The Sacred and Film: Darren Aronofsky’s Transcendent Cinema

The book about the transcendent cinema of Darren Aronofsky takes the reader on a journey through the selected filmography of this outstanding American director. A monograph devoted entirely to his extraordinary work, which among film experts and film audiences has both a group of devoted admirers and critics. A strong, even anarchist accent falls here on the type of film hero presented, living on the margins of society and consciously rejecting its normative structures. The films, as well as the literature to which the book refers, are an expression of a critical attitude towards symbolic violence and the imposition of creatively limiting cultural norms on the individual, requiring such ordering such and no other understanding and experiencing the surrounding world. An astute observer of Darren Aronofsky’s work will notice the existence of metaphysical problems in it, sometimes directly directed towards religious issues. We can call this kind of cinema transcendent. This cinema is only seemingly pessimistic in its meaning. It is worth looking for mythical stories to try to hear and understand what they have to offer us. It is worth turning to transcendence and trying to express the inexpressible, also in the art of film, as does Darren Aronofsky, who wants to be a trustee of great mythical narratives. These features, so characteristic of the director, can be seen, to a greater or lesser extent, in all his films, especially those referred to in this monograph. It will be interesting for the reader who expects from contemporary cinema something more than unsophisticated entertainment and wants to go beyond its ludic dimension.

Published in conjunction with Lodz University Press.

Marcin Kępiński graduated in sociology of culture from the University of Lodz, works as the Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Lodz and Head of the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Critical Heritage Studies at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Lodz. Author of the books: Myth, Symbol, History, Tradition. Gombrowicz’s Games with Culture (2006), Journey in Darkness. Cultural Images of War (2012), Between Autobiographical and Collective Memory. People’s Poland and Martial Law in the Narrations of Lodz Teachers (2016), Darren Aronofsky’s Transcendent Cinema. Film, Sacrum and Myth (2023).
Publishes in Kultura i Spoleczeństwo, Kultura i Historii, Etnografia Polska, Kultura i Wychowanie, Zeszyty Wiejskie, Ethos and other journals. Research areas in the field of symbolic anthropology, social and cultural impact of media, polemology, anthropology of literature, anthropology of film and memory of the People’s Republic of Poland and martial law.