What if you could live forever?

It’s an intriguing question that many filmmakers have attempted to address over the years. Just don’t ask it of Darren Aronofsky, writer/director of the upcoming sci-fi love story, The Fountain. He hates taglines — such as this one for his movie — that narrow the focus of and discourage individual thought on the meaning of his work.

Last Tuesday, the man behind the psychological brain bender, Pi, and the visual experiment in narcotics and neuroscience, Requiem for A Dream, was in D.C. for a screening of his new film at Georgetown’s AMC Theater. We sat down with him afterwards at the Four Seasons to participate in a roundtable discussion that digged deep into his own mind and sought answers to his latest puzzle starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

His first big original screenplay, The Fountain is much more complex than his other films. It alternates among the past, present, and future: bloody battles with ancient Mayans and Spanish conquistadors, the heartbreaking trials and tribulations of a doctor and his sick wife in today’s world (including Ellen Burstyn who was nominated for Best Actress in Requiem for a Dream), and a very 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque vision of the future. These storylines are laced together with clever artistic images and the same haunting violin and bass soundtrack from his other films.

Based on the legend of the tree of life in Genesis, the mystery of eternal life drives each of the subplots — which, while at times a bit confusing, are meant to leave the viewer to arrive at their own conclusions regarding what really happened. Aronofsky hopes that just as ABC’s Lost attracts viewers week after week with its cryptic plot, so too will people rewatch The Fountain multiple times to try and solve the mystery on their own. Without giving anything away, he confirmed that there is an actual solution to the story, and you will have to wait until its November 22 release to try and decipher his riddle on the reel.

Click below to listen to portions of the interview with Aronofsky.