It’s so nice that exams are over. They always feel like an exercise in memorisation rather than anything else, and my memory has never been that good … or I have a lazy memory, I can never tell which. Now that I’ve dispensed with film noir I’m starting to solidify my area for thesis research which you can see here. It’s looking more and more likely that I will be focussing on films by Darron Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan).  If conflict between nature and science, and a heavily stylised and abrasive examination of paranoia is your bag then I highly recommend Aronofsky’s first feature film Pi (1998). Imagine Copola’s The Conversation with a large dollop of David Lynch on the top. I revisited Pi again, after over a decade and found it to be more rewarding on second viewing. However, this may be because I am a more informed viewer than I was fourteen years ago. It really is an amazing film.

Pi (1998), directed by Darron Aronofsky