Thursday, December 7, 2006

The Fountain

Wow. I just saw The Fountain. Wow. It is amazing. I can't even describe how incredible it is. Visually its stunning. It is far and away one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. A lot of people have been saying that it's confusing, but I didn't feel that way at all. Sure, the film didn't spell out exactly what exactly what everything means, but that's part of the beauty of the film. You can look at it in a couple of different ways, either believing the events to be literal and actually taking place in the film or believing only the modern day story line, taking the five hundred years before as if they are just from Izzy's manuscript and the five hundred years after as Tommy's way of eventually coming to terms with his wife's cancer. Either way you choose to believe, (and I'm not sure which I even believe) the story is very powerful. Easily the years best film in my opinion, and one of the best movies I have ever seen.




Interestingly enough, this wasn't the movie that Aronofsky originally set out to make. After Requiem for a Dream when he could do anything he wanted, he wrote a hugely ambitious film about death set in three different time periods that would have a huge budget. The studio balked. But then Brad Pitt read the script, cried, and signed on. With such a big star attached, the studio agreed as well.



Nothing but trouble followed, and eventually Brad Pitt backed out. Then the studio backed out. It appeared the film would never get made, but Aronofsky refused to give up. He rewrote the script as a smaller budget film and defying all odds, the movie got made

Until Next Time, For a look at what the original vision for the film was, you can read the graphic novel recently published, but the film as made is still incredible. Just an amazing bit of film making.