Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

PEOPLE/ARTS Wednesday 6 september 2017
A31
Rushdie crafts modern masterpiece in ‘The Golden House’

By JILL LAWLESS Golden Lion in 2008 for “The Aronofsky said the movie
Associated Press Wrestler,” acknowledged is his “howl to the moon,”
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Direc- the movie was “a very, very provoked by anguish at the
tor Darren Aronofsky says strong cocktail.” state of society and partic-
his film “mother!” — a de- “Of course there are going ularly the environment.
lirious nightmare starring to be people who are not He said that while most
Jennifer Lawrence — is a going to want that type of of his films take years, he
“roller-coaster ride.” an experience. And that’s wrote the first draft of the
Fittingly, it thrilled some fine,” he told reporters. script in just five days.
viewers at the Venice Film “I’ve been making it clear “It just sort of poured out of
Festival, and left others a that this is a roller-coaster me,” he said.
bit queasy. ride: only come on it if you “It came out of living on this
A horror story that travels are really prepared to do planet and sort of seeing
from menace to mind- the loop-the-loop a few what’s happening around
bending mayhem, the times.” us and not being able to
movie was greeted with a Some critics were im- do anything,” the director
mix of applause and boos pressed by what a review added. “I just had a lot of This cover image released by Random House shows “The Gold-
from journalists Tuesday at in the Hollywood Reporter rage and anger and I just en House,” by Salman Rushdie.
the Italian festival, where called the “madhouse wanted to sort of channel Associated Press
it’s one of 21 movies com- bacchanal” of the film’s fi- it.”
peting for the Golden Lion nal stretch. Viewers expecting natural- in touch with and I didn’t to “find the balance in my-
prize. Others wondered what it ism should probably stay really know, yet,” said Law- self” between being ac-
Lawrence and Javier Bar- all meant. home. rence, who is in a real-life cessible and protecting
dem play a couple — iden- Variety found it impressive Aronofsky said the film is an relationship with Aronofsky. her private space.
tified only as Mother and but empty, a “baroque allegory. Before becom- “There is a part of me that She said the film spoke “to
Him — living in that horror- nightmare that’s about ing “mother!” the movie’s Darren really helped me the insatiable need that
flick staple, an isolated old nothing but itself.” working title was “Day Six” get in touch with. we all have now, especial-
house. Aronofsky said the point — the day in the book of “It was difficult. It was the ly with the internet. We just
He’s a poet with writer’s of the film “is that it’s a Genesis on which God cre- most I’ve ever had to pull want more and more and
block, while she devotes mystery.”“It’s constantly ated humanity and gave it out of myself,” she said. more.”
herself to restoring the surprising the audience,” dominion over the Earth. Like Aronofsky’s ballet Though the movie is dark
house after a devastating he said. That makes the characters movie “Black Swan,” the and disturbing,
fire. “You don’t know where it’s as much archetypes as film depicts creative artists Aronofsky says he is an op-
Mysterious houseguests, going to go. And we didn’t people — a challenge for as in some ways monstrous, timist about the fate of the
played by Ed Harris and want to make the audi- the cast. Lawrence, who using and consuming those planet.
Michelle Pfeiffer, trig- ence ever feel safe, be- has portrayed a string of around them. “America is schizophren-
ger unsettling events that cause Jennifer’s character strong women, here plays And it touches on the way ic,” he said. “We go from
get progressively weirder. in the movie never feels a meek helpmeet who success and fame can be backing the Paris climate
Imagine a cross between safe.” seems destined to suffer. devouring, in bloody and (accord) to eight months
“Rosemary’s Baby” and It’s easy to see an environ- “It was a completely dif- disturbingly literal images. later pulling out.
the teeming hell-scapes of mental allegory in the film, ferent character from any- Lawrence — who drew “It’s tragic, but in many
medieval artist Hieronymus about a house that is in- thing I’ve ever done before, crowds of fans in Venice, ways we have revealed
Bosch. vaded, besieged, flooded but it was also a different as she does everywhere who the enemy is and now
Aronofsky, who won the and set on fire. side of myself that I wasn’t — said she tries in her life we can attack it.”q

Rushdie crafts modern masterpiece in ‘The Golden House’

By ROB MERRILL tell. forms throughout as well Nemesis: Adrasteia, the
Associated Press And what a story. With a — from Rene’s first-per- inescapable. ... To be
If you read a lot of fic- patriarch named Nero, son account to charac- untrue to thyself, youth!,
tion, you know that ev- it’s a tale borne of trage- ter monologues to entire that is the highest trea-
ery once in a while you dy doomed to end with scenes imagined as a son. Even the strongest
stumble upon a book even more, but Salman screenplay, complete fortresses can be taken
that transports you, tell- Rushdie grounds it in re- with stage directions. by a siege. And the sky
ing a story full of wonder alism, setting it against If that sounds like a rec- that we look upon may
and leaving you marvel- contemporary politics ipe for a jumbled mess, tumble and fall, and a
ing at how it ever came and culture. The year is it’s not. mountain may crumble
out of the author’s head. current, but instead of The narrator is never to the sea.”
“The Golden House’ is Donald Trump, Ameri- gone for long and his Each turn of the page
one of those books. cans elect “The Joker” voice is so original and adds another piece to
The title refers to the low- — “his hair green and the story so propulsive the unfolding puzzle.
er Manhattan residence luminous with triumph.” that all the references Slowly, Rushdie relates
of the Golden family. There are plots that cen- and storytelling forms the backstory of Nero
It’s the home of Nero ter around the Bombay feel organic, not forced. and reveals the fates of
and his three sons, Apu, mafia, terrorism and “I rued the day when I his sons, all the while en-
Petya and D. The narra- gender identity, and allowed myself ... to be snaring his narrator in the This cover image released by
tor is a neighbor named enough film references drawn into the orbit of story. The final image, of Random House shows “The
Rene, an aspiring film- to stump even the most the Golden house ...” a spinning camera cir- Golden House,” by Salman
maker who realizes the ardent cinephile. Rush- writes Rushdie as Rene, cling the survivors, is diz- Rushdie.
Goldens have a story to die plays with narrative “After Hubris comes zying, a fitting end q Associated Press