Obsessed With Film

THE FOUNTAIN

thefountain Darren Aronofsky made some big waves with his low-budget experimental breakout, PI, an intriguing and abstract black-and-white film about a man’s search for meaning through mathematics. His next film was a hauntingly stark look at addiction in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, which put him on the map and brought Ellen Burstyn an Oscar nomination. Six years later, Aronofsky resurfaced with this big-budget tale about life and death, told through three interwoven narratives across a timespan of 1000 years.

A beautiful and unqiue movie, THE FOUNTAIN features some of the most awe-inspiring visuals I have ever seen in a film, and has a hypnotic ambiance to it. Filled with allegory and symbolism, the strange film is, ultimately, about one man’s dealing with death. Hugh Jackman plays a veterinarian whose wife if terminally ill; as he wrestles with the pain of her impending death, he tries to use his work to find a cure for mortality. “Death is a disease,” he says bitterly. Reflected in the time of the Spanish Inquisition, Jackman plays a conquistador on a mission to find the Biblical Tree of Life that will grant Spain immortality. Reflected in another time and place, what might best be considered the future, Jackman plays a man travelling through space in a giant bubble that houses a great tree. All three narratives are connected to each other and are part of the same story.

The film has many different tones with its three different plots, which ranges from mystic thriller (the Spanish sequences), contemporary drama (the present day sequences), and abstract tone poems (the “future” sequences). Although some complained that the transition between these three narratives was abrupt and jarring, I found no such thing, as they are actually all part of the same story and end up affecting and reflecting each other, with all three converging into a singular event by the film’s conclusion. Hugh Jackman gives a tour de-force performance in this film, giving us three very different roles that are all first-rate.

If the films begins completely abstract and intriguingly obscure, by the end of the picture, when all the stories, plots, images and meanings finally coallesce together, a surprisingly simple and dissapointingly mundane message is revealed. The film says, basically, to accept death and see it instead as part of a cycle of rebirth. The final section also is quite heavy with New-Age spiritualism overtones, which are quite overbearing and pompous at moments. Nevertheless, even if the film ends in a Hare-Krishna version of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, this is an utterly unqiue film that stands as a beautiful example of the sort of abstract filmmaking that Aronofsky began with in PI. Like PI, this is a film with a severely narrow range of fans, but for those who appreciate such unconventional and abstract filmmaking–what can be considered an example of “pure cinema”, as it is known–THE FOUNTAIN is an amazing experience.

The Video: THE FOUNTAIN comes presented in a solid video transfer. Its diffuse look is carried well, with a faithful representation of the golden pallete of the film. I have noticed other reviewers complain about a lack of shadow detail and a soft image but I believe this is a deliberate stylistic choice on the part of the cinematographer. With the film designed around the imagry of tunnels of light, contrast remains solid as well. I have no complaints image-wise.

The Audio: A great 5.1 mix highlights the incredible music score by Clint Mansel. This is a fairly quiet film but the subtlety was handled quite nicely.

The Extras: THE FOUNTAIN comes to DVD on a single-disk. For a film that is only 90 minutes, I expected to find a few deleted scenes, but whatever didn’t make it into the film is not presented here. Sorely missing, however, is a commentery track by Aronofsky, that would have been quite interesting given the esoteric and personal nature of the film. However, the disk is saved with a fantastic documentary on the making of the film. Beginning with the original production which had over $20 million invested into it before it was cancelled and then re-started, “Inside The Fountain” covers the entire production and gives an illuminating insight into the movie that makes up for the lack of any other extras. The doc runs an hour and is divided into six sections.

All in all, I was highly impressed with THE FOUNTAIN, and this DVD is a fine release that I am sorry I missed when it came out earlier this year. Sporting solid A/V and an entertaining documentary on the film, this disk comes highly recommended.

categories - DVD Reviews

4 Comments »

I didn’t feel this movie as much on viewing it second time around on DVD but the visuals and soundtrack are still utterly amazing.

That doc you mention Michael is worth the price of the disc alone.

Comment by Will Reynolds | October 22, 2007
The Fountain has a bad rap with some people for me it is a beautiful story about life and death.

Comment by Chris | October 22, 2007
TFor me, this is one DVD that really would have benefited from a commentary. However, for those willing to go the extra mile, just Google search ‘The Fountain commentary’ and you’ll find a bootleg version recorded by Aronofsky himself.

Comment by Mike Randall | October 23, 2007
Oi. Sorry for the multiple posts guys. I was having problems posting my comment! Please, feel free to delete one of these!

Comment by Marina | October 23, 2007