Obsessions, according to Freud are
due to “a lack of proper gratification during one of the psychosexual stages of development”, but
whether or not, they are a feeling almost every human encounters in their life
time that may lead to exaggeration or even mayhem. In Darren Aronofsky's 2000
film Requiem for a Dream (2000), different
forms of addiction are addressed that lead to delusion and desperation. In his
film, Sara Goldfarb, an elderly retired widow is constantly sitting in front
of her TV set watching the same infomercial day after day. She is called and
told that she has won an appearance on the show in question. She then starts a
regime of dietary pills in order to lose weight to fit into her old red dress.
Her only son, Harry is a heroin addict who wants to enter the drug trade with
his friend Tyrone, who is trying to make his absent mother proud. Harry's
girlfriend Marion is also a drug abuser who has dreams of opening a fashion
boutique, carrying her own designs. These four characters are all living with
obsessions that have become addictions and are consuming them entirely. The
filmmaker uses extensive cinematography and editing to get this message across.
Firstly, Aronofski uses various
techniques to produce meaning. He employs cinematography to denote the
importance of the effect of obsession on man kind and his desire to lean
towards the id component of the psyche. The term "requiem" or the
often called "requiem mass" means "the mass celebrated for the
repose of the souls of the dead" according to the Oxford
Dictionary. What the title attempts to convey is the mourning the viewers may
do for the four protagonists that are infinitely chasing after a dream, an
illusion, or even the "American dream" and are later devastated by
the reality they live in. They are all trying to evade the present and reach
for their imagined future. The requiem in this case is Clint Mansell's
"Lux Alterna" that is played repeatedly throughout the film when
characters are changing state or feeling intense sentiments. Although a
component of editing, it is also tied in with the cinematography of the film in
the sense that the score is intertwined with handheld mobile shots to evoke
emotions such as tension, anxiety, frustration, and distress. In the prison
scene, when Tyrone is shot screaming behind prison bars “Help us! Somebody
fucking help us. Please!” the background starts to shake violently subsequently
calling attention to camera use to emulate his screaming and his mental
suffering. The camera position is also perceptible in the scene where Mrs.
Goldfarb is staring at her enormous new television her son gave her as a gift
from Macy’s. Here we see a high camera angle pointing downward at the mentally
tormented lady that is disempowered and kept imprisoned by her obsession of
being on TV. This authority is embodied by the large audio-visual equipment,
which is looking down upon her. It is as if the television and her desire to be
on it are greater than herself. This technique demonstrates the director moving
away from the conventional eye level angle that makes the cinematic experience
more realistic, and shifting towards a more expressionistic, even
anti-realistic style. This style is also seen in the split screen close ups of
Harry and Marion in bed. One side of the screen focuses on a single body part
being stimulated by the partner. This extreme close up with shallow space is
made to reveal the intimacy between the two lovers and their illusion love
affair, since in reality without drugs they argue and Marion would have sexual encounters with
other men. Lastly, the director films certain shots where the characters are
drugged in fast motion. He does this with the intention of showing the audience
how they are living “high time” in contrast with our “real time”. An example of
this technique would be when Harry is home alone listening to music, going to
the bathroom, and walking around at an incredible speed, seeming as if we are
watching the movie on “fast forward”.
Secondly,
editing is frequently present in Requiem
for a Dream. Crosscutting is an editing strategy used to suggest that
multiple situations are occurring at the same time but in different locations.
Several scenes throughout the movie make use of this technique and create
spatial discontinuity while maintaining temporal continuity. One scenario
is where Mrs. Goldfarb is receiving electroconvulsive therapy, while Harry is
having his heroin-infected arm amputated at the same time as Tyrone is being
overworked in prison, as Marion
is getting paid for participating in an orgy-like sex show. Many narratives are
occurring at the same time and the average shot length between each is
gradually being decreased until each shot is projected for less than a second.
All the camera shots shown are strictly close ups to create a voyeuristic
intimacy between the viewer and the character on screen. Again, it depicts the
character's all time low. The cutting frequency is drastically increased from
longer takes that preserved the psychological unity of time and space to
cinematic snapshots that elevate the suspense and tension. These quick
images rapidly turn into compilation shots and give us a clear impression of
the gravity of the situation. These successive shots weaved together also have
a greater hard-hitting impact on the viewer than the content of just one shot. At
this pivotal point in their lives, they are coming to realize how low they have
sunk and therefore their psychological wellbeing will be attenuated. They are
confronted with existentialism, where their present state is due solely to
their previous actions carried out by their own free will, which we come to see
visually in the film's final sequence.
Other than the score that acts
like a bridge between shots from one narrative that overlaps to another
providing aural continuity, the graphic match between shots is also a dimension
of film editing that is explored in this sequence. The several close ups are a
smooth visual transfer from one shot to the next. As an example, one scene in
particular has the prison warden pointing a flashlight in Tyrone’s face and
then Aronofsky cuts to Marion
getting flashlights pointed in her face by the men at the sexual party. This
effect connotes that these two characters are undergoing the same feelings of
humiliation, degradation, terror, and physical impotence. Finally, montage
is the rapid compilation of shots in order to create an artistic and meaningful
scene where the effect is greater than the individual images. The famous
montage sequence that is recurrent throughout the film is the compilation of
how the characters intoxicate themselves. This montage helps us see and hear
what they do and feel while they are getting “high”. We see how the drug is
prepared, taken, and its immediate effect. In Tyrone or Marion’s case we see the cocaine being
spilled on a shard of glass, an American bill being rolled to sniff it, the blood
cells reacting to the foreign substance entering the body, and the pupil
dilating. The montage is fast paced because to them this process is quick and
we feel their excitement and anxiousness while consuming their drugs by the prompt
succession of shots. Also, this montage cues us so we as viewers can be aware
of when the characters are sober and facing reality and when they are drugged and
hallucinating.
To conclude, Aranofsky makes
great use of cinematography and editing to communicate man's obligation to be
human and to live with fixations that attach our minds to intangible ideas or
even substances. Requiem for a Dream
is undoubtedly an art piece put together by a director’s true knowledge of
cinematic language and desire to acquaint his viewers with reality and its
components through an expressionistic style. This film, as we can see, was
definitely not put together on a schedule and pre screened in front of a test
audience in order to secure its success, it was cleverly crafted with cinematic
skill and creativity.
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