Through this analogy and the analogy of a dying star going supernova to give birth to a new star, Izzi tries to make Tom realise the inevitability of her death, even indicating that they’ll live forever when they meet in the afterlife; that is, the possibility of life after death, the possibility that a person may live on even after death, in one manifestation or another. Sure, and it's even sillier in synopsis. Sap of a different kind inevitably seeps into the story, particularly the contemporary episodes, but Jackman and Weisz commit to their roles as deeply as Aronofsky does to his concept. It’s a shame that type of sentimentality isn’t represented in film. Facebook Twitter Reddit Pinterest Email. June 16, 2017. You pointed out things I hadn’t noticed in the film. Lillian Gizzeti’s name was inspired by Aronofsky’s grandmother and teacher. “That’s acting, ladies and gentleman,” praised Aronfosky. Weisz did the scene where Izzie tells Tommy about how Moses’ father grew into a tree all in one take. The shot of future Tom flipping back in his spaceship took four to five years for Aronofsky to perfect. 28. Aronofsky, director of the relentless "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream," dares to hurl himself, and his movie, way "out there" -- in three narrative directions at once. This very anecdotal commentary is still worth a listen, though. As he said, making a movie about God and math in black-and-white doesn’t exactly excite financiers. Also, through the recurring scene where Tom bluntly refuses to go out for a walk with Izzi to enjoy the first snow, denying her of a simple pleasure she seeks in her final days, Aronofsky tries to express the cycle of regret that Tom goes through for not having spent enough time with his ailing wife, eventually grieving his way to the bitter realisation and coming to terms with it, when he plants a sweetgum seed in her grave that she gave him in an apparition from the ending of the ‘future’ storyline. Admittedly, there are times where it’s easy to clock out of Aronfosky’s commentary. The final film ended up pretty much as written. Aronofsky offered Hugh Jackman the three parts after seeing him in “The Boy from Oz” on Broadway. The shot of Tom in zero gravity was accomplished with Jackman shot underwater. They're all bold attempts -- some more successful than others -- by passionate young filmmakers in their late 20s to mid-30s to sum up their own sensibilities and experience, to cram just about everything they know and feel, about life and about movies, on the screen at once. Warner Bros. didn’t want an audio commentary for the DVD, for reasons that go unexplained. 9. Every scene, every exchange of dialogue that happens between Izzi and Tom in the ‘present’ scenario is replete with heavy symbolism, also providing plot points for the other two narratives. They photographed chemical reactions through a microscope for the elements that surround Tom’s ship. © 2019 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. By James Gorman. Aronofsky felt science-fiction had been hijacked by technology and flying cars. 13. Libatique shot it very realistically, which was quite different from how the actual set looked. They made a giant puppet of Jackman’s body for the scene where flowers grow from Thomas’s body. Hold on a second…”. All images property of their respective owners. So I was motivated to write my own explanation of the film’s story and symbolism. Since The Fountain could be cut together many different ways, Aronfosky hopes to one day make another version. Tomás does so, slitting his throat and proceeding towards the tree of life, applying its sap on his wounds, astonished to see them cured in an instant. Its character must accept the singular rule of the universe: everyone dies. And "The Fountain" isn't so much about the quest for eternal life as it is about the will to stave off death. But there’s also much more to explore about literary alchemy in this film. The idea of the tree of life protected by the Mayans was one of the earliest ideas for the project. If anything, Aronofsky’s work here feels like a romantic ode to the dichotomous cycle of death and birth, stressing it in ways, to be necessary to be replaced by the new order of things. The film deals with man’s mortality, his feeble attempts to overcome it, maim it, or in ways change or delay the obvious outcome that accompanies birth, and his eventual coming to terms with it. But unlike some other films that have divided critics this year, "The Fountain" springs from a passion to take risks, rather than from hedged bets (M. Night Shyamalan's tepid, jokey, incoherent "Lady in the Water") or stillborn multi-story conceits (the calculating "Babel"), where the various narrative threads are only tenuously connected to a core theme. The movie has already been damned as silly and praised as audacious at film festivals from Venice to Toronto -- and both those assessments are valid, in part because of the movie's biggest aesthetic gamble: its earnestness. "The Fountain" is a science-fiction historical adventure-fantasy about a man's (or Man's) struggle to face the incontrovertible fact of death. The Fountain is a major work of passion. Aronofsky wrote the character Searle specifically for actor Cliff Curtis. 29. Their gravity helps keep this Tilt-a-Whirl of a movie from completely flying apart. The film took “six or seven years” to make, but that long period of time trying to get a movie made isn’t new to Aronofsky. 3. Ultimately Aronofsky cut it because he wanted to keep the film from Tommy’s perspective. He thinks they're swell. Having already told Tom about her book featuring the story of the Spanish Conquistador on a quest to find the biblical Fountain of Youth, she asks Tom to “finish it” for her as a final behest, gifting him a pen and ink set for the same. 25. 21. For all its commentary on life, death, what precedes it and what may follow, it is a hard film to indulge in, also given its non-linear narrative and its tendency to throw another curveball at you the moment you start to make sense of the already limited information Aronofsky presents on-screen. A nirvanic apparition of ‘future’ Tommy appears in front of the priest, who recognises him as the “First Father” and offers to sacrifice himself, to be set on the road to awe. Incidentally so, that is exactly what the film deftly sets out to address, The End. Noah focuses on the one man who has to allow almost everyone to perish, but like The Fountain, it still deals with a man accepting his destiny, no mattew how dire it may seem. In a fulfilment of the mayan theory, he quite literally gives rise to new life. 17. The ‘future’ storyline, may be interpreted in two different yet uniquely engaging and satiating ways. There’s repetition, silences, and at one point even Aronofsky said, “I’m still here.” When the commentary drags it’s easy to get lost in the movie instead, like Aronofsky often did. 10. OK, if this sounds more like a defense of "The Fountain" than a straightforward review, so be it. It is only when Tommy from the ‘future’ storyline finally accepts his impending death and the death of his beloved by making a leap towards Xibalba, that we are shown a conclusion to the scene in question. It’s not like we need Aronofsky to tell us why that is, but he does an adequate job explaining how much The Fountain means to him. 18. Tom however, refuses to accept that she may be no more and struggles to find a cure not only for her, but for death itself, calling it a “sickness” like any other that needed to be cured. Commentator: Darren Aronofsky (writer-direct0r). 2. Read More: The Sixth Sense Ending, Explained.

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