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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Fountain, The (Blu-ray) (2006)
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Fountain, The (Blu-ray) (2006)
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Sell-Through Release Status Unknown
Available for Rent
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Details At A Glance
| General |
Extras |
| Category |
Drama |
Featurette-Behind The Story
Featurette-Inside The Fountain - Death and Rebirth
Featurette-Peter Parks Bonus - Macro Photography Loop
Web Links
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| Rating |
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Year Of Production
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2006
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| Running Time |
96:55
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RSDL
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Flipper
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Dual Layered
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Cast & Crew |
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Start Up
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Programme |
| Region Coding |
2,4
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Directed By |
Darren Aronofsky
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Studio
Distributor |
Twentieth Century Fox
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Starring |
Hugh Jackman
Rachel Weisz
Ellen Burstyn
Mark Margolis
Stephen McHattie
Fernando Hernandez
Cliff Curtis
Sean Patrick Thomas
Donna Murphy
Ethan Suplee
Richard McMillan
Lorne Brass
Abraham Aronofsky
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| Case |
? |
| RPI |
Rental
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Music |
Clint Mansell
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NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.
Plot Synopsis
While The Fountain takes itself very serious, I couldn't. Darren Aronofsky attempts to be Stanley Kubrick in this overly ambitious, and ultimately pretentious and preposterous film. The Fountain is nowhere near as perplexing or as profound as it would like us to believe. It's boring, self-indulgent, and lacks any genuine emotional resonance. To make matters worse, as with the DVD, the transfer has some problems.
The Fountain is a confused meditation on death, comprising three parallel storylines: (1) Tomás (
Hugh Jackman) is a sixteenth-century Spanish conquistador sent by Queen Isabel (
Rachel Weisz) to the jungles of South America, in search of the Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible; (2) Tommy (
Hugh Jackman) and Izzi Creo (
Rachel Weisz) are also a present-day research scientist, and his wife dying from a brain tumour; and (3) we seem to have a futuristic Tom (
Hugh Jackman) and a ghost Izzi (
Rachel Weisz) floating through space, inside a bubble-spacecraft, with the tree.
So what is Aronofsky trying to say with this film? "Death is a disease," Tommy says. "It’s like any other. And there is a cure." This view resonates with modern Western society, which wants to cheat age, sickness, and death. But Izzy asks Tommy, "What if death were an act of creation?" Aronofsky seems to be suggesting that death should be accepted and embraced, and we can all achieve immortality through the circle of life - we are buried, become part of the earth, and possibly then become part of something else, a tree, a flower, a butterfly.
Aronofsky's previous films include Pi and Requiem for a Dream. His problems with this film are well known: Originally in production in 2002, The Fountain stalled and the original star, Brad Pitt departed. The studio shelved the production indefinitely. The project was then resurrected a few years later with a fraction of the budget.
In contrast, this year, the ten films expected to dominate the box office are: Spider-Man 3, Harry Potter 5, Fantastic Four 2, Oceans 13, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Shrek The Third, The Simpsons Movie, Transformers, Die Hard 4, and The Bourne Ultimatum. A clear pattern emerges. Eight of the ten are sequels, and the other two are based on successful, well known television series. It's clear that Hollywood is banking on safe sequels. So perhaps interesting failures such as The Fountain should be applauded, when most mainstream films are now lacking any real vision or originality.
The great shame with The Fountain is that at times it shows great promise. For example, the present-day storyline of Tommy's desperate obsession to save his wife, even at the expense of enjoying his last days with her, could have been a compelling film in itself.
However, with a completely different view of this film, Daniel Bruce found The Fountain to be a "challenging and thought provoking piece of cinema which doesn't pander to its audience". You can read Daniel's review of the DVD here.
Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.
Transfer Quality
Video
The Fountain's transfer is disappointing, and reportedly, the image problems I mention below appear to be present in all three formats: DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray, leading me to believe the real problem lies in the source material.
The transfer has been mastered in 1920 x 1080p, using MPEG-2 compression. It is presented in a high definition, widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in a native 16x9 frame. This is the film's original theatrical ratio.
The sharpness of the image is disappointing, and as I mentioned above, I assume the problem lies in the source material, as Daniel Bruce also mentions the overall softness in the DVD transfer. Some fleeting moments are razor sharp, such as the close-up of Hugh Jackman's eye at 37:28, but most of the film is almost fuzzy. For example, consider the lack of definition in the Mayan temple scene at 2:37, or the lack of clarity in the hospital room scene at 55:22. The quality of black level is variable, ranging from deep blacks to grey, such as at 37:17. A lot of this film is very dark, I'm not sure if it's an artistic choice, but the shadow detail is dreadful. For example consider the murky and indistinct scenes at 14:35 and at 45:55.
The colour palette is very dark, which suits the mood of the film. As with the DVD, there is some slight colour bleeding, which may be intentional. The skin tones are warm, but fairly accurate.
