The Fountain

[Gamblour.]

Roger Ebert reviews The Fountain a year after its release.

When a $75 million production goes into turnaround and is made for $35 million, elements get eliminated. When a film telling three stories and spanning thousands of years has a running time of 96 minutes, scenes must have been cut out. There will someday be a Director's Cut of this movie, and that's the cut I want to see.

btw: I'm about thirty minutes into the commentary and its pretty interesting.

Ebert knows nothing anymore.

[MacGuffin]

World Soundtrack Award winners announced!
source: Filmfestival

Tonight the World Soundtrack Awards winners were announced in Music Centre Bijloke Ghent. The first prize went to Alexandre Desplat (The Queen, The Painted Veil), this year's Film Composer of the Year. Clint Mansell's film music for The Fountain not only received the Best Original Soundtrack of the Year but also the Public Choice Award.

The 7th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards was again a big success. The Flemish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Brossé, performed top quality film music for a sold out concert hall. Both the ceremony and the concert were hosted by world famous composers such as David Arnold, Alberto Iglesias, Clint Mansell, Maurice Jarre and Daniel Tarrab.

After the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony the Flemish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Brossé, performed film music by Mychael Danna (Little Miss Sunshine, Capote, Monsoon Wedding, Ice Storm), Harry Gregson-Williams (Man of Fire, Shrek, Chronicles of Narnia), Evanthia Reboutsika (My Father & My Son), Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba) and Jef Neve (Dagen Zonder Lief).

The winners:

Film Composer of the Year
Alexandre Desplat (The Queen, The Painted Veil)

Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
The Fountain (Clint Mansell)

Best Original Song Written Directly for Film
You Know My Name (Casino Royale) written by Chris Cornell and David Arnold – Performed by Chris Cornell

Discovery of the Year
Daniel Tarrab and Andres Goldstein (XXY, Inheritance)

Public Choice Award
The Fountain (Clint Mansell)

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Mikis Theodorakis who unfortunately couldn't be present due to health problems.

The Best Young Belgian Composer prize was awarded to Werner Viaene. He wrote the best score for Belgium, The Movie by Wim Robberechts and won € 2.500.

[modage]

Darren Aronofsky Wants to Redo 'The Fountain'
Source: Cinematical

It's becoming clear that Darren Aronofsky is still haunted by the failure of The Fountain -- and I don't mean that as negatively as it might sound. He has a right to be bothered by it. It was a struggle to make, and a deeply personal story that was given rather shoddy treatment all around.

So it's not surprising that he wants to return to it -- but what is surprising is that he told MTV that his goal isn't an ultimate director's cut, but something akin to a remake. "It wouldn't be a 'director's cut' - more like an alternate story told with the addition of unused footage from the first go-round. This would be a complicated project on a couple of levels, though, and it's at least a few years away."

That has to be the most intriguing tease ever. Some of the missing scenes could be found in the graphic novel -- in its afterword, Aronofsky described rewriting the script to be the lean indie film we saw onscreen, which always implied that he had never shot the "extras" that were in the book. There's nothing that changes the story drastically -- the book was esentially the same, except for an extended sequence in Spain that explored the love affair between the Queen and Tomas, the political problems it was causing her, and the hold the Inqusition had on the country. It's a beautiful, incredibly romantic chapter of the book. And if he ever filmed it ... wow. I want to see it. Maybe we can at least have a Criterion edition that has the footage as an extra?