The Fountain (Widescreen Edition)
by Darren Aronofsky
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Actor: Ellen Burstyn, Hugh Jackman, Mark Margolis, Rachel Weisz, Sean Patrick ThomasDirector: Darren Aronofsky
Brand: WEISZ,RACHEL
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Writer: Darren Aronofsky
Editor: Jay Rabinowitz
Producer: Nick Wechsler
Writer: Ari Handel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Fountain (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Good movie, poor SKU
Summary: 2 Stars
The Fountain is a good movie, and worth re-watching. It is a sort of fantasy/allegory that focuses a lot more on style than character development, but I still found the plot to be coherent and the movie compelling enough to care about what was going on. You need to be in a contemplative, patient mood to watch this movie: it is not exactly action-packed, and the themes and characterization are subtle.
My principle complaint is that this edition is a major disappointment. Underwhelming visuals, essentially devoid of special features, nothing packed in the box except the disc. When I buy a Blu-ray movie I am expecting the definitive edition for the price I am being charged. That means carefully mastered visuals, well-done commentary tracks, deleted scenes. I am really expecting more than what may as well be a recording of the movie off HBO.
DVD Review: Poetic Mysticism
Summary: 5 Stars
Aronofsky's FOUNTAIN plays with the Fountain of Youth myth that the Spanish Conquistadores were so infatuated with, throws in a liberal dose of Eastern mysticism, a smattering of ever-lasting-love ( a thousand years ), and on top of that, a few interruptions in space, and time. One might expect the result to be a turgid, incomprehensible mess. In a lesser director's hands, such probably would have been the case, however, I found this particular sci-fi to be effortlessly lyrical, heartbreakingly poignant, and artistically on a par with Jennet, and Caro's CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, and Burger's THE ILLUSIONIST.
Jackman (as Thomas), and Weisz (as Isabel-Izzy) are both superb as lovers caught on the wheel of time, reincarnated, and adversely fated to suffer the same misfortune for a thousand years. Thomas' quest for the 'Tree-of-Life' to save the love of his life, and Isabel's staunch belief in him even in the face of her own death(s) are touching, and as magical as the Bubble-ship that the twenty-sixth century version of the then mad Thomas travels to Xibalba in.
On the whole, there is more Shakespeare, and Marlowe in this film than science. The camerawork, lighting, and sets were phenominal.
DVD Review: wow.
Summary: 5 Stars
Instantly became one of my favorite movies. Cinematography is incredible. Love the soundtrack.DVD Review: The Fountain: Romance, Sci-Fi and Mythology All Rolled Into One
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read a review or two I was geared up to find the movie incoherent; instead I found it fabulous, insightful, provocative and deeply moving. I highly recommend it.
The story focuses on two characters, Tommy and Izzi, who are husband and wife. Tommy is a scientific researcher trying to find a cure for cancer, and he has a personal investment in his research, since Izzi has terminal cancer. Izzi is writing a book called The Fountain, and the queen of spain and the conquistador in the story are also Tom and Izzi (and played once again by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz). We also meet Tom in a bald futuristic setting in which Jackman looks remarkably like Peter Gabriel, in which he encounters Izzi in memories and flashbacks, but I will say more about that later. SPOILER WARNING: You may want to buy or rent it and watch it before reading further, although what follows may actually help prepare you for the movie (some viewers whose reviews I read did not seem to follow what was going on).
Izzi has come to terms with her death, inspired in part by studying Mayan beliefs about death and the afterlife for her book. She comes to understand that death is as natural as life, that life comes from death. She mentions at one point that her father (if I remember correctly) had a seed planted on his grave, so that now he is no longer there, but has become one with the tree, and whenever a sparrow eats from the fruit of the tree, her father soars with it through the air. Death, she says, is the "road to awe".
Tommy, on the other hand, views death as simply another disease like any other, for which one day they will find the cure. In fact, his research includes the discovery of a plant, brought back from a South American rainforest, that he hoped would cure cancer, but in fact reverses aging. As it turns out, it also can reverse cancer, but this is not discovered until Izzi has died.
Some viewers have interpreted the movie as a true story about individuals who have found the secret of immortality, and so we encounter them across vast stretches of time. This, however, cannot be correct since it cannot make sense of the plotlines. It is a story about Tommy's attempt to find closure, symbolized by his attempts to write a final chapter for Izzi's book, which she left unfinished and asked him to complete.
