Darren Aronofsky and a heart breaking masterpiece.
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“Soon, millions of people will see me and they’ll all like me” so says Ellen Burstyn in her incredible portrayal of “Sara Goldfarb” and whom embodies the film’s central themes of obsession, compulsion, lack of self worth and the distractions of an outside world as the walls of desperation close in.
I came to Requiem for a Dream a decade late but as you’ll read below I’ve had a deep affection for this film since writing my original lengthy review in early 2014 and now, nearly a decade later, this Darren Aronofsky directed melancholic masterpiece is rated 83rd on the www.imdb.com list of 250 all time films, two places below Good Will Hunting and two places above Singin’ in the Rain.
Darren Aronofsky and 6 films for your consideration.
Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan and Noah. All lovingly appreciated and spoiler free.medium.com
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“Harold, I’m gonna be on Television!”
13 years since it’s initial release has not dimmed the power of this incredible second film from Darren Aronofsky. This ground breaking film remains remarkably pin sharp and vibrant 13 years on and a firm favourite of mine. Based on the original book of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr, both Selby and Aronofsky are credited with writing the screenplay to a film that constantly shocks, pulls at the heart strings, is often incredibly difficult to watch but is an absolute triumph. The two main narratives of the film are split between the three dominant Acts of “Summer”, “Fall” and “Winter” and between the lives of four main characters all of whom share highly addictive personalities intertwined within a surreal and heart breaking film. Although loosely a three act structure, Summer is by far the longest of the seasons, with Fall and Winter almost one act in itself. As with Aronofsky’s debut film Pi, the final 35 minutes of this film is a roller-coaster of emotion, heart break and an extremely difficult watch at times and which is signified by the commencement of “Fall”.
At first glance the film appears to be nothing more than a drama surrounding drugs and the addictive lives these substances control, of scoring your next hit and a halcyon vision of life when drugs are in constant supply. There is constant and graphic portrayals of drug taking, of every and any drug available and of their surrealistic highs and lows, the epic “score” and the soul destroying emptiness of being without. As with Trainspotting and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this film was criticised early in it’s release for glorifying drug taking but that is both wildly inaccurate and to miss the point completely. Both sides of the coin are graphically depicted and though drugs and drug taking is a clear central key, the overall theme is of obsession and compulsion and of trying to obtain that dream, that halcyon picture of heaven in your life. Be it drugs, television, game shows, dieting and so much more as our characters follow what Hubert Selby Jr describes himself as the “Great American Dream”.
In his book and the adapted screenplay that is so vividly displayed in Aronofsky’s film, every character has a dream to follow and an obsessive desire to achieve this. Sometimes these dreams are purely for selfish attainment, to secure another batch of drugs and enjoy a hedonistic time or simply a reason to continue living, to get up the morning and to face the day ahead. Despite the film’s downbeat themes and dare I say it depressive tones, it is a real triumph with four main character portrayals that each, in their own way, break your heart.
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“Sara Goldfarb” (Ellen Burstyn) Rightfully awarded an Oscar nomination for Best Leading Actress in 2000, Ellen would also star in Aronofsky’s 2006 film The Fountain and Oliver Stone’s flawed W in 2008. However her portrayal of a fragile and obsessed Sara Goldfarb was arguably a career defining performance, and what a performance it is too. Cajoled by Aronofsky to accept the part, Burstyn’s transformation as the film progresses is at first subtle but again, signified by the film’s last Act of “Fall” her transformation is quickly and graphically complete. Obsessed by daytime television game show come motivational show “Month of Fury” her obsessive desire and compulsion reach new heights and grave lows after she’s selected to appear on her favourite show. Sara replaces her staple of chocolates and game shows with fad diets, dramatic weight loss and diet pills just to wear her favourite red dress. Every obsession is replaced with another as the walls of her tiny apartment creep ever inward on her. Living alone and lonely, Sara also lives in the past and obsessively so. This gives her a reason to get up in the morning and face the day and her portrayal is truly heart breaking as it reaches its denouement. Surrounded by a ticking clock, constantly ringing telephone and a “buzz” enveloping her, Sara’s only escape is to her bizarre set of neighbourhood friends who equally become another of her compulsions and obsessions. “Soon, millions of people will see me and they’ll all like me” encapsulates Sara’s fragility, loneliness and obsession and is brilliantly portrayed by Ellen Burstyn’s magnificent career defining performance.
