The Fountain may be one of the strangest films of the holiday season, and it has a singular look to match its bold content.
The imagery – which originated in the camera of Matthew Libatique, director Darren Aronofsky's very able cinematographer since Pi, and was enhanced at Efilm by colorist Steve Bowen – has a sharpness and depth suited to the material, contrasting the burning torches and fire-lit faces clearly against the black shadows of the Mayan ruins in the film's 16th-century storyline, and detail can clearly be seen in the dimly-lit hospital rooms and almost monochromatic love scenes that are a big part of the present-day thread. But the film's real signature imagery is the golden-hued visual effects work that accompanies an astral traveler's journey to a distant nebula. Sure, you could get a similar look by timing film prints, but without the same fine control over tone and contrast. And the DI no doubt helped maintain visual consistency in a love story stretched across the centuries.