Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet & Mogwai
The Fountain

THE REVIEW

Hope, life, love, death.

"The Fountain" is something epic and legendary. It is the dramatic quest for something akin to the Holy Grail, which exists only in human dreams and hopes, because it is not just the elixir of eternal life, it is eternal love. It is the apotheosis of essence in the past, now, and in the centuries to come. Something that is possible to reach only in another life, after death.

Presented at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and released in Italian cinemas this year under the name "L' Albero della Vita", "The Fountain" is the latest film by New York director Darren Aronofsky (starring Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman) and like the previous "Requiem for a Dream", it has availed itself of the melodies conceived by the genius mind of a true artist like Clint Mansell, while the interpretation of sounds has been entrusted to a great band like the Mogwai, along with an epic and legendary string quartet such as the Kronos Quartet (2 violins, viola, and cello).

The fusion of these three elements, could only generate a superb result.

The names of the 10 tracks matter little (although you can find a tear-jerking version by Antony Hegarty of the first track, "The Last Man", on Mansell’s MySpace): this is a work that should be evaluated as a whole. An instrumental feature film of modern classical music and experimental rock, aesthetically mystical and stunning, where fear and anguish chase each other with silence and serenity, in a crescendo as haunting as it is fascinating, among moving piano notes, choirs and sometimes tribal percussion, with violins of great evocative power capable of immersing us in worlds that do not exist.

Let yourself be blessed by a fascinating and special work, winner of the best soundtrack at the double Golden Globe Awards 2007, from both the public and critics. You either love it or hate it, but it is impossible to remain indifferent. Unmissable.