There is fine veil of grain present throughout the film in the source material, but there are no noticeable problems with MPEG or film-to-video artefacts. Indeed, the transfer enjoys a good bit rate, often at higher than 35 Mbps. A few tiny film artefacts appear throughout. These are mostly small white or black flecks, and hard to spot.
Seven subtitles streams are included, and the English ones are accurate.
This is a BD-50 disc. The feature is divided into 20 chapters.
Video Ratings Summary
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour |  |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
Audio
The Fountain has an excellent and enveloping sound design, and like the DVD, the BD's audio is wonderful.
Originally released theatrically in Dolby Digital 5.1, dts, and SDDS, the BD offers only one audio option. Notably, this is the first DVD or BD I have reviewed that has no Dolby Digital audio option, not that it's missed. The only audio option on the disc is an English dts-HD Lossless Master Audio for the feature. This format can potentially support an unlimited number of surround sound channels, and downmix to 5.1 if required. This is 'future-proofing' the disc, as currently there are no Blu-ray or HD-DVD players that are able to decode the dts-HD Master Audio, but all Blu-ray and HD-DVD players can currently decode the dts-HD "core" 5.1 audio at 1.5 Mbps.
Despite all the whispered dialogue, and hushed tones, the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent.
The musical score is credited to Clint Mansell, and it underscores the ethereal mood of the film well.
As with the DVD release, the surround presence and activity is excellent and enveloping. The immersive sound-stage features excellent use of ambience, as well as a great deal of rear directional effects, such as when Hugh Jackman is almost hit by a car at 50:41, which made me jump out of my seat. The score also effectively appears in the rears throughout.
As a dialogue-based drama, this is not a LFE-heavy audio track, but the subwoofer is used effectively throughout, where appropriate.
Audio Ratings Summary
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
Extras
The extras are reasonable, but two things appear to be missing: Firstly, I understand that Aronofsky was keen to record an audio commentary, but was denied doing so. He has promised to make one available online. Secondly, while the initial failed production is briefly mentioned, we get very little detail about it. Considering years of work went into this, I was interested in hearing more about what went wrong with the initial production, and why the studio shut it down.
The extras included on the Blu-ray, are very similar to the ones found on the local DVD, which are detailed in Daniel's review of the DVD here. The extras included on the Blu-ray are:
Behind The Story
- VFX Step By Step (8:43): We look at the process of moving from computer pre-visualisation, to a final shot using miniatures, green-screen, limited CGI, and compositing.
- Life On Ship (4:28): A deleted scene from the film
- Inside The Director's Mind - Scene To Storyboard Comparison (15:32): A comparison between some of the storyboards, and the finished film (shown in black and white).
Inside The Fountain - Death and Rebirth
Seven behind-the-scenes featurettes, presented in a similar style to a video production diary:
- Australia (7:40): Featuring separate interviews with Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky, Co-writer Ari Handel, and Producer Eric Watson, Aronofsky and Handel discuss where their story ideas came from. There is also some of their home video footage from their 2002 research trip to South America, and some behind-the-scenes production footage.
- The 21st Century (10:20): Featuring an interview with the DOP, Matthew Libatique, this is a behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 production, now filming with the new cast in Canada.
- Spain - 16th Century (13:34): A behind-the-scenes look at the Spanish Court set in 2005.
- New Spain (9:57): A look at filming the New Spain segments, on a sound stage in Canada.
- The Endless Field (7:11): A look at the set in New Spain where Tomás discovers the Tree Of Life.
- The Future (15:14): A look at creating the bubble-spacecraft set, and filming the Future segment.
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The Interview (13:09): An interview between the two main stars, recorded on the last day of principal photography.
Peter Parks Bonus - Macro Photography Loop (4:46)
Resembling a screen-saver, this is a relaxing film of macro photography set to easy-listening, yoga-style music.
Web Links
R4 vs R1
NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.
The Fountain was released on DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray in Region 1/Region A (North America). It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray locally.
I understand that the extras on both the BD and HD-DVD were the same in Region A, but there is no listing of a local HD-DVD release of this film as yet.
The Region B BD misses out on:
- VC-1 MPEG-4 Encoding
- English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Audio (640kbps)
- French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Audio (640kbps)
- Theatrical Trailer
The Region A BD misses out on:
- dts-HD Master Audio
- Life On Ship Deleted Scene
I would favour the local BD for the superior dts-HD Master Audio.
Summary
To avoid possible disappointment, definitely rent a copy of The Fountain before buying it.
The video quality is marred by the murky source material.
The audio quality is excellent.
The extras are interesting and genuine.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
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© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Monday, August 13, 2007
| Review Equipment |
| DVD | Sony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using HDMI output |
| Display | Panasonic High Definition 50' Plasma (127 cm).
Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
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| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver.
Calibrated with Video Essentials.
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| Amplification | Samsung Pure Digital 6.1 AV Receiver (HDMI 1.3) |
| Speakers | Samsung |
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