'We had to be truthful not hurtful'

Darren Aronofsky's The Whale has been accused of exploitation but it is sincere, he tells Martin Robinson

- Martin Robinson

FOR whatever impatient aggression I have, it's now balanced out with a more patient chill," says Darren Aronofsky, sipping water in the junket carousel, a man very much from the David Cronenberg school of directors where a reputation as a Lord of Cinematic Darkness is offset by an in-person mild-mannered charm. The Brooklyn-born 53-year-old has reason to be a contented man. His latest film, The Whale, produced by hip production house A24, has been a surprise box office hit in the US (for an adult drama) and is set to do the same here. Pondering why, he says: "It's been a long time since there's been a film out theatrically where you can go and have a good cry." That feels about right. It certainly can't be the appeal of the story, which is about an obese shut-in called Charlie facing up to an impending, lonely death.