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“Harry Goldfarb” (Jared Leto) More familiar as the lead singer of rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, Leto had cameo appearances in The Thin Red Line and Fight Club before his career defining performance as Harry Goldfarb. Being hyper critical, Leto’s performance is the weakest of the four marquee stars but that’s not to say his performance isn’t magnificent as it clearly is. Harry’s role is the central hub around his Mother’s life, his passionate love affair with Marion and his deep friendship with Tyrone. But his obsessions paradoxically hinder his life’s passions as is aptly depicted by his fractious relationship with his Mother and to an extent with Tyrone. His love affair with Marion is the film’s central narrative strand and again paradoxically is both tender, beautiful and at times truly horrific. Their tender “coming down” scenes are the film’s heart and beautifully arranged and shot by Director Aronofsky, encapsulated brilliantly within the joint screenplay with the heart breaking:
“I always thought you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen”.
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“Marion Silver” (Jennifer Connelly) A stand out role in the underrated A Beautiful Mind soon followed Connelly’s performance here, but even that superlative portrayal couldn’t eclipse this one. Deeply in love with Harry but deeply out of love with everything else in life except for her drug obsession. Her physical fragility is established very early on in the film but Marion is always looking to “waste some time” have fun and “push off” as a means of obsessive escape from a loveless, distant relationship with her parents and her “croaker shrink”. Talented, ambitious and beautiful, yet fragile and desperate, her spiralling out of control life is the most graphically portrayed.
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“Tyrone C Love” (Marlon Wayans) Writer, Producer and Actor, this is yet another career defining acting performance from Wayans. The least developed of the four star roles and with minimal dialogue, Wayans depicts an obvious obsession with drugs with a near constant Joint in hand as he smokes, but his other obsessions are more subtle and only more strikingly evident as the film progresses. He too has a halcyon vision for life away from the streets and the daily grind. Of scoring that one consignment of “Pure” that will set him and Harry up for the foreseeable future but yet not forever. As the film progresses we see a more obsessive side to Tyrone, his dreams and aspirations of childhood that has far more in common with Harry than on first glance, but why he constantly calls Harry “Jim” continues to perplex me!
In support of these stellar headline roles are wonderful performances from Christopher McDonald as “Tappy Tibbons” the star of Sara’s daytime TV obsession and Keith David as “Big Tim”. Cameos abound for returning stars from Aronofsky’s first film, with Mark Margolis as “Mr Rabinowitz”, Samia Shoaib as “Nurse Mall”, Ben Shenkman as “Dr Spencer” and Sean Gullette as the slightly sinister and bizarre eating therapist “Arnold The Shrink”.
Both of Darren Aronofsky’s parents play minor cameo roles too.
The film as a whole is much larger than Pi with a suitably larger cast list, however the film simply revolves around our four marquee stars and these much smaller but crucially important supporting roles surrounding them. The film also revolves around a truly wonderful musical score from Clint Mansell and a soundtrack that is highly recommended as a stand alone purchase away from the film itself. It is a gem of real haunting beauty from start to finish, all supplied by the Kronos Quartet of string players with “Dream” often intercut throughout the film. The Dream theme track will be familiar to many as this has been sampled and mixed by Paul Oakenfold and many other DJ’s in the intervening years since the film was released. The soundtrack is often simple and subtle, bubbling away in the background, through to majestic and meteoric and becomes a character all of it’s own throughout the film.
