The Fountain

Michael Collier · November 30, 2006

Saw the fountain the other day, I thought it was a beautiful movie. Very different than most Aronofsky films, but I could tell who was making it. Very well done. Libetiques work was very good throughout the film. I loved the color sceme in the whole peice, and of course the ending was beautifuly done (although a fair bit of composte work was apparent.)

Anybody have any opinions on this film?

Scott Fritzshall · December 1, 2006

Saw the fountain the other day, I thought it was a beautiful movie. Very different than most Aronofsky films, but I could tell who was making it. Very well done. Libetiques work was very good throughout the film. I loved the color sceme in the whole peice, and of course the ending was beautifuly done (although a fair bit of composte work was apparent.)

Anybody have any opinions on this film?

I know that this is going to be an extremely polarizing film, but I've honestly got to say that this was one of the best films I've ever seen. I understand the complaints that others have, and some of them are valid, but The Fountain just connected with me really strongly. I also thought that Libatique's work was really spectacular throughout, and absolutely deserving of an Academy Award nomination at the very least.

Jason Debus · December 1, 2006

To me The Fountain is easily the best film of the year so far. I thought it was visually and emotionally perfect throughout. Aronofsky's repetition editing/pacing has taken a grandeur form as well. Hopefully it will take some big awards so that studios will bank on more artistic projects like this in the future.

Unfortunately the public at large isn't going to accept this movie. A friend of mine who liked the movie went with 6 other friends. 5 out of the 6 hated it, calling it the worst movie of the year, etc. The one that liked it could only really comment on the 'big explosion' at the end.

freddie bonfanti · December 1, 2006

i cant stop thinking how amazing is the fact that the wonderful composer of the film, Clint Mansell, is scoring my little no budget short "the big forever"...cant wait to see the film here in the UK

Jason Debus · December 4, 2006

Just curious Freddie, how did you get Clint Mansell to do a score for you on no budget?!

There's a good article on The Fountain's visual effects and Peter Park's microphotography on VFXWorld:

The Fountain: VFX in a Petri Dish

freddie bonfanti · December 4, 2006

Just curious Freddie, how did you get Clint Mansell to do a score for you on no budget?!

There's a good article on The Fountain's visual effects and Peter Park's microphotography on VFXWorld:

The Fountain: VFX in a Petri Dish

I cant really answer this question as i never asked him...the director and him have a good connection, when we sent him the film he really enjoyed it, i thought he liked the fact that 3 kids in scotland shot a sci fi noir with some nice CGI for no money and made it work quite well. He is British too and he started somehow the same way as us. but its just a guess...;-)

p.s. we got a BAFTA nomination a month ago for "best new work" which made us even happier

Jonathan Bowerbank · December 4, 2006

"The Fountain" was such a gorgeous film. Basically it's a big budget art film, so A LOT of people just aren't going to "get it". But I was totally taken by its story, how beautifully shot it was, and the performances were fantastic.

I don't quite yet understand all of it, but I have no problem going to see it again and again to try and access the deeper meanings of the film.

Aronofsky is a film artist to be compared to the likes of Malick & Kubrick, in my own humble opinion. It may sound like I'm putting him on a pretty high pedistle for a man who's only made 3 films, but he's definitely up there.

Louis · December 6, 2006

I also really liked the movie, but I actually wasn't a big fan of the look. It was a little too grainy for my taste, based on the type of movie it is. I'm willing to admit that I saw it at a local theater (the Winnetka 21 in Northridge, CA, for those who live around here) that has some serious problems with some of its projectors and I have seen some poorly projected films there before, but I saw it on a smaller screen and the graininess was just a little excessive at times. After reading the AC article I know that this is what Libatique intended because he pushed it one stop and digitally blew it up by ten percent, but I thought it would've been better had it gone for a slightly cleaner look.

Besides the graininess, I agree with what everyone else has said about the overall quality of the movie. It's really great work from one of the best young directors working today.

Tomas Koolhaas · December 6, 2006

Firstly I think it is IMPORTANT for filmaking in general that films like this get made and more importantly Distributed as widely as 'The fountain' has been. It makes it that little bit easier for anyone wanting to make experimental films that still get seen by a wide audience.

to the film itself, absolutely beautiful work by Lebatique, but beautiful in a very subtle and naturalistic way.

Hugh Jackman was Brilliant, some of the most touching scenes/moments I have seen in a cinema recently.

The ONLY thing I would say is that I was a little disapointed with the ending, obviously this kind of story shouldnt be wrapped up neatly but he could have done a bit more to Pay-off some of the plotlines at the end (for example he could have shown whether or not Jackman's character actually finished her story or not). All in all a very good, beautiful and touching film, only slightly disappointed with the abrupt ending.

