Film Review: The Fountain

"The Fountain"

Directed by Darren Aronofski

2005

The consensus on the greatest love story ever told is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Since then there has been so many depictions of love and very few has been convincing. The English Patient? The Notebook? A Walk to Remember? Sure, they're not bad, but it basically has the same plot as a sports story: like how either they lose or win the big game, the girl (only the girl, never the guy) would either continue living or die at the end. But ultimately it doesn't matter because both endings are cliches now. 

The standards for romance have been raised. There have been so many romantic comedies done, that it's hard to convince today's generation of audiences of true love ("How to lose a guy in 10 days" is not love.) The question aptly imposed by Shakespeare In Love "Can true love be depicted through stage?" We have yet to find an answer since Romeo and Juliet written 400 years ago.

Then Darren Aronofsky wrote the Fountain.

It's hard to give a synopsis of the Fountain. It merges Sci-fi with real life with a time piece. It goes to space, to the living room, to the deep forests of South America in the 16th century. In short though, it's a love story. Hugh Jackman plays a husband-scientist, a monk-like space traveler (I wouldn't say astronaut because there are no spaceships or rockets but a ball with a tree in it) and a Spanish conquistador. Rachael Weiz plays the wife-cancer patient and the Queen of Spain. It is 3 stories in one.

I guess the main story is about a scientist trying to find out the cure for cancer as his wife has as tumor that gets worse as time progresses. It sounds like the typical love story I just mentioned; how the girl either lives or dies. But it's far, far more complex and sophisticated than that, that it needs 3 different stories in 3 different time periods and in 3 totally different contexts. 

It's as if Aronofsky views love as no one else does; something so complex and sophisticated that one simple story line will not do it any justice. The movie is profuse with visual as well as spoken metaphors and imagery. While most movies can be condensed into a novel, the only adaptation this can be is poetry. 

The writing is incredible. The story is complex and beautiful while the dialogue keeps you intrigued all the way. There aren't really any memorable or catch phrases, but everything is so subtle and, well, poetic. The line "Together we shall live forever" repeated throughout the movie would usually be used in some corny, sappy love song. Never has that line been said with so much conviction.

Of course that could not have been done without powerful acting. The movie is willed through by Hugh Jackman (who I keep forgetting is Australian), and one of my favorite actresses, Rachel Weiz. Both of them give career performances, displaying so much emotion that, even though we only know these characters for 2 hours, it seems like they've been in love for an eternity.

As for the visuals and imagery, it's as if each frame is like a painting. It shows that Aronofsky evidently had a vision while writing this movie. And when it's on only a $35 million budget, I wonder how much better it could've been if more attention by the studios were given. 

The music for this film is flawless. Clint Mansell, who also composed music for Requiem for a Dream (he wrote the famous piece, Requiem for a Dream, which was used for Lord of the Rings the Two Towers). It contributes so much to the already poignant movie. People sometimes say that silence is a sound. In The Fountain, without the music, it would've been so much lesser as a movie. Performed by the Kronos Quartet, each note sounds so ethereal and surreal, like an omniscient voice.

And finally, the directing. Aronofsky proves to be one of the most visionary directors of our generation. Each shot is beautifully and meticulously executed, it's pretty much perfect. 

The one flaw of the movie? It's hard to watch. There is not one moment where the audience will laugh. There is no comic relief or joke throughout the entire movie. And that may be a problem. For what it an hour and a half feature may seem a much longer experience. You'd have to be really attentive and really captivated in order to appreciate the movie in its entirety, and perhaps watch it 2 or 3 times. But that's not really a problem. 

So in the end, in all aspects, the Fountain was a brilliant movie, and the complexities and profoundness of love is finally captures through a medium. This is not an ordinary love story.  

Entry #20

April 8

We finished filming today, which is very fantastic. All of the footage has also been uploaded and put in Justin's and my hard drives so that when Justin gets back from Europe we can edit it using my home computer, which has Final Cut Pro.

The important scene we finished was the ending scene where Justin gets cornered by the girl, the Nerd, and the teacher. Other than that, we basically filmed gaps, like a close up of the device getting dropped, the eating scene, etc.

As for sound  I am very lucky that freeplaymusic.com has classical music. It's just going to be difficult to cut it and match it with the clips. We'll see though.

Entry #19

April 6

We got a bulk of the filming done over the weekend. At this moment we have only a few more in school scenes to do, which is basically running around a lot, as well as Lucas's scenes.

We got the more complex/important scenes done. We filmed the part where Justin drops the device (and it breaks), accidentally goes in the girl's bathroom, and get chased by the teacher and the girl around the 4th and 6th floor. 

We spent a really long time in the bathroom, which honestly I wasn't too happy about since it was a very simple scene to do, yet we spent about an hour in it. I didn't have to worry about sound since the boom make is sensitive enough that we don't need to put it close to anything. I'll probably just have to learn how to remove the white noise.

