TIFF: IW Talks to Creation Director

As a lifelong Darwin obsessive, I will watch with great interest this first real film on Darwin, called Creation, heading to Toronto, starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, directed by Jon Amiel.¬† Indiewire’s Brian Brooks talks to Amiel about Darwin and I was struck with Amiel’s description of Darwin as an artist:

“The film is about the creative process to creating a masterpiece Рand the process for being in touch with one’s own creativity,” said Amiel. “On one level, it’s a portrait of a great thinker, but it’s also a portrait of an artist and the journey Darwin traveled to make this great work.” Although mostly unknown to the generations of scientists and admirers of Darwin, he dealt with issues of guilt and love as well as the conflict between faith and thought while writing his thoughts on natural selection in the book published in 1859. “He was a deeply tormented man and incredibly sensitive man,” added Amiel.

While it’s true that Darwin was conflicted by his wife’s faith in God (she worried he would not make it into the Kingdom of Heaven if he didn’t believe, etc.) versus his own observations about nature, I don’t know that he was “deeply tormented” by it. There is actually a Twitter from a blog that recounts Darwin’s diary of his voyage on the Beagle so one can get an idea of just tedious his work was. However, I plan to keep an open mind and look forward to seeing what Amiel does with the story.

Moreover, the Darwin of our collective consciousness is so much more than the dapper guy who changed the world one minor observation at a time. Put it this way, any Darwin is better than none at all. Check out the exclusive clip from Creation over at IW.