The fountain Blu-ray Disc 2006 / Directed by Darren Aronofsky / Starring: Hugh Jakman, Rachel Weisz

UPC 4006680048031

Bluray disc - 1080p FullHD 16x9 

Region B

MADE IN GERMANY

AUDIO: English 5.1,  German 5.1

SUBTITLES: German

Playtime: 97 minutes

English Summary:

The Fountain is a 2006 American epic 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. to shut down his production. The director rewrote the script to be sparser, and was able to resurrect the film with a $35 million budget with Jackman and Weisz in the lead roles. Production mainly took place on a sound stage in Montreal, Quebec, and the director used macro photography to create key visual effects for The Fountain at a low cost.

German Summary:

The Fountain (etwa Der Brunnen oder Die Quelle) ist ein mehrere Jahrhunderte umspannender Fantasyfilm des US-amerikanischen Regisseurs und Drehbuchautors Darren Aronofsky aus dem Jahr 2006. Die Handlung entfaltet sich über drei ineinander verzahnte Zeitebenen und beschreibt die Geschichte einer Suche nach dem Jungbrunnen in Form eines lebenden Organismus, wobei die Themen „Liebe, Tod, Unsterblichkeit und die Zerbrechlichkeit menschlicher Existenz“ dominieren.^[2]

Die Premiere fand bei den 63. Filmfestspielen von Venedig statt, in Deutschland war der Film ab dem 18. Januar 2007 in den Kinos zu sehen.

Der Film besteht aus drei ineinander verwobenen Handlungssträngen, die insgesamt eine Zeitspanne von 1000 Jahren umfassen:

1. Im Jahr 1535 sucht der spanische Conquistador Tomás nach dem Baum des Lebens, der am Jungbrunnen im Reich der Maya wachsen soll, um dessen Saft seiner geliebten Königin Isabel zu bringen, um sie vor dem Tod zu bewahren.
2. In der Gegenwart versucht der Wissenschaftler Tommy Creo verzweifelt mit Hilfe von Pflanzenextrakten aus dem Regenwald Guatemalas ein Medikament zu entwickeln, um seine Frau Izzi vor dem Tod durch einen Hirntumor zu retten. Das Präparat entfaltet erstaunliche Wirkungen, ist aber noch nicht das erstrebte Heilmittel. Izzi hat mittlerweile ein Buch geschrieben, das die Geschichte des Conquistadors Tomás erzählt. Das Buch ist allerdings noch nicht fertig: Tom soll das letzte Kapitel ergänzen.
3. Erst im Jahr 2500 erhält Tommy, nach einer fantastischen, in die Transzendenz führenden Reise durch das Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum in einer großen Blase, Antworten auf seine Fragen. Diese inspirieren ihn, einen in der Blase wachsenden Baum (wieder eine Inkarnation Izzis) zu dem sterbenden Stern Xibalbá zu bringen, der nach den Vorstellungen der Maya ein Ort im Jenseits ist, an dem Tote wiedergeboren werden können.

Cast / Besetzung:

• Hugh Jackman as Tomás Verde / Thomas Creo / Tommy the Space Traveler:
  A 16th century Spanish conquistador set out in the deep jungles of South America to find the elixir of life that was purported to come from the Fountain of Youth springing forth from a tree atop a Mayan pyramid, where he fiercely fought a Mayan high priest.^[7] In the present, a scientist discovers a South American tree with promising life-extending properties in an attempt to cure his wife of brain cancer. Centuries later, a man journeys through deep space in a futuristic spherical spacecraft with a tree assumed to be the one Tom Creo planted on the grave of his wife Izzi half a millennium earlier, heading toward a dying star believing its explosion will restore her.^[8] Jackman played all three characters in three interweaving narratives spanning a period of one thousand years, beginning in 1500 A.D.
• Rachel Weisz as Isabella I of Castile / Izzi Creo
  A terminally-ill woman writes an unfinished manuscript titled "The Fountain" about a 16th century Spanish queen held captive by a powerful Catholic priest, who sends her most loyal henchman to find a legendary tree she believes would free her and her subjects from the Inquisition. Weisz, speaking to The Guardian, shared how working with director Aronofsky, who was then in a relationship with her at the time of filming and release, was "very different to who we are around the house."^[9]
• Ellen Burstyn as Dr. Lillian Guzetti
• Stephen McHattie as Grand Inquisitor Silecio
  His growing power and ruthless crackdown on the queen's loyal subjects, branded as heretics during the Inquisition, threatens the peace of her kingdom.
• Mark Margolis as Father Avila
• Cliff Curtis as Captain Ariel