Weisz and fiance brave film collaboration

VENICE - Film collaborations between real-life partners are not always happy affairs, but Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky say it is 'so far, so good' after making The Fountain together.

Weisz, who won an Oscar for her role in The Constant Gardener, plays Izzi in her fiance's new film about a man in three different eras seeking to save the one he loves.

Australian Hugh Jackman plays the lead in a fantasy film about love and coming to terms with loss and death.

"I'd be honoured if she'd work with me again," US film maker Aronofsky told a news conference today, when asked if the fact that he was engaged to the female lead might work against him.

"Who knows? I've got to call her agent and see if we can get a deal," he joked.

Director and actor Peter Bogdanovich had an unhappy career slump when he cast his then partner Cybill Shepherd in films like the 1975 flop At Long Last Love.

Director Guy Ritchie was widely derided for film projects starring his wife Madonna, particularly Swept Away in 2002.

Asked about his reaction to filming an intimate scene between Weisz and Jackman, Aronofsky replied:

"I'm a pervert, so I had no issue with it. I enjoy shooting sex scenes very much. She's an actress, he's an actor ... when you call 'cut', it's over."

Briton Weisz, who has a young son with Aronofsky, added: "Actually, Darren was shouting to me: 'Take his trousers off!'" during a scene in which a clothed Jackman gets into the bath with her.

Aronofsky has little experience to date of bad reviews, with his 1998 movie Pi and 2000 follow-up Requiem for a Dream widely praised. The Fountain is his first film since then.

Critics' reaction to his latest movie, however, could be more mixed after the film was booed by some in the audience during a press screening in Venice, where it is one of 21 films in the main festival competition.

The project was delayed for several years after Brad Pitt, originally cast in the leading role, pulled out, according to Hollywood trade publications.

Aronofsky used unusual filming techniques to conjure up a clear "bubble" craft drifting through space in the futuristic storyline set in the 26th century.

Rather than using only computer-generated images, his visual effects team enlisted a photographer who shoots photographs of tiny chemical reactions on a laboratory Petri dish.

"We didn't want anything to be from the inside of a computer," Aronofsky said, adding that science fiction movies had become "super-dependent" on special effects. "You don't know if you're watching a cartoon or live action."

The Fountain is due for release in November in the United States.

- REUTERS