Darren Aronofsky

Ever since his emergence with the breakout indie feature “Pi” (1998) – a schizophrenic sci-fi mediation on life, death and the cruelty of fate – writer-director Darren Aronofsky became something of a wunderkind who, unfortunately, would fall prey to artistic hubris and creative excess by the time he directed the incomprehensible time travel fable, “The Fountain” (2006). But in between the two milestone films, the director managed to turn grim subject matter – drug addiction, madness and the End Times – into exciting cinema by drawing upon his hip-hop influences to create a hyperkinetic