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The Fountain Aronofskys best work?

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The Fountain. Aronofsky's best work? (self.movies)

submitted 6 rja by TheStratStar

Not much of a post. I just wanted to nerd out over this movie. It's
definitely my favorite of his and would call it his magnum opus. The
cinematography is fantastic, the story super compelling, and the
music!!! Definitely Clint Mansell's best work to date.
Thoughts?

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[]tazermonkey 29 pontok 5 rja

There's an interpretation of the film that was popularized by Roger

Ebert several years ago that posits spoilersFrom this perspective, I
think it's a beautiful, poetic rumination on how we cope with death.
Coupled with the wonderfully intimate yet epic score, the goldenhued photography... it's such a gorgeous film, and the raw emotion
it elicits from me with every viewing, I can't see it as anything other
than a masterpiece.

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[]sublime_revenge 7 pontok 3 rja

// SPOILERS!!!
The film is plainly thus:
The present day is the present, and it is real. He loses his wife days
or hours before discovering the cure: immortality, regeneration,
healing, and the all-fabled and figurative Fountain of Youth in the
form of a near-magical treatment. The monkey is completely well
and young and energetic and well.
The past is in fact his wife's story about a man searching for the
Fountain of Youth. His wife is dying, aging, losing all her senses
through a brutal cancer. Her husband is written as the honorable

captain and knight pushing through unknown worlds to try to find

her cure. That is why the same actor plays that part in the movie:
he is one and the same in her mind. She takes inspiration from what
she knows: a man battling against ALL odds to try to succeed at
what he wants so badly. Her novel that she writes takes the saying
'write what you know' quite literally: she has a romantic knowledge
of history combined with her husband's persona and the
men/women she has known and does know.
The future seems to really confuse people, but it is simply an
extraordinarily expensive bubble-spacecraft made off of the
husband's profits of making the most-blinding medical breakthrough
of all time. And, because he now holds the key to immortality, he is
immortal and ludicrously rich. Far in the future, humanity has
progressed enough to launch him to the fabled star that his beloved
talked about so intimately with him about. That tree is the same tree
that he planted on her grave. That is her grave site in the husband's
bubble. And she and him are visiting the star, together. The bubble is
a self-sustaining eco-system. But he doesn't know how to the finish
the novel. It puzzles him for ages. Thus, the conclusion is unknown
for much of the movie, because he literally hasn't written it yet. And
he hasn't completed it because as a person he is still broken and
mourning his wife's death. Eventually he get over it, and is able to
move on just in time to finish the novel and his life.
//spoilers
I quite enjoyed the movie :).

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[]monarc 1 pont 34 perce

extraordinarily expensive
It looked pretty spartan to me - maybe that's the cheapest space
bubble on the market in the year 2500...

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[]sublime_revenge 2 pontok 22 perce

That a huge piece of mass to be going that fast in interstellar space.

Can you imagine what it would take to get that sucker going fast
enough to get there in time? It would take ludicrous $$.

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[]monarc 1 pont 3 perce

Well, this gets down to the issue of whether the future portion could
be real - I think that spacecraft is waaaaay more implausible than
the miraculous anti-aging sap. I don't think any amount of money is
going to make that bubble travel at near-light-speed with no
apparent means of propulsion! If they have some sort of rail-gun
bubble-launcher, I'll grant that the fees would be pretty hefty ;)

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[]ctopherrun 2 pontok 3 rja

The directors commentary implies that the future is 'real', as well.

My take is that the story starts in the present. Tom cures death,
loses his wife, and spends 500 years on a quixotic quest to bring her
back. In the process, his struggle to finish her book makes the story
as real to him as anything else in his world.

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[]Contramundi324 2 pontok 2 rja

//SPOILERS
The future being real is enhanced by a number of different things
throughout the film.
In Tommy's work, he has discovered several treatments that have
been proven to cause regeneration and de-aging. He also talks
about a experimental compound from a tree in South America so it's
not unlikely he'll eventually stumble on an agent that makes humans
biologically immortal. This is reinforce when The Last Man slices off
pieces of Izzy's bark and eats it periodically.
His tattoos. Both characters seem to bare the same ring tattoo
which Tommy likely begins to do to keep track of time as well as
commemorate her death. Note how he says "all these years..." as he
touches his tats.
It also makes narrative sense. It's likely his journey to Xibalba is an
attempt to understand the nature of death, hers and his own. It's as
though he has a vague idea of his purpose and understands the

significance of his voyage, both physically and spiritually, but doesn't

understand the purpose on a rational or coherent level, so he needs
to revisit and retrace his steps of his life to understand where he
went wrong and how to correct it.
When he tries to complete the story on a logical basis, he realizes
that when he drinks the sap, he immediately becomes consumed
with life, an echo of Izzy telling him the story about her Mayan
guide's father who "flew with the birds". It was only then that her
words had any sort of importance to him, and in the future he
realized he's going to Xibalba not to live forever, but to die and
continue as a smaller part of everything else. His act of letting go
lets the tree "bloom" briefly, signifying to the viewer that they will
continue as the Mayan guide's father did.

