Refreshing reading

Darren Aronofsky's 1988 film "Pi", about a paranoid maths genius who discovers predictable patterns in the stock market, is a black-and-white delight.

"Requiem For A Dream" (2000), a tale of users and their abusers, is cinematic torture. But the soundtrack - composed by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet - is incredible; an "earworm" I doubt I'll ever be able to extract.

DA's latest effort, "The Fountain", doesn't begin screening here until January 25. However, the graphic novel has been available for yonks. I finished it in a single sitting this morning.

There are only really two characters - doomed lovers existing in three time periods.

In 16th-century Spain, she's Queen Isabel and he's the conquistador Captain Tomas Verde, deemed unfit to be her consort. In the modern day, he's Dr Tom Creo, a surgeon not brilliant enough to save his wife Izzi from a brain tumour. In future space, he's a traveller on an organic ship, alone except for the memory of his soulmate.

Aronofsky uses as a recurring theme the Mayan Tree Of Life; paradoxically created by a human sacrifice (the Adam figure First Father), its sap the long-sought "fountain of youth", its branches extending to the afterlife (the star Xibalba).

The obvious message is about the inevitable cycle of nature. But for Tomas/Tom and Isabel/Izzi, it's the transcendence of love; never lost unless we allow it to be.

This film-maker should write more comic books. And he should insist they're painted by Kent Williams, whose every page is a joy. Panel arrangements and "camera angles" are unpredictable, there's no unnecessary detail, not a bit of repetition, and colour is made to count - drab hues suddenly blooming into life.

I hope the movie works as well.