Date of Release: 19 January 2001 (UK)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Genre: Drama (Social Realist)
The film has a multi-strand narrative therefore there is more than one equilibrium disruption and restored equilibrium for the characters. Sara Goldfarb receives a phonecall from her favourite game show informing her that she has been invited to be a guest on the show which is her equilibrium. In the excitement from receiving the call she puts on an old red dress, however , it no longer fits her so she goes on a diet. Ultimately the diet doesn't work so she subscribes to diet pills. Sara gets addicted to the pills which is the disruption. She begins to have many hallucinations and breaks down immensely and is entered into hospital.
Her son Harry and his best friend Tyrone enter the drug-trade in order to raise money to open a clothes store Harry's girlfriend Marions designs. This is there equilibrium as all goes well for them and they gradually raise the funds needed. Tyrone ends up in the middle of a wrong drug deal which ends up in a person being assinated and Tyrone taken to prison. Harry uses half of the raised money to bail him out which causes a disruption as they don't have the money. In a depressive state they all end up being addicted to various kinds of drugs and their life's go downhill just like Sara Goldfarb.
Equilibrium is restored for all of them but not in a peaceful manner. Sara is taken into a mental institution and undergoes electroconvulsive therapy to take her of the drug addiction. The large deal of drug abuse to Harry infects his arm and it needs amputating. He is taken to a hospital prison, which ultimately takes him away from drug use and the cold street life which in a sense is an equilibrium for him.Tyrone is given manual labour work to compensate by the government whereas Marion finds her money and fuels her dream and addiction via prostitution. Although none of there final outcomes are positive it is still an equilibrium because their individual problems are corrected.
The narrative of the film is closed. As the viewers we get to see how all the four respective characters get hooked onto drugs and how it shattered their dreams. There is no gaps in the narrative leaving no cliff-hangers and self judgement, this is what makes it a closed narrative. It is also told in chronological order
The Binary Opposition theory can be applied to Requiem for a Dream. All the characters aim for a good future but use a bad substance to get them there. In the case of Harry and Tyrone they use drugs in order to raise money for a good future and get out of the negative environment. There good intentions are met by the use of a bad substance which are opposite to each other. It could be seen that they have a pshycological battle of good future vs drug addiction. The fusion of the two ultimately creates a bad life rather than the good which they originally aimed for.
The characters are typical to the genre because generally in a drama film an event occurs which detours the normal life pattern, sending them into a near depressive state. In this film every character life detours for the worse, sending them into a depressive state due to drug use. The characters represent the underclass as none of them are employed. In drug influenced social realist dramas it is more than likely that the main characters will be of the working or underclass. As the characters in this film are all a part of the underclass it meets this convention.
The film is set in New York so all the characters speak with the American to reflect the location. They dress represents the social classes in New York as well. For example Tyrone wears baggy jeans, sweatshirts, trainers and tracksuits which reflects the urban culture in New York which he represents. Whereas Sara wears long house dressses, wide frame glasses and has curly hair similar to most pensioners.
The majority of the sound in the film is diagetic for example the conversations between one another. However there are non-diagetic sounds in the film. Background music of violins is played during every scene where one of the characters are feeling low. For example when Tyrone is being chased by police the vilion music is played whilst we see him in a distraught state. As the background music goes along with the image the sound is parrellel non-diagetic sound.
This is the violion non-diagetic music which is played frequently in the film whenever a low moment has reached http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmijKjosplM
Sound was also used effectively at one stage when Sara goes to the doctors for more diet pills. To show her hallucinations her speech is slurred and in a low pitch, whereas the doctors speech is speeded up and in a high pitch. This was used to emphasis the fact that her state of mind was not correct.
The director opted to generally use straight cuts for the majority of the transitions in the film. Reason being is that dramas mirror real life and social problems that real everyday people will face, therefore the simpilist transition is the most affective. Whenever the individual characters begin to use drugs in the movie quick montages consiting of close ups of them preparing the drugs, the substances travelling through their bodies and extreme close up of their eyes are used. The quick montages may have beenused to reflect the jumpy stateof which the characters are in after being influenced by use of drugs.
Here is one of the examples from the film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQdmYNSSMU&feature=related
There is a sequence in the film of which Sara goes into big hallucination which is show effectively via the use of camera shots and movement along with lighting and mise-en-scene. It begins with a POV shot of her walking into her living room. The camera is shakey to mirror her being unstable. the camera then changes to a low angle shot of her so we can see her face properly and how it has been effected by drug use. The camera is still shakey at this point. The camera tracks her movement around the room, shakey still. There is a high angle shot long shot of the pills spilled all over her table. The lighting is mostly low key but on occasions changes to high key as the living room lamp flickers. There is a whip pan long shot accross the room showing how messy the house has become due to her drug addiction. This is also again her POV. the camera then returns to the low angle close up tracking of her walking. She goes into the hallway and there is a part where she stands directly under a light
Top analysis. Well done!
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