The Wrestler

Darren Aronofsky’s film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Nicolas Cage held the lead for a while, then left, and it went to Mickey Rourke. Maryse Alberti shot it on Super 16 with a handheld Arriflex 416, no storyboards, few rehearsals. She used Kodak’s 500T negative two to three stops under; the grain and darkness are not accidents; the light was kept low on purpose. Most of the wrestling was filmed in real arenas, and Rourke trained eight weeks with former wrestler Afa Anoa’i. The people in the ring are real too: they include Dylan Summers, the deathmatch wrestler who works as Necro Butcher. Bruce Springsteen wrote the closing song after a letter from Rourke. It won the Golden Globe and was not even nominated in the Oscar song category. Rourke was nominated for actor and Marisa Tomei for supporting actress; neither won. The camera mostly follows Randy from behind at shoulder height; to see his face you wait for the film to turn. A good fit if it changes the scene for you to know the people in the ring are mostly real wrestlers and the matches were filmed in real halls. Not for a viewer who expects Randy and his daughter to be resolved: Aronofsky cuts before the ending completes.