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[]monarc 2 pontok egy rja

The future being real depends on her story being real - since her
story is probably just a story, the future is just as likely to be just a
story. The movie doesn't tip its hand one way or another, which
makes it special. I think the future and story being real or not
doesn't do much to change the value of the overall narrative.

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[]DamnitJimImADr 16 pontok 5 rja

I absolutely love The Fountain. But I think his best work is probably
Requiem. And I know I'm in the minority here, but my favorite of his
films is Black Swan

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[]fuzzbunny21 2 pontok 2 rja

I'm with you on Black Swan. Such a fantastic movie.

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[]MikeArrow 22 pontok 5 rja

It's my favorite Aronosfky movie however I think Requiem is his

defining work.

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[]UntouchableToby 5 pontok 4 rja

Artistically, Requiem for a Dream is literally the starting point for

every don't do drugs psa

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[]sudevsenr/Movies Veteran 4 pontok 3 rja

That and trainspotting is part of PSAcore

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[]TheStratStar[S] 1 pont 4 rja

I agree except for the reason that Requiem is a one time watch. TBH
it is a great movie but it's rewatchabilility is abysmal.

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[]GirlsLikeMystery 6 pontok 4 rja

interesting... Because that movie was one of the first we would

exchange with my friends back to school and we will watch it from
time to time... same for PI

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[]MrRoyaleWithCheese 2 pontok 2 rja

Why do you say that? I've seen it maybe 3-4 times and its never
been hard to rewatch, if anything its improved over time

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[]littleoctagon 8 pontok 6 rja

I was stunned by Pi and also by Requiem (but in a bad touch way)

but Fountain? I only kinda half-liked it. Likeu/Irishguy317, I guess
I'll have to watch it again, as it has been forever since I first saw it.

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[]retroKitten 3 pontok 6 rja

Pi, Fountain, and Requiem were just such an amazing trifecta from a
new director. Couldn't be more different from each other story- and

style-wise, but somehow they're all perfectly executed (IMO).

Definitely give Fountain another shot!

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[]littleoctagon 3 pontok 6 rja

I do remember that he worked on a graphic novel of the story as

well, and I never picked it up. Maybe we both should, heh.
From the graphic novel wiki: "The graphic novel was a way to
salvage something from the film project, whose first production was
cancelled. As Aronofsky said, "I knew it was a hard film to make and
I said at least if Hollywood fucks me over at least I'll make a comic
book out of it." [2] Later, the film project was resurrected by Warner
Bros."

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[]retroKitten 3 pontok 6 rja

Didn't know that about the graphic novel! Glad it didn't end up going
that route though since we'd have missed out on that incredible
score.

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[]HouseNinja 3 pontok 5 rja

Just ordered the novel... Thank you for that info!!

Never knew it existed.

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[]IshiharasBitch 2 pontok 5 rja

Requiem is his best work, I'd say.

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[]retroKitten 5 pontok 6 rja

I'd rate Pi as his best work, simply because of what he accomplished

on that scale as an unknown director. It's like his Reservoir Dogs.
Agree it's Mansell's best, though!

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[]KJones77 12 pontok 6 rja

Easy. My second favorite film of all-time and the one that made the
largest personal impact on me. Truly changed my view on death.

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[]Irishguy317 2 pontok 6 rja

Can you kindly expand for those of us it seems to have missed?

Edit: Oh, and what's your fave?

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[]KJones77 7 pontok 6 rja

I just thought it was a beautiful film. Fantastic visuals, score, and a

beautiful message and romance. Its take on death being "the road
to awe" was truly impactful for me and gave me a renewed outlook
on death. The film, to me, is simply perfect.
That said, it is definitely divisive and I can certainly understand
complaints. It is a hard to follow movie that is really unique and
unusual in its storytelling.
If you're interested before or after a rewatch, I wrote up my take
and interpretation of the film on my blog here.
Also my favorite film is The Silence of the Lambs.

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[]sudevsenr/Movies Veteran 1 pont 3 rja

Good write up, dude.

Also this review

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[]LittleRudiger 8 pontok 5 rja

It's always been my favourite of his. It's a very concise movie, has a
simpler plot than most realize, but it gets a bad rap as being
pretentious.

I think it's downright gorgeous. I hope Aronofsky goes back to more

mind-bendy films again, ala Pi/Requiem/Fountain. The
Wrestler/Noah didn't do much for me, nor did Black Swan.
Also, Hugh Jackman acted the shit out of this movie. To this day, I'm
still bummed that Aronofsky dropped out of The Wolverine, because
that could've been something incredible.

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[]TheStratStar[S] 3 pontok 4 rja

So agree. He is the reason I follow directors instead of actors.

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[]Treheveras 3 pontok egy rja

Aronofsky has a knack for pulling great performances out of his

actors. A lot of the time an actors best work is one of his films.

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[]RottenNinja 1 pont 4 rja

I was so excited and let down with the wolverine news. I'd say it was
Hugh's best work

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[]RottenNinja 5 pontok 4 rja

This is my favorite movie of all time. Always something new to

understand when you watch it multiple times. I love that in movies!
Leaves some interpretation and the visual effects with no CGI was a
great organic touch to the whole thing. To think it almost didn't get
made... Fuck it I'm watching it tonight, cheers!!