“Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky landed at the Red Sea Film Festival in a situation fitting to an Aronofsky film: the whole of Jeddah suddenly in a panic when rain began falling from the sky. “Thanks for coming out in the middle of this national tragedy of a rainstorm,” he jokingly told the scattered audience who managed to bypass cancelled rides and blocked entrances to get to his festival talk. “You’ve got to get better sewers!”
The director briefly commented on the deal taking over industry news over the last few days, Netflix agreeing to buy Warner Bros., including its film and TV studios, its gaming business, HBO Max and HBO, with Paramount recently launching a hostile takeover bid.
“I have not digested it yet,” he said. “It’s such brand new news. My sense is it’s not going to be a smooth road. I caught a few headlines today. It feels like everyone’s freaking out about it. I don’t want to comment on it because I just don’t understand any of it, and it’s very easy to fall into rally points right now. The only thing I’d say is it’s always good to have more buyers. Anytime there is consolidation, it’s bad. We already only have a limited amount of buyers. When you want to make a TV show or a movie, you send it out to everyone, and you hope a few of them get hungry for it and get a bidding war of some type that gives you what you need to make a piece of art. Having one less player is always bad. That’s a bummer.”
Talking to renowned American neuroscientist Heather Berlin, whose work focuses on trying to understand the neurobiological basis of creativity and emotion, the director discussed AI and new technologies at length. Earlier in the year, Aronofsky launched AI-driven production studio Primordial Soup, a venture to “empower filmmakers with AI-based creative tools” in partnership with Google DeepMind’s AI research team. As part of the program, the studio is working with filmmakers to produce short films, resulting in a creative exchange: directors get early access to generative-AI video tools while giving feedback to the tech company to help guide their tech development.
“It’s evolving super quick,” Aronofsky said of working closely with AI. “When I first started seeing the images coming out of the models, I recognized [it] was going to have a big impact on what I do. What is coming out of the models now is content that looks super high production value, it only lasts 8 seconds, and it’s generally meaningless. But it’s attracting more and more of the world’s attention because it’s looking better and better. It’s sweeter and sweeter candy.”
Still, the director said storytelling remains “one of our most important arts.” “When you watch a movie, you’re asked to forget about yourself and go on a journey with someone else. That’s the magic,” he said. “It’s an exercise in empathy and ultimately what makes us a better species and gives us a better chance to survive. I don’t think staring at those little clips for 10 seconds is doing much for us.”
Despite being a staunch defender of new technologies, the “Requiem for a Dream” director said we are still “pretty far away” from being able to make films audiences will be interested in with artificial intelligence. “Very soon, it will be able to tell a story in a very basic way, but even though that’s happening, I think a human collaborator can then take that and turn it into art. I think that’s when it becomes interesting.”
“There will be lots of people playing with it and turning it into something that’s unexpected,” he added. “And that unexpected turn is something the machines aren’t going to be able to make sense [of].”
Asked by a young filmmaker how AI can democratize access to filmmaking itself, Aronofsky said: “If I were a filmmaker right now, I’d be in a room with five friends and five computers, figuring out what’s possible.”
“There’s something about the golden age of movies when clearly they’re not occupying the same cultural space,” he added of the current landscape for films. “But storytelling will be around forever; it’s just taking a different form. I don’t know that the dominance of the two-hour-long movie is going to have that cultural power forever.”
“It already feels like you get more cultural power from some of these TV shows. Arguably, ‘Squid Game’ is reaching larger audiences and affecting culture in a deeper way. Storytelling is here to stay; it’s just about figuring out how to get a story into the world and the most interesting way to make it. And the most interesting way to get around is with these tools, and they’re incredibly powerful.”
As for next projects, the director got asked about the rumor he might direct a film about businessman Elon Musk: “Who?” he responded jokingly. “Elon Musk? I don’t know who that is.”
