The Fountain

[RegularKarate]

will people just quit booing at festivals already?  jeezus christ.

Seriously, if you've ever booed at a film at a festival, you are a fucking dick.

[elpablo]

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~superb/sneaks.htm

i'm not sure if you have to be a student to go to this, but I transferred to school in philadelphia so it's of no consequence to me either way, but someone in the bay should definitely try to go to this.

[matt35mm]

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~superb/sneaks.htm

i'm not sure if you have to be a student to go to this, but transferred to school in philadelphia so it's of no consequence to me either way, btu someone in the bay should definitely try to go to this.

GAHHH FUCK.  I'm geeking out.  I'm gonna see if I can go to this.  You don't have to be a student there, but you do have to pick the tickets up there.  I'm going to try to see if my friend there can pick tickets up for me.

EDIT:  I'm going to this you dirty motherfuckers.  Thanks for the info, elpablo!

[pete]

pick one up for me too!

[matt35mm]

Ahem.  Well, I'm not going to go into too much detail yet, but I'll say that I, for one, was disappointed in the film.

There were very beautiful ideas behind the bad dialogue and boring characters.  A lot of the execution was as good as hoped for, with very beautiful images on the screen, but a lot was also poorly executed.  A lot of it is out there, and a lot of it is very tired and cliched.  It's such an odd mix of things, which makes it all the more bizarre.

But I also liked how bizarre and contained it was.  It's a singular film without having much actual original content.

I DO think that a second viewing would play better, but it wouldn't change my reservations.  It's the singularity of it that makes me up the grade to a B.  It is definitely not your average film (despite the massive amount of dialogue and situations, and even shots, that I've seen too many times before to respond to anymore), and people should see it.  Special, but not really that good.  And Ellen Burstyn is completely useless in this movie.

It hurts to be so harsh on this movie, since a lot of heart and energy clearly went into the film, and there were even some brilliant moments... but I just can't flat out call it good.  I never felt like I didn't get it (and it doesn't go very deep or confusing, anyway), so it's not really hard to watch in that sense.  If I had to pin down the major problem (beyond the bad dialogue), it's that the whole movie rides on a love story that is no more developed than the one in Pearl Harbor.  Wiesz is an idealized, dying woman with no real personality or anything to do beyond being brave in the face of death, conveying the Mayan ideas that drive the film, and writing a book that's actually pretty lousy.  She is, of course, sad that her handsome doctor husband does not pay enough attention to her because he's obsessed with figuring out the cure to her brain tumor.  This part is generally not handled any better than a TV movie.  The past is no more interesting than... I don't know, The 13th Warrior, where Hugh Jackman also has no personality.  The future is interesting, but mostly only on a visual level.  I like the way the music was used to link everything together, and, as with Aronosfky's other movies, there's a big focus on sound design and the repetition of words/images/moments to create a motif that runs throughout the film.  (sigh) But that script...

Very many people seemed to love it, though, so there you have it.  I'll give more specific examples (and therefore a more coherent review) when it opens.

But Darren Aronofsky was very nice, smart, funny.  The Q&A was lousy due to a TERRIBLE moderator (his first question: "So, what is the essence of this piece?") and generally lame questions from the audience that, bless him, Darren tried to respond to in earnest.  I got my Pi and Requiem for a Dream DVDs signed, as well as the Fountain poster that they gave out to everyone.  He seemed to enjoy interacting with everyone and hung out for a while.  It was a very cool night, despite the negative things I've said.

[grand theft sparrow]

And Ellen Burstyn is completely useless in this movie.

Is that even possible?

[matt35mm]

And Ellen Burstyn is completely useless in this movie.

Is that even possible?

There's just nothing for her to do, and she therefore does nothing.

[Pubrick]

There's just nothing for her to do, and she therefore does nothing.

that's interesting cos in a Q&A pozer linked on the last page, she said she has told aronofsky to put her in his movies even if there's nothing for her to do.

she musta been anticipating the reviews.

[pete]

yeah the movie had some of the worst expository scenes, it was like they weren't even trying (but they were--since the actors were all shedding tears!) and a lot of it were just flat-out descriptions of the plot summary, trying to pass off as acting.
however, I thought what the filmmakers hedged their bets on--the tree and the space and the fountain, worked beautifully.  It was a tragedy to mix that with Hugh Jackman in a lotus position (and near the beginning there was a silhoutte of a man doing tai chi amidst the stars) in his bald head and his new age garb.  However, I must admit, the tree and the stars were awe inspiring, I was really into those two things, and I think the storytelling, as bad as it was, was at least competent enough to make me appreciate the tree and the stars beyond mere pretty pictures, they were doing something.
If you don't watch this on the big screen, ie. if you don't think it's worth 10 bucks to sit through a lot of bad melodrama, then you shouldn't bother at all.

[Pozer]

oh quit bringin' everybody's anticipation down. 

[MacGuffin]

Coming Monday there is going to be a special preview of The Foutnain at Berkeley with a Q&A session right after with Darren Aronofsky! 
Unfortunatley, I think you have to have a student id to get the free tickets. But, if my camera stops going berserk on me i'll try and record the session and let you guys know how it went down.

If you or anyone else who attended could let us xixaxers know how the Q&A was, we'd appreciate it.

[modage]

yeah, this is crushing my soul to hear this news.  well if anyone can still bear to look aronofsky in the face in 2 weeks...

ATTN: NYC

indieWIRE continues its monthly series with Apple Store - SoHo that presents indie film professionals discussing various aspects of the filmmaking process.

WHEN: Monday November 13th, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
WHERE: Apple Store - SoHo, 103 Prince Street, NYC
COST: Free, No RSVP required. Seats are first come, first serve.

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream") will discuss his upcoming film, "The Fountain," which is "an odyssey about one man's thousand-year struggle to save the woman he loves. As a 16th century Conquistador, a modern-day scientist, and a 26th century astronaut, he searches for the secret to eternal life." Starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, "The Fountain" is being released by Warner Brothers November 22. The event will be moderated by indieWIRE blogger and Sarasota Film Festival Director of Programming Tom Hall.

[JG]

ugh i'm in new york for that weekend but i leave either sunday night or monday morning at the latest. 

[matt35mm]

Coming Monday there is going to be a special preview of The Foutnain at Berkeley with a Q&A session right after with Darren Aronofsky! 
Unfortunatley, I think you have to have a student id to get the free tickets. But, if my camera stops going berserk on me i'll try and record the session and let you guys know how it went down.

If you or anyone else who attended could let us xixaxers know how the Q&A was, we'd appreciate it.

I did say a little about that in my post...

But Darren Aronofsky was very nice, smart, funny.  The Q&A was lousy due to a TERRIBLE moderator (his first question: "So, what is the essence of this piece?") and generally lame questions from the audience that, bless him, Darren tried to respond to in earnest.  I got my Pi and Requiem for a Dream DVDs signed, as well as the Fountain poster that they gave out to everyone.  He seemed to enjoy interacting with everyone and hung out for a while.  It was a very cool night, despite the negative things I've said.

... but I'll relay some more info.

Basically, you could tell that the moderator was shit before he even spoke.  He was an old white guy who, from head to toe, looked like one of those lousy film professors that get off on trying to sound smart.  I don't know who he was or what he did or why he was moderating, but he sucked.

Like I said, his first question was, "What is the essence of this piece?"  To which Aronofsky basically responded, "I don't know," and then went on to say how he and his team were interested in a lot of ideas and tried to weave them all in.

Another question from the moderator was why Aronofsky doesn't write with the 3-act-structure, to which Aronofsky responded, "I do.  I like the 3-act-stucture.  This movie has a 3-act-structure.  It works for me."

After a little more of this, the audience members started asking questions.  Things like, "how do you prepare the actors?" with the answer, "hire good actors who are hungry to do good work, and get them to trust that you'll be able to bring that out of them."  Another question, "What do the colors in the film mean to you?" Answer, "The movie starts in darkness, Hugh is frequently not lit as much as Rachel, who is often very brightly lit.  The movie moves from darkness to whiteness as Hugh becomes enlightened, with gold inbetween as inspired by all the gold in Mayan culture."

Then, of course, some guy took a few minutes to ask what is art in the face of commercialism, then proceeded to give his thoughts on what he just asked... I don't know, I tuned that out.  He didn't say anything important.

And yeah, everyone got a poster, so he had to sign about 100 posters and DVDs afterwords.  He seemed pretty comfortable and cheerful amongst the fans, kind of hanging out and chatting with a few people.  He did not accept Pete's invitation to sushi.

That's the night in a nutshell.  Maybe some other people can remember some more of the questions and answers from the session.

yeah, this is crushing my soul to hear this news.  well if anyone can still bear to look aronofsky in the face in 2 weeks...

And I certainly wouldn't put it like that.  This movie still makes clear that Aronofsky is a major talent, and there's a lot of what he did in this movie that can be appreciated.  Just nothing from when he was writing the script.

I still geek out watching the trailer and that press conference two pages back, and all that there is to geek out about from those is in the movie... it's just wrapped in a mediocre screenplay.  But that's just what I thought of the movie, so I'm not saying don't watch it, and I'm CERTAINLY not saying it's just a rental!  Go to the theater, pay for the ticket, watch it, and tell us what you thought of it.  Perhaps your soul need not be crushed.

[modage]

if all goes well, i'll be seeing it tomorrow.  but its tough to watch a movie without these reviews ringing out in your head.  remind me to stop reading them.  (but i wont).