One continuity problem; I forgot to bring a hat. But Joyce says it'll be fine so, we'll see when it comes to editing time. If it's really bad then we'll probably just re-film then.

We filmed in the auditorium, which was very confusing. It was our first time analyzing the Grimm's Tale set, so we had to plan out for quite a long time on what we're going to do. There was a lot of discussion between our editor and cameraperson, which I guess is a good sign that everyone's proactive. 

Since it was only Justin and I doing the chase, we planned out on what we wanted to do. Joyce wanted a long scene so we had to run around a lot. Maybe it was too long but I think we can cut some parts in editing; hopefully. 

We also filmed a scene where Justin will dive into the seats and that's how he teleports. I'm a little uneasy about it but we did it anyway just in case.

And we also filmed a part where Justin goes into pillars and that's how he teleports. Again I'm uneasy about that but I don't think we're going to use it. The script is long as it is already.

Those are pretty much the important/complex scenes we filmed. The order in how he filmed is like Memento: all over the place with the pieces put together in the end (editing). 

After school today we filmed the DT scene, which was very easy compared to the scenes we filmed last weekend. I didn't really have to pay attention the sound because the boom works and it's sensitive enough to capture a lot of the sound.

We also filmed the scene that follows the DT scene, which is when Justin comes out of the common room and crashes into the lockers. The crashing sound when Justin crashes into the lockers is great. I'll probably use that to contrast the DT scene.

Today was one of the more efficient days. To me that is a great improvement.

I was an IB learner:

 

Communicator: Discussed intensely and especially with Justin on how to approach the auditorium scene.

Entry #18

April 1

There's a new system for checking out the cameras, which might be a problem for us if we're not organized. We have to reserve the cameras 2 days in advance and plan out how long we're going to use them. Hopefully since it's a new system we have some leniency for now, but I'm sure in the near future it's going to be a problem. 

We did some filming today. During class we filmed the part where Justin portals to the classroom as he tries to uncover the rules of the portal device. 

Sound wise there wasn't much to consider. There was the sound of the door and the sound of Justin crashing to the floor, but this scene is probably going to be music reliant. 

For continuity it was pretty tricky. When Justin leaves the classroom, we also had to have a shot of the door opening but with no one there. To do this, Joyce hid behind the door and opened it. I'm not entirely sure on how we're going to edit this, but this small action would probably help in the end.

Then we filmed the Cafeteria scene which was surprisingly difficult. There are a lot of distraction with people interrupting the scenes. We got Lucas and Colin to act for us. Lucas has already agreed to play the Nerd so obviously we used him. Colin is more of an extra.

We had Justin running out of the kitchen. At this point, it looks like anything far from magnificent or cool. Justin's going to have to make it interesting.

Then there was an eating scene which I didn't understand. What was the importance of Justin eating? I found out it's because the next destination for him is the bathroom and that's really where the chase starts. 

I figured it was similar to Joyce's and Justin's film Stratagem where the male protagonist and the femme fatale were waiting in the car. The main criticism was that it was too comedic for a film noir. I guess it could work for this. 

The main issues I probably have to face is the a lot of chatter noise from the Cafeteria. I made sure that the dialogue from Lucas could be heard as well as Justin's footsteps. 

We're probably going to re-film the eating scene because of the distractions.

I was an IB learner today:

Communicator: Communicated ideas with group members

Entry #17

March 30

We filmed for the first time yesterday (March 29) at Justin's house. The costume I wore was a hat, a tie (tied on intentionally poorly), baggy pants, and a blue, baggy shirt, I'll upload a picture when I can.

We were filming Daniel's scene that day. Daniel plays this angry, stereotypical Cantonese man. The two of us, Justin and I, accidentally teleported to his house and he does not appreciate it one bit, so he chases us around the house. 

I feel that yesterday was just a prelude on what's to come on the later filming sessions. It will be long, complex, exhausting, with the sense of satisfaction coming in the editing room, hopefully. There was quite a lot of confusion in coming in and out of doors, which one did Justin come in, which one he will come out, etc. I give so much credit to Joyce and Elliot as their roles, especially in this project, require so much patience, care and detail. Despite that I think that it could have been a more efficient filming session, we could tell that in the end of it all, we got some good footage. The one bite I have on Elliot is that judging from his handling of the camera, there is much more stationary footage then him moving around. Also from the distance he's positioning the camera at, maybe there are not enough close ups. But since we are filming a Chaplin style film, then it is quite successful. 

As for sound, I think this will probably be one of the only scenes where it won't be silent or won't rely totally on the music. Daniel's voice is hilarious and I must show that on our final product.

I also recorded some mundane, diegetic sound like Daniel's game controller and the fridge doors. 

I was an IB learner today because

Communicator: Constantly discussed about film with group members.

Open-Minded: Appreciated everyone's assigned roles and let them expand their own creativity and ideas.