Jason Reimer · December 6, 2006

Firstly I think it is IMPORTANT for filmaking in general that films like this get made and more importantly Distributed as widely as 'The fountain' has been. It makes it that little bit easier for anyone wanting to make experimental films that still get seen by a wide audience.
to the film itself, absolutely beautiful work by Lebatique, but beautiful in a very subtle and naturalistic way.

Hugh Jackman was Brilliant, some of the most touching scenes/moments I have seen in a cinema recently.

The ONLY thing I would say is that I was a little disapointed with the ending, obviously this kind of story shouldnt be wrapped up neatly but he could have done a bit more to Pay-off some of the plotlines at the end (for example he could have shown whether or not Jackman's character actually finished her story or not). All in all a very good, beautiful and touching film, only slightly disappointed with the abrupt ending.

Exactly. Our world would be all the more impoverished if we didn't have the option of occasionally going to see something like this, or The New World, and any other film that strives for excellence and beauty in an outside-the-box kind of way. Give it some support!

Jonathan Bowerbank · December 6, 2006

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

(for example he could have shown whether or not Jackman's character actually finished her story or not)

We saw the story as he finished it for her, which was what the whole final scene with the conquistador Tomas finding the Tree of Life and the Fountain was for. I think it was just another good example of showing and not telling.

Adam Wallensten · December 6, 2006

Hi. Just wanted to give my opinion, which is a bit different than most of the earlier posts. I had looked forward to seeing "The Fountain" for a long time, and followed it through production and a couple of months ago they showed it at the Copenhagen Film Festival here in Denmark. Since I had read a lot about the film, I thought I knew what it would be like and that I would love it, but.....

After 5 minutes of film I was just disappointed, and unfortunately it didn't change with time. The film just felt too pretentious and the story too silly. Another way of saying it is that I didn't buy it (I will not say that I didn't get it), and I couldn't feel what many of the crying people in the theatre obviously was feeling. Both lead characters overplayed and the supporting characters felt as if they came out of some bad TV-series (except Burstyn).

As to the cinematography, I think M. Libatique is a technical wizard, but I thought it was, as many of the other aspects of the film, over the top. The extreme use of close-ups in scenes where the acting in itself is very emotional, was too much for me, and especially when I didn't buy the emotions. The whole "star-theme" felt overused too. Almost in every scene there was golden-starshaped-lights in the background. A more modest use of it would have been great, but here it felt like Aronofsky didn't trust his audience enough to find the references between the different stories so they S-P-E-L-L-E-D it out for you, which felt tiering.

I feel like I could go on... but I'm probably just disappointed because my expectations were so high. I like Aronofsky's other films very much, but "the fountain" just felt like a bad-tasted new-age film, trying to be deep. Now I have my faith in Terrence Malick instead, who is also working on a story about the tree of life. I hope he will have a more naturalistic approach to the subject which probably will suit me more.

Adam

freddie bonfanti · December 21, 2006

hey all,

i just found this article on "Aint it cool news", where Clint Mansell tells why he wanted to score the no budget short i shot...i post it because someone asked why he decided to score a student film

CM: I?ve kind of turned down pretty much everything that?s come along really. Not that there?s been that much of it.

I?m actually doing two short films. One for a friend here in LA. He?s got a short horror film that I?m going to do. Then I?ve got this ten minute short for these two kids I met through MySpace.com. who are film students from Edinburgh or Glasgow, I can?t remember now?

[sK NOTE: Robert Glassford and Timo Lange from the Edinburgh Film School]

SK: Wow! How?d that come about?

CM: They did this ten minute short and wrote to me through MySpace and told me about their film and they?d like me to have a look at it and would love to score their film. At the time, I was working on two films I told them ?I just don?t have the time but thanks for offering it.? So they asked ?Would you just have a look at it? Tell us anything you think.? If somebody is persistent without being a pain-in-the-ass I always think that?s pretty commendable. So I said ?OK, I?ll have a look at it.? So they sent it to me and it was really cool.

Obviously they?d done it at school with no budget but it had a few special effects in it. They had done it so it could look cool even without the money. And so I said, ?You know what? This is fu**ing good, this is.? So I said to them, ?If you can wait for a little while, I?ll do it.?

It felt like the sort of thing I should do. I was very lucky getting my break with Darren. It just felt pretty good. I don?t supposed I would?ve done it if the thing was a piece of poop but I saw it and I thought ?You know, I think I know what I can do with this. I think this will be cool.?

Rick Palidwor · December 26, 2006

I thought this was an amazing film and was surprised to read so many negative reviews. It appears a lot of people just didn't get it, which surprises me as I found the story itself very simple.

Rick