The Fountain

quad_red

Anyone have any idea when The Fountain will be hitting our shores?

Durango

From last weeks The Ticket
http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2007/0126/1169680578580.html

Although Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain opens in Britain today, a decision has yet to be made on whether or not it will get an Irish release.

"The competition is very strong at the moment with so many films on release," according to Sharon McGarry, manager of 20th Century Fox in Ireland. "We will wait and see how it fares in the UK before making a decision on opening it here."

Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play multiple roles in The Fountain, which is set across three eras - in 1500, 2000 and 2500 - and follows a quest for the Tree of Life, as noted in an opening quote from Genesis. Ellen Burstyn co-stars in the film, which fared disappointingly in the US, where it made just over $10 million.

Mitch Connor

OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

I've been waiting ages for this movie, and now it mightn't come out at all! I don't think there are even that many good films coming out! Last weekend or this weekend would have been fine!

quad_red

Durango wrote:

Although Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain opens in Britain today, a decision has yet to be made on whether or not it will get an Irish release.

Ah **** I was in London at the weekend and I'd have known it mightn't open here I would've gone to it.

Goodshape

WTF? No Irish release? ?

That's incredibly disappointing, if true.

Playboy

Saw it in Leicester Square at the wekend. I loved it!

paddycorry

Playboy wrote:

Saw it in Leicester Square at the wekend. I loved it!

Yep, the Fountain is very very good. (But also completely mad.) Fox are lunatics, but there are a lot of good movies out at the moment, plus the festival this month..

Have a review of The Fountain here.

gazzer

It is certainly a mindf*ck of a movie.. I really liked it.. I saw it in New York last year.. Thats a bummer if they dont show it here. I have been telling all my mates to go and see it when it comes out.

pickarooney

Insane if it doesn't get an Irish release - when you think of all the guff that does hit the cinemas...
I saw it about a month ago in France. Cinema was packed, as it was when my missus went to see it again.

faceman

SHoite didnt realise it. think i'll fly over to london at the weekend to pencil in a viewing. Altho i hate uk cinema prices

(Im sure irish cinema could do without the release of epic movie and free up some screen space)

Mitch Connor

It seems to have an irish release date. It has been certed by the IFCO, and has a release date on their site.
March 9th.

http://www.ifco.ie/ifco/ifcoweb.nsf/web/Upcoming?opendocument&type=graphic

lodgepole

The Fountain is screening as part of the Dublin film festival next Friday in Cineworld.

Tickets still available as of now...

http://www.dubliniff.com/films/show/112

johnny_ultimate

Lodgepole wrote:

The Fountain is screening as part of the Dublin film festival next Friday in Cineworld.

Tickets still available as of now...

http://www.dubliniff.com/films/show/112

You sir have made my day. Ticket booked and booked.

lodgepole

johnny_ultimate wrote:

You sir have made my day. Ticket booked and booked.

Enjoy it. I'm giving it a miss since I saw it in Florida last year and have an early flight next Saturday morning, but hopefully the print will stick around and we'll see a release, however limited, in the coming weeks.

Goodshape

I got my ticket today. Nice one.

Rabies

I watched it yesterday. It got a very limited release in NZ. The big cinema chain seems to have ignored it. Needed to go to a the city run cinema that shows a good few independent and foreign movies instead of the regular block buster crowd pleasers.

I did enjoy the movie, didn't know hwat to expect going in to it. It definitly needs a second watch on dvd.
It is either a love it or hate it movie. I can see why it doesn't fill the seats, not a movie that appeals to the masses.

sparkthatbled

I started a big thread about this bullsh*t a while back... And i just missed out on tickets for the film festival by about an hour . Been waiting 13+ months now, looks like it'll be 14 at least until it gets a release. If it never gets released... well... that'll be me on the news! :mad:

tba

if they are sold put prehaps they will decide to show it again...

tba

Seriously...

I just can't even grasp where this film is coming from, but none the less I was amazed by its acting, visuals, unobvious truths and originality.

But I have no clue where to begin in describing it.

monkeyfudge

Saw it at the film festival this evening. I was pretty disappointed by it.

Great performance from Jackman... but I wasn't all that taken by the storyline. And yes... I'm pretty sure I understood it all.

Anyone who went this evening got an invite to a preview showing of Sunshine... which was nice.

Secretpint

so is it DEFINITELY coming out on March 9th???:eek:

Goodshape

Also saw it this evening.

