Requiem for a Dream (2000)
This is one of, if not the most upsetting movie I have ever seen. I’ve made a point to never be afraid of watching a film that may upset me, but I was not prepared for Darren Aaronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Although this movie is excellent, I will never watch it again. It’s hard to put into words how truly disturbing this film is, but I’m going to do my best.
Set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream presents four individuals and their alarming dependence on various drugs. Told through the relationship between mother and son, Sara (Ellen Burstyn) and Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) we enter this strange world. At the start of the film we meet the pudgy, widowed mother Sara, who is energized by the likelihood that she may appear as a guest on a television game show. She starts a diet plan that includes an amalgamation of diet pills in order to re-make herself for the television audience. As the film progresses the other characters in the film also find themselves descending into a bottomless pit of drug addiction and psychosis.
Throughout the movie, self destruction is the most obvious theme. This movie goes much deeper than just discussing substance abuse, it analyzes the human condition and how far vulnerable people will go to fulfill their need for heroin, cocaine, and uppers. This movie feels like one you would study in a college psychology class, it delves so deeply into the human psyche. While the characters don’t start out in good situations, throughout the film we see them descend deeper into the depths of their own personal hell. Sara Goldfarb starts by being depicted as a television addict with dreams of being thin enough to fit into a red dress who spirals so far that by the end of the film she is a patient in a psychiatric hospital with a frontal lobotomy. The son, Harry Goldfarb, starts out as a college graduate and heroin user who supplies drugs to his friend Tyronne (Marlon Wayans) and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly). Harry convinces himself that he and Tyronne have a future in selling heroin. They both discover that the world of drug dealing is brutal and violent. By the end of the film Tyronne lands in prison where he endures racism and drug withdrawal while Harry is forced to have his arm amputated due to infection from shooting up. The storyline of Harry’s girlfriend Marion shows us the devastating effects that drug addiction can have on one’s creativity and productivity. She is lead to prostitution to get her fix.
While this movie is nothing short of dispiriting, the cinematography is what makes this movie incredible. Because the movie follows four separate storylines, we see four different types of cinematography. The camerawork and editing individualizes the character’s separate lives by creating separate cinematic universes. Throughout the film there is a sense of aggression in the camerawork, the photography actually thrusts the narrative farther and functions in a technique of distortion. The camera is used to show the fantasies of the characters through cinematographic techniques like tracking shots, timelapses, split screens, and fades. The exquisite shots make this movie disturbingly mesmerizing.
Yes, this is probably the most upsetting movie I’ve ever watched. And yes, this movie has some of the best camerawork and editing that I’ve ever seen. But no, I will not willingly watch this movie again. It’s hard to even talk about the climaxes of this movie, let alone try to analyze it. Watch at your own discretion.
A look into the cinematography of Requiem for a Dream.
