While it seemed to divide critics and be largely ignored by the public, I knew that I would lament not seeing The Fountain on the big screen. Now having seen the film on DVD, I am left only to lament not having a huge television and a Blu-ray Disc player. Set simultaneously in three times (the 15th century, the present, and the distant future) and four places (Spain and Mayan South America, some American research hospital, and outer space), The Fountain is a marvelous visual feast. What’s more, the intertwined stories as well as the conceptual and emotional threads which weave them together provide for one of the most moving and provocative experiences in recent memory. Each of the simultaneously told stories centers on a relationship between a man and a woman 
exploring or rejecting the idea of immortality. The couple in each story is played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, both giving their best performances to date.
In the past 9 years, Director Darren Aronofsky, age 38, has directed only two previous films: the heady and ambitious Pi and the wonderfully-acted and provocative Requiem For a Dream. For its density and complexity, if not for the spectacular visual references, it is impossible to watch The Fountain without allusion to 2001: A Space Odyssey. And while Aronofsky is no eccentric recluse, and his non-prolific nature, especially as it relates to The Fountain, has as much to do with his difficulty financing the film as it does his unwillingness to compromise his vision, I was so impressed by this film that I am going to make a bold prediction: Aronofsky is his generation’s Stanley Kubrick. As with many misunderstood films later “rediscovered” to be classics, I suspect that The Fountain’s critical detractors will find their words to have lost the battle for immortality.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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