The Fountain

"Fountain (film)" redirects here. For the Russian film, see Fountain (1988 film).
For other uses, see The Fountain (disambiguation).

The Fountain
A house-sized bubble, the left half of it only in view, floats against a gold-hued stellar background. Underbrush comprises ground within the bubble, and at the center stands a tall, gnarled tree without leaves. A bald man in simple clothing stands at the edge of the underbrush in the bubble and looks up, while a woman dressed in white stands by the tree and beholds him. Below the figures is the title "THE FOUNTAIN" with the tagline below it, "What if you could live forever?"
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDarren Aronofsky
Screenplay byDarren Aronofsky
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMatthew Libatique
Edited byJay Rabinowitz
Music byClint Mansell
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures[i]
Release date
  • November 22, 2006 (2006-11-22)
Running time
93 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million[4]
Box office$16.5 million[4]

The Fountain is a 2006 American epic science fiction romantic drama film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Blending elements of fantasy, history, spirituality, and science fiction, the film consists of three storylines involving immortality and the resulting loves lost, and one man's pursuit of avoiding this fate in this life or beyond it. Jackman and Weisz play sets of characters bonded by love across time and space: a conquistador and his ill-fated queen, a modern-day scientist and his cancer-stricken wife, and a traveler immersed in a universal journey alongside aspects of his lost love. The storylines—interwoven with use of match cuts and recurring visual motifs—reflect the themes and interplay of love and mortality.

Aronofsky originally planned to direct The Fountain on a $70 million budget with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in the lead roles, but Pitt's withdrawal and cost overruns led Warner Bros. Pictures to shut it down. Aronofsky rewrote the script to be sparser, and was able to resurrect the film for $35 million with Jackman and Weisz in the lead roles. Principal photography began from November 2004 to February 2005,[5] and mainly took place on a sound stage in Montreal, Quebec. Aronofsky used macro photography to create key visual effects for The Fountain at a low cost.

The film was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on November 22, 2006. It was a box office bomb, only grossing $16.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $35 million, and received generally mixed reviews from critics, but it has gained a cult following since its release.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ a b "The Fountain (2006)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  2. ^ "The Fountain". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
  3. ^ "The Fountain (15)". British Board of Film Classification. June 30, 2006. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference production was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Goldberg, Matt (November 22, 2016). "The Fountain Has Nothing to Do with Time". Collider. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  7. ^ "The Darren Aronofsky Retrospective: 'The Fountain' - Movie Mezzanine". moviemezzanine.com. January 27, 2013.
  8. ^ "Unsung Gems - 'The Fountain' features one of the most unforgettable film climaxes of all time - PopOptiq". October 1, 2012. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2014.