I pretty much got what I expected and thought the film was great. I'd be lying if I said I understood exactly how and why it all fits together, but I've got enough of an idea of the meaning and emotion behind it that it almost doesn't matter about the plot-points that might have been missed. It might sound a bit cliché or pretentious, but I think this was as close to cinematic poetry as any film I've seen.

Plus the whole thing looked and sounded absolutely spectacular, and a brilliant performance from Hugh Jackman.

johnny_ultimate

Wow. I was truly blown away by this film. I honestly do not think any film I have seen has come close to the visuals and sound of this film. I was really in a state of awe throughout. I thouroughly enjoyed the story too. There were a few bits of poor dialogue (that 'bondage' malarky) but that would be my only major complaint. Overall it was the kind of film I wanted to go home and watch again straight afterwards. Like monkeyfudge I pretty much got what was going down, but there is alot open to interpretation. Im glad I saw it on the big screen, as I dont think TV could do proper justice to it.
Plus free Sunshine ticket. Huzzah!

tba

Yeah I'm well impressed by the sunshine ticket.... is it a paid for invite or do we still have to pay once we get there to see it?

Oh and if anybody wants to enlighten my about their opinion on the story please post it in spoilers cause I want to see if I missed something.

johnny_ultimate

tba wrote:

Yeah I'm well impressed by the sunshine ticket.... is it a paid for invite or do we still have to pay once we get there to see it?

Oh and if anybody wants to enlighten my about their opinion on the story please post it in spoilers cause I want to see if I missed something.

Im pretty sure its paid for already. I definitely saw some people downstairs with Sunshine tickets, so there must have been a few who didnt hear about the cancellation. For those of us who just bought fountain tickets, it was a pleasant surprise.
As for the story

I found the most interesting story the future one. I kept on wondering if the tree in the bubble was the tree planted at Izzy's grave or the original tree of life from the Spanish story. I personally thought the other stories spoke for themselves, but I think trying to figure out the links between them is the difficuly part. For example, who was on the Bubble ship? Was it Tommy (from the present day story) - backed up by the drawn on rings all over his arm? I read that it was possibly a dream, and another theory was all the Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz characters from different times shared the same 'soul'

monkeyfudge

Well my take on it was:

You can discount the Spanish storyline, as it's a fictional novel the two of them wrote. So they didn't actually exist in that time period. And for the rest of it I felt that after she died he planted a seed from the tree that they'd extracted the anti-aging serum from on her grave and it eventually grew into another tree of life. He had then also been using the serum for many years to keep himself alive until he had a way of transporting himself to the nebula. The amount of rings he tatooed on himself seems to indicate the passing of a large amount of time.

tba

So

thats pretty much what I thought, and in essence, he realises that he must finish their story while in the bubble

Goodshape

Yeah, that's what I got from it too.

Although

I wouldn't be completely sure that the stuff in the bubble (the future stuff) wasn't just a part of the story they were writing - or, more to the point, that he was writing (after her death) - and not actually the 'real' characters living that long.

ObeyGiant

Awesome movie, can't wait for the sequel.

ixoy

Everyone who saw this movie in this thread, can consider themselves banned. Yes I'm bitter about not seeing it myself 'coz I was away

Hopefully it'll get a major release and, with 'Inland Empire' debuting around the same time, I'll get lots of kooky beautiful weirdness to enjoy for March madness...

supernic

well i saw The Fountain at the festival too, and i loved it, although not as much as Requiem or Pi. If Requiem can be described as a physical gut-wrenching experience, and Pi can be described as an intense mental head-f*ck, then i would say that this is Aronofsky's turn at the emotional, although i couldn't find much that he has said to support this theory. i just know i felt very emotional, he's a master of of mood i think- great atmosphere (who's the composer?? same as Requiem??). as with Requiem, the story isn't exactly original but the telling and the feeling are unique and special.

it's actually a really fascinating story how this film even got made, taking 6 years and endless interruptions (it was supposed to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and originally had a budget of 70 mil or something), went from being a big budget blockbuster to being completely cancelled to being re-born through Aronofsky's passion for this project and support of his team from Pi and Requiem (and fiance, Rachel Weisz...). Basically he wanted to add something new/re-invent the Sci-fi genre as '2001' and 'the matrix' (among others).

oh, and it should be noted there's no CGI, the effects are created with microphotography...

so it's a bit of a shame that i felt a bit disappointed by the somewhat clunky way it all comes together, and i was really not keen on

all that floating around lotus position stuff- what did Indian/yoga stuff have to with the themes so carefully unwrapped previously?

