Mickey Rourke's roaring 'Wrestler' wins Venice's Golden Lion

VENICE (AFP) - Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” starring gritty survivor Mickey Rourke, won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice film festival on Saturday. “I’d like to really thank the jury for making the right decision,” said Rourke, 51, making a comeback after years in the cinema wilderness with his performance as a has-been professional wrestler. Aronofsky dedicated the award “to all the wrestlers we met along the way who are making 200 dollars a night and are willing to sacrifice their bodies and their souls for it.” The film mirrors Rourke’s real-life experience as a boxer in the early 1990s and his regrets over an acting career that he says he “threw away” 15 years ago.