The Fountain, and my word for 2011
Posted on: February 11, 2011
We just watched the movie “The Fountain”.
I enjoyed it, but my other half enjoyed it muchly. he says:
“If you have an imagination and you’re not afraid to stretch it, and if you’re willing to let a movie take you on a ride, a story , a journey, give The Fountain a chance. I don’t think the critics gave it enough of a change, it is definitely worth seeing.
The visuals and sound effects work together perfectly and complimented the story on the screen. the visuals and music were beautiful, but unimportant. what was important was the journey the viewer is taken on during the 2 hour film. even though it’s nothing like a Bernardo Bertolucci movie, it reminds me of his work – it’s not translating a play and writing it into a movie, it’s writing something that’s meant to be a movie, and only a movie.
If they made this a book, you’d know too many things. If you know – you won’t experience. knowledge in some cases inhibits our ability to experience the world around us. And this movie expresses that, like a Bertolucci movie, or like 2001, or even Princess Mononoke.”
I liked it too, but he liked it more. For me it was very pretty, and very meta. and i’m really feeling that meta these days. in fact, “meta” might be my word for 2011.
6 Responses to "The Fountain, and my word for 2011"
February 12, 2011 at 10:06 am
I watched The Fountain a couple of years ago. It is a movie I won’t soon forget, not just because it was beautifully filmed and very different from most movies I’ve seen, but also because (oversharing warning) it was a movie I watched with a couple of my ‘solidarity brothers’ on the morning after my ‘ain’t gonna propagate the earth no more’ surgery. 🙂 I watched several movies during that few day recovery period and read Asimov’s Foundation trilogy for the first time. Very nice way to recover.
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February 12, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Legends of Fantasy – I’m using “meta” incorrectly, and I know I am, but now it’s become an annoying habit. I’ve been using “meta” to describe when you are in something that you’re witnessing, so I guess sort of thinking about thinking.
In the Fountain, he reads his wife’s story called “the fountain”, and he is IN the story, and eventually changes the story when he makes it past the guardian of the fountain. He’s witnessing something and changing it and being there and at the same time not being there, all at the same time. Wow, that made no sense whatsoever!
maybe I should take a philosophy or a mysticism class one day, so I can actually use these words correctly?
Carl – yes, it’s a good recovery movie because it’s so distracting, but wow man, TMI! 😉
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February 12, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Yeah, after I posted I was going to say that I had as a guess as to what you meant… It’s “meta” because it takes places in different times and abstract realms, but at the same time, they are all self-contained and affecting each other. But I wanted to clarify.
Anyway the mysticism course was a completely different topic of discussion. It was a general introduction to religious mysticism taught by a rabbi. The movie wasn’t shown because it was meta, but because of the spiritual aspect to it…and for something more fun than a lecture. 🙂
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February 12, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Yes, and the TMI all comes from this post:
http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/decommissioned
which immediately pops into mind any time I see references to The Fountain or the Foundation books.
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February 13, 2011 at 10:25 am
I loved it. It was hard to follow, but very interesting. I liked the flash-forwards to when he was in the bubble, the parts with the tree. Definitely wish it was a book.
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the Little Red Reviewer 
February 12, 2011 at 3:22 am
I saw The Fountain in a class on mysticism and really enjoyed it.
It’s one of those movies that sort of captures your imagination…it’s very memorable.
Glad you all enjoyed it. 🙂
What did you mean by ‘meta’? I know “metacognition” is “thinking about thinking” so does meta just imply something is self-referential?
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