Critical acclaim and box office success have not helped filmmaker Darren Aronofsky secure financing for new movies, and it has become doubly hard since the 2008 economic downturn, he said Tuesday. "It's a tough time to be an independent filmmaker," he said at the Toronto film festival gala presentation of his new psychological thriller "Black Swan," which also opened the Venice film festival on Sept. 1. Despite an all-star cast including Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel, and coming on the heels of Aronofsky's acclaimed "Pi" (1998), "Requiem for a Dream" (2000) and 2008's "The Wrestler," which re-launched Mickey Rourke's acting career and earned both he and Marisa Tomei Oscar nominations, "Black Swan" almost did not get made, he said. "I thought 'Black Swan' would be really easy (to get financed) because everyone liked the sexiness of the ballet world and the freshness of it and everyone loves these actors, but it happened to be the worst time in filmmaking history," he said. Fox Searchlight stepped in at the last minute with money for him to make the film. But for most others, Aronofsky said there are few financing options available right now — a sentiment echoed by several of his peers at the Toronto film festival. "It's sad," he commented. In Aronofsky's case, he said, part of the problem lies in his unorthodox filmmaking style and inability to predict and thus explain to potential backers how his films will turn out. "I think the problem is (that) anytime you try to make films outside the box, it's a real nightmare and a challenge because it's really hard to explain your vision," he said, adding: "Partly because I don't really know what it's going to be." Aronofsky said he just cannot imagine how his actors will interpret scripts and so he just lets their creativity flow and "improvises with them." "I have no idea what Vincent (Cassel) is going to show up with and I don't want to stick him in a box because the most amazing thing is to watch him flow between words and finding spaces that I could never ever imagine and create in my head." "To shut that down would be criminal," he said. "Could you imagine me telling Mickey Rourke how to enter a room? It just doesn't work that way. You just have to relax and see what they're doing and figure out how it works in the narrative." "For me, that's the magic, when you allow mistakes in," he said. "That's when the poetry comes alive." In "Black Swan," Natalie Portman's Nina tries to overcome her inner demons to find success as a prima ballerina, inflicting pain on her own fragile psyche as the transformative theme of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" reverberates around her. Vincent Cassel co-stars as a brilliant but manipulative director.
