Darren Aronofsky’s new horror thrilled movie Mother! has elicited both cheers and boos from the Venice Film Festival. The film follows the creepy, explosive relationship between the title character, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and her poet husband, played by Javier Bardem.
Aronofsky said the film came out of “living on this planet and sort of seeing what’s happening around us and not being able to do anything,” writes Variety. The director said he had a lot of rage and anger and wanted to channel it into one feeling.
He wrote the script in five days, then showed it to Jennifer Lawrence, who was “really excited about the idea.” The film was inspired by Louis Bunuel’s surreal drama The Exterminating Angel, which is about five friends who find themselves unable to leave a mansion where they had come for dinner, writes Variety. Aronofsky also said that another important source for him was the feminist literature, Woman and Nature, by Susan Griffin.
The whole movie is a mystery. You never know where its going to go, which is the point, explained Aronofsky, because Lawrence’s character never knows what is going to happen either. She never feels safe, so the audience never feels safe.
Lawrence said that role brought out a completely different side of herself that she was not in touch with. “It was the most I’ve ever had to pull out of myself,” she said, according to Variety.
Michelle Pfeiffer also has a role, as the intrusive wife of a horrific fan of Bardem’s character, writes Variety. But she see herself as “Jennifer’s guardian angel.”
“She shows up and awakens her in a way,” Pfeiffer said, according to Variety. “She immediately senses that there is trouble in paradise. I think she is trying to help her.”
You can head to the theater on Sept. 15 to make a decision for yourself about mother!. For now, watch the trailer below.
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