November 18, 2014, 7:30 p.m. — Noah (2014)

Noah

2014. USA. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky’s free interpretation of the story of Noah and the flood breaks decisively with the tradition of the pious Biblical epic, introducing elements of Freudian family conflict (Russell Crowe as a muttering, proletarian Noah; Logan Lerman as a rebellious, teenaged Ham), primordial fantasy out of H. P. Lovecraft (an entire race of lumbering, six-armed stone giants, inspired by the Nephilim mention in Genesis), and a pounding, CGI-generated deluge that obscurely seems to be a consequence of our contemporary reliance on fossil fuels. As he has in all of his films since his feature debut with the independently produced Pi (1998), Aronofsky strives to depict the intersection of the mystical and the mundane, of grand, cosmic forces and everyday human behavior. MoMA has acquired all five of Aronsfsky’s previous features, from Pi to Black Swan (2010). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures. 139 min.