The Fountain's negative reception and other Venice news

Other receptions for films at the Venice film festival.

Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State starring Catalina Sandina Moreno is not doing very well critically at the festival. Reviewer Lee Marshall, however, likes it.

Alfonso Cuaron's science fiction film Children of Men about a dystopic world in which women are infertile(due to some mysterious cause) is receiving an overall positive response, although some critics consider the film flawed due to the cold performance of Clive Owen, misuse of Moore, and some misteps in terms of writing. However, many have praised the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki (The New World, Sleepy Hollow, ...) and Cuaron's direction which has raised the material, a P.D. James novel (of all things), above mediocrity.

However, the biggest surprise is the negative reception of Daren Aranofsky's ambitious science fiction film The Fountain, a film that I was eagerly awaiting. According to some sources, At the end of its premiere, the film received some boos from the audience because of its ambiguous and incomprehensible nature. However, it must be noted that several other sources have reported some applause at the film in addition to the "boos" and that several reports have over-emphasized the latter as in the reportage of the Marie Antoinette premiere at Cannes. The word "pretentious" has been thrown around in a virulent review from Variety. In response to the negative reception, the websites CHUD and cinemablend posted defenses of the film.

Right now, the film's response varies from mixed to a pretentious mess. The surprising part of this response is that many individuals have seen The Fountain at test screenings prior to the festival and have only written overtly positive comments about the film, some calling it one of the best films of 2006. The film has even been one of the most hyped films of the fall and yet this Venice response will probably disappoint the expectations of many, myself included.

At this point, there is not means of truly gauging the film's quality until more reviews come in (there has only been one written so far and it is by Variety). There is still the possibility that the film is good, but let's not delude ourselves yet. The early negative response to the film should not be dismissed yet.

UPDATE: A day has passed and a new negative review of Aranofky's The Fountain from the Hollywood Reporter came out as well as repeated news stories about the film being "roundly booed" at the festival. Other negative reviews came from Lee Marshall, although had positive comments about the film's score by Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet (who also wrote the great score for Requiem for a Dream). Although, in the Hollywood Reporter review, Ray Bennet implicitly aligns Aranofsky with terrorist suicide bombers in the first lines of his review:

"Early in "The Fountain," writer-director Darren Aronofsky's flatulent dissertation on the benefits of dying, someone says, "Death is the path to awe." Aw, shucks, isn't that what suicide bombers are led to believe?"

I find this comment overtly irrational and just bizarre (what is a side comment on terrorism doing in a review of a science fiction film?). Although, the line "Death is the path to awe" is not really an example of great writing and could be criticized in this regard, but this escapes Bennet. Despite Bennet's review, the film has a few defenders, but mostly from websites like AICN and Jo Blo's emporium (should I trust a review from someone referring to himself as Jo Blo?).

On the fanboy/fangirl side of The Fountain controversy, fanboys (and fangirls) are blindly invoking what I like to term the "2001 defense". Upon its release, Kubrick's 2001: a space Oddysey was initially panned critically, but is now regarded as one of the best science fiction films ever made, so it must logically follow that the boos directed at The Fountain are a sign of the audience's inability to understand the 'complex' film and thus soon enough The Fountain will receive the acclaim it deserves as did 2001.

I'll admit that I had high expectations for this film, but this argument strikes me as a case of extreme denial coming from the film's fanboys/fangirls. The film may just not be that good and they may soon have to accept it (it will probably crush their fanboy/girl hearts). Then again, festivals are occasionally notorious for overeacting towards certain films and harshly judging perfectly competent films. (The critical division over the Dancer in the Dark win at Cannes comes to mind as well as the disappointment at Polanski's win at the same festival for the Pianist).

In the end, I will still go see it (at least, the film's score promises to be interesting, if nothing else) and judge it for myself.