Monday, April 02, 2007

The Fountain


"It's the first snow"

I haven't been blown away by many films recently. I've liked a damn lot of movies, but there's only really been two movies in the past couple of years that I could whole-heartedly "rave" about. The first would be Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which was as beautiful a fairy-tale as I think can be made these days. The 2nd? Why, it would be Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain!!

Apparently, there was a whole load of trouble getting this thing made. Originally, it was supposed to be something like a $70m epic starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Brad decided he wanted to do Troy instead, and it seemed that the project may have been completely derailed. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz took the leads, and it's budget was put down to something like $30m. I thought I was gonna watch it, and wonder how much better it may have been with the extra money etc. etc. etc...

Didn't need to worry though. I wouldn't change a goddam thing about this film. It's stunningly beautiful, with Aronofsky's shots of Tom in the bubble hurtling through space right up there with anything from 2001. It all leads up to the final sequence, which was done without any CGI, instead using micro-photography. I was totally blown away by it; I damn got chills.

Film isn't really a sci-fi, at least to me. You could put some sort of faux "existential" slant on it, but I wouldn't. Those kinda films usually terrify me. The film is about death. Death, and love. "Death is the road to awe", as they say numerous times. Death looks like it could very well be the purpose itself...and Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz are fantastic as the husband and wife, Jackman as the scientist desperate to save Weisz's Izzy, who accepts death long before Tom does. LONG before Tom does...

Clint Mansell's soundtrack is perfect here. You notice it, and appreciate it, throughout. But it isn't until the film's climax that it's genius utterly takes hold, meshing perfectly with Aronofsky's visuals in one of the most mesmerisingly beautiful sequences in modern cinema....

Anyway, here's the track from that climas, the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai composed by Clint Mansell...

Death is the Road to Awe

No comments: