Again, about ‘The Fountain’

Last weekend we watched the film ‘The Fountain’ for the fourth time. This time we had the director’s commentary, but we couldn’t help ourselves and ended up watching the finale again.
Our friends must already be bored by this subject. Only it’s hard to ignore the topic when there is no justice for this under-appreciated movie.

The commentary isn’t very explicit. Darren Aronofsky isn’t very generous in solving the puzzle, but he gives some clues that made us think and discuss the film once again. And once again, it was different, and deeper. Now I think I can explain why. It is a gem with many facets. It is a poem about love, life, and death. It is a masterpiece. It is constructed to blow your mind and senses. It has many levels – rational, philosophical, spiritual, mythical and psychological. Every detail, every line and every symbol counts, because it makes the connection between planes. They are like pixels on the screen, only they don’t form a two-dimensional image but rather a multi-dimensional one, and not in space but in meaning.

It is not by accident that this movie wasn’t well received by critics and some of the public. First, it breaks all the rules. They weren’t even able to find a category for it. Second, it’s not easy to make sense of all the details at first. I guess people just categorize it as ‘Beautiful but it doesn’t make sense’ and then go on with their lives. And third, the theatrical trailer was totally misleading in suggesting reincarnation. THERE IS NO REINCARNATION WHATSOEVER! IT’S A STORY ABOUT A BOOK! It is a story about a man who loves his wife, and the way he copes with her death. It’s a spiritual journey.

I just hope that one day, when people are ready, ‘The Fountain’ will be rediscovered and Aronofsky will be recognized for inventing a new kind of cinema. Again.

Ghosts and movies

If you are expecting me to talk about movies with ghosts, I tricked you. The truth is that it is just windy, again. So I am thinking that howling and moving curtains looks exactly like people usually describe ghost sights. No wonder that they were seen so often in UK and Ireland. It means that it is not windy but ghosty! ;-)

OK. We do have some movies in the menu, too. I recently saw two good movies: Amazing Grace and Blood Diamond.

I was eager to see Amazing Grace even though the subject looks lame at first. It is about the abolition of slavery. Unappealing, huh? But I read Wilberforce’s story in Wikipedia and it seemed inspiring. My expectations were way surpassed. It is a very well done movie (much, much better than many recent block busters) with well defined characters, very well told story and a good flow in action. Did I use too many “well” and “good” words? I guess I really liked it. Also, it is a movie for the whole family. Guess what: no killings, no violence and no chase scenes!

On the other hand, Blood Diamond has everything. Violence, killing, mutilating, chasing, suspense -- all the ingredients of a modern movie. I found it a little too violent for my taste but after all, this is the reality in Africa. They kill each other for no apparent reason. Of course, leaders are manipulated to play the game of those who want cheap resources. It was even a joke in there: “let’s hope they don’t find oil in Africa”. It is sad, very sad. Apart from the violent side and some very long time-outs in the action to build up drama, the movie tries something good: to make you think (;-) about the nature of people and life under the gun for years and years. It is a story about true events and was made, unfortunately, many years after the conflict was settled.
In conclusion, I didn’t expect much from these movies but they turned out to be very good. Life is full of pleasant surprises (if you don’t count the bad ones)!