The film’s opening scene truly sets the tone and stamps the Director’s mark all over the coming 102 minutes. A fractious and difficult Mother and Son relationship is played out against the backdrop of selling the television to pay for the son’s and Tyrone’s drug habit. The television is the Mother’s gateway into the world and her daily obsession. Chained to the wall to prevent burglary it is now stolen by her own desperate son as his Mother locks herself away in an adjoining room unable to watch and, in an attempt to sooth herself, talks to her dead husband and reassures him that everything will be ok and “in the end, it’s all nice”. With the Mother locked in one room and her son desperately trying to move the television, this is all played out in split screen and is the first of many such split screen segments throughout the film. Harry and Tyrone now begin wheeling the television along the street, passed a bemused set of Sara’s neighbours and against a backdrop of our setting for the film, Coney Island, New York and it’s iconic funfair, before selling to a local Jewish market stall holder.
The motif of split screen segments are complimented throughout by numerous montage sequences through time lapse photography, the “pushing off” or getting high from heavy drug use to it’s eventual come down, to Sara’s fractious mind being played out amidst extreme close ups and jagged cuts. The drug use sequences are all framed and shot in this way, with extreme close ups of a rolled bank note, a pile of cocaine or a bag of heroin quickly intercut with blood pumping through a vein and always, always, an eyeball. As the film enters “The Fall” these jolting time lapse segments are vitally followed by a coming down and more melancholic sequence as the four lives are gradually spinning out of obsessive control.
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Similar to Pi, there is also a cacophony of jagged and edited sound effects to accompany the scenes, a constantly ringing or off the hook telephone, a buzzing television or importantly, the refrigerator. All of these and more combine to infuse the film with a constant “buzz” to immerse the audience in the character’s lives and their fractious minds and decisions. The Steadicam and moving camera shots of Pi also return here, as do numerous spinning and circular camera shots to again reinforce a feeling of being surrounded by everything and everyone and an inability to escape from your obsessions wherever you turn. Similar again to Pi there are numerous zoom close ups inside a small contained area, whereas in Pi it was mainly inside a cupboard, here the shots also include a mailbox as Sara constantly and obsessively checks her mail and another cupboard where Harry and Tyrone hide their wares.
The picture I’ve painted so far is of a claustrophobic spiralling set of lives that break the heart and is at times particularly difficult to watch. A film constantly on edge, jagged and jolting with time lapsed segments spliced together against heavy drug use. A film so utterly surreal and bizarre at times that also crunches to real time, real life realisations in an instant. This much is true and so much more besides! But that brief resume’ doesn’t do this film justice at all as the central heart of the film despite their character failings is of all encompassing love for another. Although Sara’s Mother character and Harry’s Son character clash and their relationship uneasy, each loves the other with a burning passion and the juxtaposition between their lives bare this out.
Where Requiem for a Dream excels over it’s stable mate and first Aronofsky film Pi are the delicate and beautiful scenes mixed in with the madness. Tyrone’s love affair is beautifully shot, Harry and Marion’s all consuming love is often surrounded by flying paper aeroplanes or sitting alone on the beach at Coney Island and their numerous montage sequences of pure bliss in each others arms. All beautifully shot scenes, all with a hint (or a large dose!) of surreality surrounding them, but all wrapped up in a triumph of a film that may break your heart. It does mine.
Every time.
A film deserving of more Oscar recognition than purely Ellen Burstyn’s sole nomination. Watching this film again in retrospect I’m staggered the film wasn’t recognised for either it’s direction from Aronofsky or the cinematography from long time collaborator Matthew Libatique and perhaps more startling is the lack of recognition for the superb editing from Jay Rabinowitz. Add in a beautiful musical score and character portrayals that always drag you back into an engaging narrative and you have a quite wonderful, if disturbing film. As with Pi, these films don’t have mainstream appeal and perhaps unfairly this was borne out by the lack of recognition but it remains a vibrant take on a very dark human condition 13 years since release.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 200 blog articles (with 400+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Ali” (2001)
The Best of Michael Mann — Vol 3.medium.com
“Punch Drunk Love (2002)
“Think you can be a pervert and not pay for it?”medium.com
“Dunkirk” (2017)
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 4.medium.com