SCREENING + LIVE EVENT: NOAH (Darren Aronofsky, 2014)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Monday, November 17, $25, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Oscar-nominated, Brooklyn-born director Darren Aronofsky, whose impressive oeuvre includes Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and The Wrestler, scored his biggest box office hit yet with the biblical epic Noah, his first film to open at number one. A unique, somewhat controversial take on the story of Noah and his ark, the film stars Russell Crowe as the title character, Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Anthony Hopkins as his grandfather, Emma Watson as his daughter-in-law, Ray Winstone as Tubal-cain, Frank Langella as Og, and Nick Nolte as Samyaza. On November 17, Aronofsky will be at the Museum of the Moving Image for a special screening of the film, joined by Patti Smith, who wrote and performed (with the Kronos Quartet) the lullaby “Mercy Is” for the soundtrack, her first original composition for a film. The discussion will focus on the collaboration between Aronofsky and Smith on the song, which is also sung in the film by several characters; Smith will also perform the song at the event. “It might seem like a modest little song, but it was a complicated task,” she told Rolling Stone last month. “I went back and looked at the scriptures. I really studied Darren’s script. . . . The song is supposed to remember Eden and hope that the Father will come and deliver us back to Eden, the hope of a new world. . . . Just writing, going, trying to say something with simplicity is a laborious process. But I worked very hard. I had Darren’s feedback. I made one historical error, so he corrected me.”