The Fountainhead is an epic melodrama about how creativity, individualism and society all intersect among each other in the world we know. The film has a lot of problems from the dialogue feeling awkward and unnatural at times, to the early romance between Roark and Dominique Fancon feeling silly and abrupt. Heck, the simple fact that everything in this film is gloriously stated in a grand sort of way is something I found bothersome, yet ultimately, this is still a pretty strong film. The lighting and cinematography is what really stood out for me about The Fountainhead, being that it is very impressionistic and intense throughout the running time. The visuals and mood of the piece are able to really create this great sense of "the Urban Jungle" which the characters inhabit to a degree that I don't think I have ever seen before. An obvious example of this would be Gail Wynand office, with it's gigantic windows which showcase the city below in all its glory. Fountainhead is without a doubt heavy handed to the point that the film feels campy from time to time, but it really does have a great message and the finale, where Howard Roark rambles off a long monologue about how important individualism has been in terms of innovation is what sold me. Touching on the relationship between how being a visionary usually means one is driven by their own merits is interesting, especially how society tends to have a grossly negative viewpoint, deeming this selfish. King Vidor's The Fountainhead suffers from a lot of the typical faults of older melodramas, feeling hamfisted at times, but the themes and discussions the film provides have a lot of merit. 7.5/10
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|