but certainly not by the performances (Hugh Jackman is incredible) or the effects. and the 'what is happening' thing is not very important i don't think, although reading more about it helped me appreciate it more as the different ideas opened my mind.

anyway, i found this synopsis which i felt was the closest explanation of what is happening (and other theories) on: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/The-Fountain-Explained-3975.html

What’s really happening in The Fountain? My interpretation is that the past is the story written by Tom’s wife, and then finished by Tom in the final moments of his life. The present is of course real, and the future is too. It’s a true science fiction movie, Tom uncovers the secret to immortality to late to save his wife, and uses it to stay alive for centuries while looking for a way to resurrect her. Future Tom and Present Tom are the same person, and Past Tom is Izzy’s interpretation of the real Tom’s attempts to cheat death, and when Tom finishes the book he writes the Conquistador’s demise as sign of his acceptance of Izzy’s belief that death should be embraced as a way to become a part of nature and the universe. Tom the Conquistador turns into a hedge. When future Tom is disintegrated in the stuff of stars, he has chosen to abandon his quest to save his life, and instead travels back in time to do over her few remaining days on Earth.

i recommend this film to people to everyone, especially those who liked Aronofsky's other film. Hopefully he'll gain an even bigger audience so we don't have to wait so bloody long for his next film!

supernic

augh, oh no, my spoiler brackets didn't work!!! i'm so sorry everyone, i have only done this once before but it worked fine- augh, can someone (one of you guys who monitor this stuff) fix it up please?? major apologies again

Vokes

Just need to replace the angeled brackets with square brackets. You should be able to edit it

Goodshape

supernic wrote:

oh, and it should be noted there's no CGI, the effects are created with microphotography...

Yeah, and it worked really well I thought. Fantastic visuals.

i was really not keen on

all that floating around lotus position stuff- what did Indian/yoga stuff have to with the themes so carefully unwrapped previously?

I liked that, actually. Thought it added a lot to the tone of the film and was a good indication that a lot of time has passed. He looks like he's had a lifetime and more to become a Zen master.. and living for so long, and alone, I'd say it's either that or go completely crazy (or both).

anyway, i found this synopsis which i felt was the closest explanation of what is happening (and other theories) on:

Good synopsis.

supernic

SofaKing wrote:

Just need to replace the angeled brackets with square brackets. You should be able to edit it

thank you, it's all good now thanks to someone who fixed it...

student uselass

9th of march and no sign of it in any cinemas yet :mad: :mad: :mad:

lodgepole

Play.com are taking pre-orders for a May DVD release.

student uselass

Was really hopin 2 see it in cinema, ya cant beat the big screen!

Enda89

dammit anyway, I thought a movie with actors like Jackman and Weiz would easily get widespread release.

Oh well guess we'll have to settle for the DVD when it comes out

quad_red

:mad:

We can go and enjoy Norbit instead.

Enda89

quad_red wrote:

:mad:

We can go and enjoy Norbit instead.

Norbit, a classic "wouldnt see it if you paid me" film

But seriously I can't believe The Fountain didn't get a cinema release here.

I was in tower records the other day and they had a few copies of the soundtrack. It's weird that the music from the film is distributed but they couldnt be arsed distributing the movie itself :mad:

thatboypip

hey! Norbit is an amazing film...

....what Woody Allen meant to make when he made Annie Hall.

sparkthatbled

So it will never be released here in the Cinema? I feel ripped off... I feel angry, i feel like saying enough swear words to get me banned from a Metal forum for life! How can they do this to us? I can't imagine this film will be anyway nearly as good on DVD as on the big screen with 17.1 surround! I'll have to make do with a PC Monitor and 5.1... Unless i can find someone i know who has a HD tv, that is, but unlikely... This is the worst thing ever to (not) happen in this sh*tty country we live in... I'm gonna go sulk until the dvd comes out.

student uselass

There may be hope. The IFCO released it into cinemas on the 9th and now on entertainment.ie it is down as coming soon! I asked in vue if it will be coming and she told me she thought so because there was a poster for it down by the screens, however there is no poster :mad: she might have thought i was on about something else?????? fingers still crossed for it

sparkthatbled

I e-mailed the IFI to ask them, if anyone will be showing it they will... I'll post here if/when i get a reply. But this business of pre-orders on the dvd makes me wonder if they're not just trying to boost the dvd sales...