‘Requiem for a dream’ – A critique of consumerist society wrapped in a tale of addiction. PART 2: Dissecting the technicalities.

This is the part 2. For those who came here directly, I suggest you read part 1. If not, here is a little background for you all : I had written this paper as my post graduation thesis. I had put many days and nights into it but once submitted it was never to see the light of the day again. Now that's sad! :( So, here it is - A tribute to one of my most favorite films that had inspired me to start editing. It will be posted in 3 parts. The third part actually delving on the social issues. Enjoy!

The prominent edit style used in Requiem for a dream, is to abruptly cut between scenes, reduce time by only keeping the bare essential moments, repeating shots and sound to create a trance, visually manipulate frames (read: split screen technique) to express a lot within lesser time and express the psychological disturbance through using conflicting or different sound effects. Instead of using bright neon colors and painting-like framing (to replicate the hallucinatory euphoria), the drug use scenes have disturbing sound, jerky or dizzying camera movement with a distorted framing (using fish eye lens) – all of these visually ‘un-glorifies’ the drug use.

The film is divided in 3 ‘named’ acts – summer, fall, winter. Besides hinting about the time (season) of the event, they are metaphors for the character’s journey. Summer (1st act) – The characters though living in addiction has some sort of hope, happy moments in their life. There were apparent ‘upward journey’ for Harry, Marion and Tyrone. While Sara had momentarily found a purpose (even if it was hollow and superficial). Summer ends with Tyrone in a car with ‘senior’ drug dealers and 1 of them gets shot. From then on ‘Fall’ starts and literally the characters start their downward spiral. In this act we see the characters in the middle of the conflict and all of them slowly going down into a deeper darkness. It ends with Sara’s full on hallucination where the TV characters seem to mock her. That was literally her lowest point. That scene ends with the title ‘winter’. This is the climax of the film. The winter starts with the shot of the mother walking with ghost like figures gliding past beside her – the image (which looks less realistic and more painting like) creates a haunting feeling, like the character is stuck and her effort to move past it. Winter is symbolic of cold, lifelessness – a season of hibernation. In the end all the characters are sleeping in the fetal position (towards their left) mimicking a child. It is their regression into a dream like space (their safe space). Till the middle of 3rd act, the film has moved at a faster pace. The climax montage is the crescendo. Just before the climax, there is a somber phone conversation between Harry and Marion. It acted as pause in this rapidly paced film – it was almost like the calm before the storm. The after effect of the climax has longer takes and lesser cuts. It felt like calm after the storm.

Editing and enhancement of the narrative themes

• The obsession –. The sense of being trapped in a cycle of toxic habits has been emphasized and enhanced with repetition of certain shots. Eg: Pressing the remote button. (Repeatedly using that one particular brief shot) establishes Sara’s obsession with the TV shows and that glamorous lifestyle. She is stuck on it.

• Addiction – The use of split screen to show Sara and the fridge in the same shot intensifies the mother’s inescapable addiction towards food – the psychological pull she feels towards it has been represented visually. Repetition of shots also suggests how an addict is trapped in his/her addiction and repeats the same pattern of addiction. Sara’s rapid fall into addiction has been expressed by intercutting between her sitting in front of a switched off TV and her taking pills but all through brief and to the point actions. The interesting part of the edit here is how concisely the idea has been portrayed. No use of verbal communication, no lengthy actions or expressions to show her spiraling down. Just intercutting primarily between 6 shots in a rhythmic pattern to express the idea is smart.

• Isolation and loneliness – The love-making scenes are devoid of intimacy. Despite the apparent companionship, they all are stuck inside their own bubbles of misery. Even when they are professing love they are disconnected, divided and boxed into their own space thus the use of split screen. The lovemaking scenes end abruptly. The last shot of those scenes are cut few frames before the expected cut point. This abruptness creates a sense of incompleteness (as if something is missing) and dissatisfaction (mirroring the characters conditions). The abrupt ending of an emotional scene leaves the audience in an unfulfilled state.

Instead of preaching anti-drug sentiment, the director & editor has tried to manipulate the audience into having a negative mental association with drug by using disturbing sound element subtly. Following are some of the examples.

1. The sound for dropping a pill on hand is that of a heavy metal being dropped (or like a drum beat) – not using realistic sound effects to emphasis the action and its psychological result.

2. Using distorted or time –ramped audio enhances the mental disturbance. Eg: a) Tyrone in prison – sped up buzzing and chirping sound b) Sara’s hallucination in pediatrician’s chamber: the speed of the doctor’s dialogue has been doubled while mother’s audio speed was slightly lowered to give a distorted feel. It also uses electrical noises to mimic the psychological disturbance.

3. The 1st scene between Marion and lil’John – the high pitch notes create anxiety. The tempo increases as we progress in the scene.

4. The climax montage: The fast cuts, or moving camera shots with the repetitive dialogue ‘can you hear me can you see me….for work’- create a trance like state. It progresses into a fast paced montage with overlapping sound that enhances the visual chaos and merges all the 4 character’s downward journey

5. This is not a music heavy film. The sound design primarily consists of sound effects which was used rhythmically to create a music of sorts. Eg: drug dealing montage uses siren, whoosh and clank. Different tones and whooshes and beeps and electrical noise (like a zapping sound or static electric noise) has been used to design the sound.
   

To be continued in the next post...