympathetic and fascinating character Fraser makes Charlie, we’re eager to settle in with him in that depressive lair, and to get to the bottom of the film’s inevitable two dramatic questions: How did Charlie get this way? And can he be saved?
awards
Venice IFF 2022 – Interfilm Award, Leoncino d’Oro Agiscuola Award, Premio CinemaSara, Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award (Best Film in Foreign Language)
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky was born in Brooklyn in 1969; he is a director, screenwriter and producer. He studied anthropology at Harvard to then learn the secrets of directing at the American Film Institute. His full-length debut Pi received an award at the Sundance and Independent Spirit festival for his screenplay. The Wrestler brought him a Golden Lion in Venice while the Black Swan garnered an Oscar nomination. With each subsequent work, Aronofsky proves his exceptional sensitivity to cinematic language and form, creating films that escape the traditional genres while often polarizing audiences and critics.
Selected filmography
1998 Pi / π
2000 Requiem dla snu / Requiem for a Dream
2006 Źródło / The Fountain
2008 Zapaśnik / The Wrestler
2010 Czarny łabędź / Black Swan
2017 Mother!
2022 Wieloryb / The Whale
Cast & Crew
