Requiem For A Dream

Requiem for A Dream was directed by the Darren Aronofsky, he trying to show the audience that how drug can it be addicted in physically and mentally. The overall about this movie is there are four different kind of people using drugs to get something on what they need. At first, Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb locked herself in the room and his son Jared Leto as Harry Goldfarb grab the television at home and sell it to a pawn shop to get money to buy drugs with his friend, Marlon Wayans as Tyrone C. Love and his girlfriend, Jennifer Connelly as Marion Silver. Three of them are addicted in drugs badly. In this scene, the director wanted to portrayed the way they look like after they taken the drugs, he used a special way to show after they taken the drugs. He extreme close-up the character’s eyes will become bigger, dilate and some kind of reaction of the characters. For example, swallowing or sniffing after taken the drugs.  The director use exaggeration of sounds when he shown the character taken the drugs.

Besides that, Sara Goldfarb is the mother of the main character, Harry Goldfarb. She always sitting at home to watch the television games shows, that always tell the audience in chanting “We got a winner”. One day, she got a phone call by someone that telling her that she will have a chance to join the television games shows. So she started to on diet to get to wear the red dress that she wore before in his son, Harry’s graduation. But she still can’t stop herself to eat those foods that with sugar and oily. She has no choice then she went do a clinic to get herself diet. Every time while she wanted to eat those kind of food, she will start to eat the pills. She did not know that actually the pills were some kind of drugs. The pills really make her getting slimmer and slimmer. At this part, the director extreme close-up towards the pills to show the different colour of the pills and the shots and the sound effect that show her eat the pills and drank the water.  

Finally, four of them because of drugs they did something that they are not willing to do. Sara Goldfarb because of the TV shows, she kept on eat the pills until she insane, she started to have some illusion appears in her mind showing her that the refrigerator is trying to eat her. Her son Harry at last was lost a hand, I think this is some kind of Karma to him. His girlfriend, Marion Silver was becoming a person who sex in a party with a gang of people just because she need the drugs badly. The story and the plot of the movie is not bad and it also bring it out the cause and effects on drugs or sex. It shows us how deeply the plot plunges into a character’s psychological states in different kind of shots and angles.

The director had one special sequences which is fast motion towards the everything to shows us that how fast is the drugs take with its effect and how depressed soon after its dim. The director wanted to show us the in-between times boundary toward despair. The movie also has an effect that we often get to watch in nowadays movie which is split screen. For example, the editor put the split screen between the Harry and his girlfriend, Marion Sliver were lying on the bed and their movements towards each other. First, the split screen shown how Harry touch on Marion’s body and the movements on it with close-ups then Marion touch on Harry’s body to show us that they are together. At one part, the director use cuts editing skills to show us how do they carry forward to reach their dreams that they want to reach on it.In this movie, it brings some form and meaning towards the audience. The movie gave us some explicit meaning that drugs is kind of bad things, but the four main characters insist to do something bad towards themselves to achieve what they want. This movie also brought out a message as referential meaning towards us to show us that what is the consequences on drugs.

The Mise-en-scene of this movie is quite good during that old times. The setting of the movie is quite suitable in what the director tried to bring it out to the audience, to let the audience feel what happening during on the setting. Besides that, the setting must match with the suitable lighting too. For example, the scene of the TV shows, the feeling of the lighting is more cool and the colour is more cold. The scene of the Sara Goldfarb’s house lighting is more warmth and the colour too. For the costume and makeup, different kind of place have shown us different kind of costume and makeup in the movie. For example, Marion Silver go and beg the guy for money, she wear until very sexy and makeup to meet him and sex with him. But when she is with Harry, she did not do any makeup on it. The character, Sara Goldfarb wear pyjamas at home and the setting of the scene is night to show us that she is going to sleep but she sat at there to watch the TV game show. Other than that, staging of the movement and performance are also one of the key point in mise-en-scene. For example, the movement of the sex between the Marion Silver with the another girl to shows us what they are doing. The performance that Sara Goldfarb was struggling with the food too. It express out how much Sara Goldfarb desire on the food and how sad that he can’t eat it to get slimmer and the scene that Harry Goldfarb is very pain on the ending there when his hand having hurt and the face he struggling by the pain. 

Last but not least, to summarize all the things about this movie is I agree on some of the mise-en-scene during that time of technology is quite good already. In this movie, there are too much of split screen but some kind I agree on the director with some split screen and the effect that he want to bring it out.