Thoughts On...Requiem for a Dream

Continuing my trend on being way ahead on the cultural sphere, I am reviewing a film I have never seen before. It is always good to catch up on films that captured a moment in their cultural zeitgeist and were popular at that moment in time; and to see if it maintains and has withstood.

Having come across Trainspotting on the occasion of its 20th anniversary it is interesting to encounter Requiem for a Dream, the acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film of 2000 that garnered much critical attention and Oscar buzz.

The reason the film got so much attention was that it has that independent feel that was paramount at that moment led by the Weinsteins bankrolling Steven Soderbergh and the like. Aronofsky fitted into this with his debut feature Pi, an off the wall, black and white film that wore its intelligence proudly.

In Requiem though he takes an adaptation of a Hubert Selby Jr novel and makes a hellish journey of drug addict's total dependency on drugs, how it changes people, how they become different and how those drugs become the only important thing in life - more than love, family and personal health.

Sara Goldfrab (Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely widow who is somewhat estranged from her only son Harry (Jared Leto), a drug addict along with his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connolly) and best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans).

Aronofsky's style in this film is to film extreme close-ups of his cast experiencing the highs of the drugs being taken, it requires the actors to be shot with bags under their eyes and not look glamorous.  Burstyn deserves special credit (she lost to Julia Roberts for Best Actress at Oscars for Erin Brockovich) for simply deteoriating on screen - her character is the most intriguing as Sara makes you wonder, did she fake that phone call and send herself that application form because of her loneliness and the need to belong with the other women in her apartment building.

As the film proceeds and builds up to the finale where nobody gets what they wants and everyone loses out, the director cranks up the editing and the soundtrack creating a visual language where not a lot is said but everything shown speaks volumes to us.  The editing is cut of more drug sachets being opened, cut, snorted as characters wince, scream and shout.

The film is a cruel and hard watch by the end and yet its the sort of film that all children aged 15-18 should watch as an educational tool to combat drug use; the message is loud and clear. You end up down and out, injured, mad and ultimately alone.

The acting is superb (bar Leto's awful accent) and the music by Clint Mansell is iconic to the point of being the most memorable facet of the film.

Required viewing but not necessarily essential.

Black Swan

Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, US, 2010)

Following on from the surprise of The Wrestler where he reinvigorated the career of Mickey Rourke (and somewhat saved his own after the disappointment of The Fountain), Darren Aronofsky returns with another film that goes behind the velvet curtain and features a powerhouse leading performance. This film is led by Natalie Portman, who deservedly won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress at this year's ceremony, as Nina a perfectionist ballerina, whom is unexpectedly promoted to the position of lead dancer following the suicide attempt of the previous holder, played with evil malevolence by Winona Ryder.

Talented but worried by the onset of age as her chance may have passed, Nina is greeted by alpha male director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) as the person to play the dual role of Odette/Odile, the White Swan and the alter-ego, Black Swan in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Upon granting her the role of a lifetime, Leroy is himself perplexed by Nina's apparent angel quality for the white swan, but fears she does not have the underlying sexual energy for the black swan. This is both Nina's and the film's dilemma.

The introduction of new chorus girl, Lily (Mila Kunis) who has a fluidity and sexuality all too readily available in contrast to Nina's timidity means Nina is in constant battle with Lily; initial friendship leads to intimacy leads to regrettable bitterness. Nina also has a strict parent in the form of mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who still treats Nina as a pre-teen girl scared of her growing up and not being able to enjoy her success with her.

Aronofsky from the outset employs his hand-held camera as his eye on this world, immediately positioning itself upon Portman's shoulder as she enters a stage to dance. It is as if we are prying upon a private world. However, this has always been a m.o. of Aronofsky, showing us worlds we rarely see and perhaps reluctant to see; from the wrestlers taping up before a show and licking their wounds afterwards to the down and out routine of the junkies in Requiem for a Dream. The director chooses to be in the face of the character, using scenes we would not see normally in a ballet/dance film - did you know ballerinas get massaged just as much as wrestlers.

Black Swan combines part of thriller elements with body horror and a psychological study of a paranoid young woman experiencing hallucinations, not hiding the fact that this should be considered a 'woman's picture'. The use of doubles and mirrors are used predominantly - such as when Nina walks along a subway and her face is transposed onto the face of the oncoming person, she looks at herself and freezes. The mirror and constant looking at herself, when scratching a rash leads to many, only enhances her hallucinations. Ironically, her major act of violence is committed using a shard of glass.

Aronofsky does not pander to the audience forcing us to make quick judgments, even providing a double cross after the final act of violence allowing the end result to become more poignant. The tale of Nina's constant struggle for perfection is driven by her character alone, she has people around her who wish to push her off course, but it is her intrinsic being to be perfect that heightens these delusions and ultimately to her eventual downfall.

The end is similar to the ending of The Wrestler when Mickey Rourke dove off the top turnbuckle but we did not see the landing, on this occasion we see Nina land but the landing was just as uncomfortable.
At times a difficult watch due to the body horror coupled with genuine scares and moments of terror, the film is steadied by a stellar performance by Portman who is ably assisted by Kunis, who shows a different side to her talent playing misunderstood and sexual, instead of the girl next door she is frequently cast in. Aronofsky again shepherds his actors to career performances whilst indelibly leaving his fingerprint upon proceedings.