In the far-future space setting, which I understand to be Tommy's inner world, he has in fact discovered the youth-restoring properties of the tree they discovered in South America. He has planted that very sort of tree over Izzi's grave, and she has become one with the tree. In the far distant future, he has taken the tree in a spaceship that is essentially an eco-bubble to the distant star that they Mayans called Shebulba, and which they viewed as their underworld. Izzi had been fascinated with the Mayans' choice of this dying star (as opposed to a healthy one) as their underworld, and Tommy envisages himself taking her (as the tree) there, so that when the star finally dies, she can be reborn. But he is haunted on his journey by Izzi's request that he finish the book, which he still has not done. The tree dies just before they get to Shebulba, just as in reality Izzi died just before they discovered the benefits of the tree extract that could have saved her.
Finally, he must come to grips with Izzi's death and say goodbye. He finishes the book. In the last chapter, the conquistador finds the tree of life and drinks its sap, but instead of living forever, plants sprout from him and he is quickly overgrown. In this very symbolic ending, eternal life is shown to consist not in preserving someone or something statically, but in being part of the ongoing cycles of life, the healthy process that is the life of our world and our universe. As the film closes, Tommy plants a seed on Izzi's grave, and says goodbye.
The films is full of symbolism, both from Genesis and from elsewhere. Although the movie is called "The Fountain" (i.e. of Youth), the key imagery is of the tree of life. This overlaps with Mayan mythology of the First Father who gives his life to create the world, symbolized or thought of as a tree. There are also several moments in the film that begin with an inverted perspective, perhaps hinting that there is a sense in which we see reality inverted, particularly when it comes to death and living forever. And there is the powerful sense that love is the tree of life, since it is in connection with the one we love that we most often use the language of immortality, and most desperately desire to overcome death.
The most powerful moment(s) in the film is perhaps the moment that Tommy keeps revisiting in his mind. It was a moment when he was at his lab, and Izzi comes in to tell him that the first snow had begun to fall, and they always would go out to walk together in the first snow. He tells her he cannot, his colleagues are waiting for him, so she goes alone. He revisits this moment more than once over the course of the movie, and the last time he makes a different choice. He goes after her, unwilling to be hindered even by colleagues, and walks with her in the snow. It is at this point that he realizes the meaning of life: not to spend our time trying to make the one we love immortal, but to spend and cherish each moment we have with them.
[This review originally appeared on the Exploring Our Matrix blog]
DVD Review: the fountain on blu-ray
Summary: 5 Stars
AWESOME! This movie looks amazing. We have a PS3 to watch blu-ray discs on and they look AMAZING.
Description of The Fountain (Widescreen Edition)
A man embarks on a thousand year odyssey in a quest for the Tree of Life and to protect the woman he loves.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 4-SEP-2007
Media Type: DVD
Science fiction and romance collide in The Fountain, the ambitious third feature from director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), who labored for four years to complete this epic-sized love story that stretches across centuries and galaxies. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz (Aronofsky's real-life companion) play lovers in each of the film's three settings--16th century Europe and America (Jackman is a Spanish explorer searching for Incan magic), the present day (Jackman is a doctor attempting to cure his dying wife), and the 26th century (Jackman is a space traveler seeking a gateway to the afterlife)--who struggle mightily to stay united, only to lose each other time and again. Aronofsky may not have chosen the easiest presentation for audiences to absorb his theories on the lasting qualities of life and the transformative powers of death--the final sequence, in particular, with a bald Jackman floating through space in a bubble, harks back uncomfortably to "head movies" of the late '60s--but his leads have considerable chemistry (and look terrific to boot), which goes a long way towards securing viewers' hopes for a happy ending. Critical reception for The Fountain has been nothing short of bloodthirsty, with Cannes audiences booing, but there are elements to enjoy here, even if the premise throws one for a loop. Ellen Burstyn (who earned an Oscar nomination for Requiem) delivers a typically solid performance as Jackman's boss in the present day sequence, and special effects (most done without the benefit of CGI) are also impressive given the film's low budget (spurred by a mid-production shutdown after original stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett ankled the picture). And science-fiction fans whose tastes run towards the metaphysical (Asimov, Le Guin) will appreciate the attempt to present the genre in a serious light. --Paul Gaita
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