Post by klep on Jan 9, 2017 7:51:08 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/9: The Fountain
Death comes for us all. No one escapes it. Even if you were to somehow halt aging, avoid disease, accident, and misfortune. Even if mankind were to go out into the stars and form an unceasing empire. At some point, the stars would burn out and you would run out of energy to sustain yourself. You would die. Your only true choice in the death of yourself or another is whether to accept mortality when the time comes, or not.
In The Fountain, Hugh Jackman plays a man (or two, or three, depending on how you judge these things) who refuses to accept death. In the past, Tomas is a conquistador single-mindedly seeking the Tree of Life to save Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. In the present, Tommy is a scientist obsessively searching for a cure for his wife Isabel's (Rachel Weisz) cancer. And in the future, Tom is hurtling towards a nebula identified as the Mayan underworld with a life-prolonging - but dying - tree in the conviction the dying star within can restore the tree.
My own interpretation is that these are all the same man, in a sense. Tom is given visions of Tommy by his tree, and Tomas is a character in the novel that Isabel starts and Tommy finishes. Tomas' story is finished by Tommy as he is in the midst of grief - his efforts to save his wife bearing fruit tragically just a little too late. Tomas dies still struggling for life, but the manner of his death reflects Tommy's growing understanding. In Tomas' death we see new life created and where Tommy had been unrelenting in his quest to save Isabel, he now is starting to see what can come of death.
In the film's final shot, we see Tommy plant a seed at his wife's grave. I would suggest that this is the seed of Tom's tree, the same kind of tree Tomas found and from which Tommy was able to derive his miracle drug. Thus Tom is Tommy an untold number of years further in the future, still trying to save his wife (or at least her legacy). We see Tommy's ring tattoo on his finger, and we see the tattood bands on his arms representing the time that has passed. He has not yet truly accepted that all things must pass.
But he is given visions, either by the tree or from his own subconscious, of his past. He finally sees that in refusing to let go, he missed out on time with Isabel he could have had. He starts to realize the value and purpose of life doesn't come from keeping it alive, and it also doesn't just come from what you leave behind. It comes from using the time you have well, so that you can face your end at peace, with no regrets. Death is not an end, it is the road to awe. In accepting death, we face the totality of the universe and that our place in it was never permanent, but part of a longer story. With his new understanding, he serenely leaves his bubble to face the dying star.
As he disintegrates in the fire, the tree blossoms anew.
On a final note before I finish this piece, Aronofsky's frequent collaborators Clint Mansell and Matthew Libatique were truly firing on all cylinders on this film. Libatique uses yellow in a way that I have never really seen before, with multiple shots that steal my breath, drop my jaw, and make my heart ache while Mansell's score rises and falls and pulses with a repeated motif that is a special kind of melancholy, its haunting strings capturing both resistance and acceptance of death and the world that persists in its wake and one final burst of transcendent bliss.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/16/17: The Piano
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Our next Movie of the Week is shamefully one of only four Best Picture nominees to have been directed by a woman. Next week we'll take a look at this film about a woman trapped in an arranged marriage across the world from anything she's ever known. The Piano is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/10/17: Stranger Than Paradise
This week the Next Picture Show podcast takes a look at the career of Jim Jarmusch with his breakthrough film Stranger Than Paradise and his latest effort Paterson. Stranger Than Paradise is available on Filmstruck's Criterion channel and for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
Death comes for us all. No one escapes it. Even if you were to somehow halt aging, avoid disease, accident, and misfortune. Even if mankind were to go out into the stars and form an unceasing empire. At some point, the stars would burn out and you would run out of energy to sustain yourself. You would die. Your only true choice in the death of yourself or another is whether to accept mortality when the time comes, or not.
In The Fountain, Hugh Jackman plays a man (or two, or three, depending on how you judge these things) who refuses to accept death. In the past, Tomas is a conquistador single-mindedly seeking the Tree of Life to save Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. In the present, Tommy is a scientist obsessively searching for a cure for his wife Isabel's (Rachel Weisz) cancer. And in the future, Tom is hurtling towards a nebula identified as the Mayan underworld with a life-prolonging - but dying - tree in the conviction the dying star within can restore the tree.
My own interpretation is that these are all the same man, in a sense. Tom is given visions of Tommy by his tree, and Tomas is a character in the novel that Isabel starts and Tommy finishes. Tomas' story is finished by Tommy as he is in the midst of grief - his efforts to save his wife bearing fruit tragically just a little too late. Tomas dies still struggling for life, but the manner of his death reflects Tommy's growing understanding. In Tomas' death we see new life created and where Tommy had been unrelenting in his quest to save Isabel, he now is starting to see what can come of death.
In the film's final shot, we see Tommy plant a seed at his wife's grave. I would suggest that this is the seed of Tom's tree, the same kind of tree Tomas found and from which Tommy was able to derive his miracle drug. Thus Tom is Tommy an untold number of years further in the future, still trying to save his wife (or at least her legacy). We see Tommy's ring tattoo on his finger, and we see the tattood bands on his arms representing the time that has passed. He has not yet truly accepted that all things must pass.
But he is given visions, either by the tree or from his own subconscious, of his past. He finally sees that in refusing to let go, he missed out on time with Isabel he could have had. He starts to realize the value and purpose of life doesn't come from keeping it alive, and it also doesn't just come from what you leave behind. It comes from using the time you have well, so that you can face your end at peace, with no regrets. Death is not an end, it is the road to awe. In accepting death, we face the totality of the universe and that our place in it was never permanent, but part of a longer story. With his new understanding, he serenely leaves his bubble to face the dying star.
As he disintegrates in the fire, the tree blossoms anew.
On a final note before I finish this piece, Aronofsky's frequent collaborators Clint Mansell and Matthew Libatique were truly firing on all cylinders on this film. Libatique uses yellow in a way that I have never really seen before, with multiple shots that steal my breath, drop my jaw, and make my heart ache while Mansell's score rises and falls and pulses with a repeated motif that is a special kind of melancholy, its haunting strings capturing both resistance and acceptance of death and the world that persists in its wake and one final burst of transcendent bliss.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/16/17: The Piano
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
Our next Movie of the Week is shamefully one of only four Best Picture nominees to have been directed by a woman. Next week we'll take a look at this film about a woman trapped in an arranged marriage across the world from anything she's ever known. The Piano is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/10/17: Stranger Than Paradise
This week the Next Picture Show podcast takes a look at the career of Jim Jarmusch with his breakthrough film Stranger Than Paradise and his latest effort Paterson. Stranger Than Paradise is available on Filmstruck's Criterion channel and for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.