The Fountain Soundtrack
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of watching The Fountain I highly recommend that you do. I don’t think it’s the best movie made or anything, but it is definitely an experience that is worth having if only for the supremely beautiful visuals and stunning soundtrack. Dig a bit deeper and you’ll find a really wonderful story that definitely gives you something to think about. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about this time.
The soundtrack for The Fountain is - without question - my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. It was done by Clint Mansell who is good friends with Darren Aronofsky (the director of this film). They’ve worked on several other things before; probably most notably Requiem for a Dream (another great soundtrack). San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet (who I am a huge fan of) primarily performed the soundtrack for The Fountain and the results are fantastic. Their minimal style is really appealing to me; strings like these just beg to be sampled.
The entire soundtrack is basically gold. The movie is great, especially the way the visuals complement the music, but honestly the soundtrack is probably the best thing about the entire movie. I have found myself listening to it for quite some time now. In particular it makes great music for working or driving I’ve found. It’s also inspired me at times and I’ve found myself wishing that I could remix some of the music.
Turns out I’m not the only one. In poking around online I actually found this site from Twentieth Century Fox which lets fans download individual parts from a track, remix them and then upload the finished result for others to vote on. I’m quite impressed with a few of them. For example, I think this one is probably my favorite at the moment.
I’ll definitely have to take a little time this weekend and see what kind of rough cut I can come up with.
February 6th, 2008 21:56
Really? you liked the fountain!? it was difficult for me to follow as a movie. i thought the music was great, but when i think of requiem, i usually end up thinking about (new) solaris…and to me, cliff martinez really rocked out the music for that movie. overall, i thought the music to the fountain was great…movie not so much.
my favorite soundtrack to any movie, given the movie, has to be garden state or thomas crown affair. my favorite soundtrack, not given the movie, i stick with solaris
February 6th, 2008 23:44
Thomas Crown Affair was an excellent movie with an awesome soundtrack. I haven’t seen Garden State yet, though it’s on the list. Solaris also has an amazing soundtrack. I haven’t listened to it in a while… I should do that.
The Fountain isn’t easy to follow, but I have my own thoughts about what it means and given that the movie is a lot more enjoyable to me. We’ll have to talk about it over dinner tomorrow night.
February 23rd, 2008 01:14
I’ll have to give a listen.