I think if there are ten different themes to express life, "Requiem of Dreams" can certainly pinpoint you from a certain angle. This is also a movie that you can't tell after watching it, especially forcing you to say something-knowing that it is a thousand times better, but there is nowhere to say it. Depression, depression, despair, sadness, helplessness..., many terms are the footnotes of the film "Requiem for Dreams".
The English name is "Requiem for a Dream", and it has some other messy translations, such as "Addiction", "Elegy of Dreams" and so on. Maybe you haven't noticed it before, but you have seen it on an ignorant but repeatedly reprinted top ten banned film posts. You might even think that there is really a plot picture that is intolerable by the secular or the public, reporting a kind of curiosity. Go begged.
Of course, I would say: You are wrong.
Such curiosity insulted a great and outstanding movie. I have to point out that, in fact, "Requiem of Dreams" is a forgotten film. It is too outstanding and the subject matter is dark, leading to it being forgotten. After careful attention, one day you may find that it was originally listed in IMDB, and the ranking can still be looked up. It has excellent performance by actors, sharply edited by the director, high-speed switching pictures, fantastic montages, gripping music, and a heavy theme worthy of modern reflection for a long time.
Correct the film's deficiencies. I think: its excellence comes from its theme, but it is also destroyed by its theme. The film does not give us any hope.
The themes such as drugs, violence, and prostitution are not about being able to live in the world, but from what angle to express it. Maybe you would say that gangster movies are not very popular? Yes, gangs are popular, but there are also many forms of performance. To show the gang without beautification from the front, I am afraid that few people are willing to watch the flesh-and-blood battles in reality, or the hunting by the rain of bullets. "Requiem of Dreams" describes the powerless struggle of people in the face of drugs, but it is a kind of originality. The depiction of a large number of psychological activities is sometimes fierce and rushing, and sometimes smoothly flowing, because the theme of this beautiful pursuit is illusion, and the dream pursued by the protagonist is nothing but illusion. Although dreams are used to realize, there is a category that needs to be crushed. When the soul and body are separated by drugs, then the soul is no longer under your control.
Another shortcoming is that the fierce and a bit overkilled picture editing and fast switching are unbearable, especially when facing Jared Leto’s old and painful face, I want to cut it off several times because it seems to be Suffering, the protagonist is suffering, we are also suffering. Moreover, the urging sound of the TV show is really tense. This kind of pain is not only watching the one-year-old mother suffer, but also an unbearable drama. The theme under the black tone, watching the four protagonists taking drugs and swallowing drugs again and again, there is no way to add up, step by step toward despair. If the endings like "The Commandment" and "Dancer in the Dark" give us sudden pain, hanging deprives us of the right to live. Then the pain and despair in the last twelve minutes of "Requiem of Dreams" are unmatched by other films.
If the dazzling editing has never shocked you, the contraction and enlargement of the pupils are not enough to make you novel, and the feeling of dependence on drugs seems too far away from you, and the pain in suffering is unreal for you. Then let you watch his life suddenly disappear, even if it is cruel, it may knock you down, but it is more of an instant shock. Life slowly withers and fades, which is a torture that tests people's heart and patience. We were reluctant to see the latter in "Requiem of Dreams", and we were so depressed. This may be why the Japanese guinea pig series of experimental short films choose to slowly torture a person to death, instead of wanting to slash human heads like terrorists. This is to test people's ability to withstand, it is undeniable that the above mentioned is a kind of abnormal behavior.
Of course, in "Requiem of Dreams", I don't think it is tortured for torture, at least, it left some confused messages.
I remember that the first time I watched the film, I was immediately fascinated by the music of "Summer Overture" at the beginning. At first, it seemed like death opened the door. In the scene after scene, Harry and Tyron pushed the TV, waved their hands with the old women who were resting and said: Hi. In the afterglow of the setting sun, two young people were walking on the wide street, the music sounded like footsteps, from brisk to heavy, gradually rushing... Of course, the entire original soundtrack is very well done, and other tracks also incorporate many musical elements (see the director’s previous work), but I have a soft spot for this opening piece.
This story includes Summer, Fall, and Winter in the original soundtrack. It starts from the hot summer but does not have Spring. There is no season in the four seasons. This is not only a trap, but also the final fate of death.
2004.12
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