University of Bristol

Department of Music
MA in Composition of Music for Film and TV (201415)

MUSIM0020:
Critical Analysis of Media
Music
Student ID: 1450557
Name: Sai Neelesh Mandalapu
ASSIGNMENT 1

Requiem for a Dream

In Darren Aronofskys 2000 film, based on Hubert Selby Jr.s 1978
novel Requiem for a Dream, a world of recklessness, addiction,
desperation and subsequent imprisonment of the characters are

faced with, caused by their own actions and crippling addictions.

There are four main characters in the story, Sara and Harry
Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyron, each of who has a different addiction.
Sara is dependent on television, tuned in to one particular diet show
that strongly suggests her to stay young and beautiful. Her days are
punctuated by trying new diets and obsessing about keeping her
house clean. Her goal being, to get on air on the television show, in
her red wedding dress (a symbolism of lost youth, happiness and
her husband). Harold is a university graduate, but with his friend
Tyrone and his girlfriend Marion he uses recreational drugs. The drug
is initially presented as a playful escape from reality, but they
discover the world of drug dealers, and get the idea of selling
heroin. Marion represents the artistic temperament but gradually
deteriorates into drugs and eventually prostitution to get them.
Tyrone is Harrys best friend and is trying to get his life together,
albeit with drugs and ways to earn easy money. He has grown up
with a loving mother and fondly remembers her love, sometimes in
inappropriate situations, like when he is with another woman and
about to make love. This is probably an indication of Oedipus
Complex.
Be it heroin, television or disguised amphetamine diet pills, the
characters slowly give in to their power and the degradation
depicted, is devastating, thorough, real, and scarring. The process is
depicted by sudden cuts and extreme close-up images of the drugs
as they are snorted, cooked, boiled, enter a vein, and then pass into
the body at the cellular level. The cells sizzle as heroin numbs
them. The close-up montages and vivid sound design repeat more
and more frequently as the four main characters disintegrate into
junkies. This imagery provides horrific, and exquisite visual
realisation of the addiction process, while simultaneously
highlighting the heroins take-over of the body, mind, and ethical
capabilities. The narrative is constructed over three seasons, utilized

in order to show the predatory nature of addiction, and to mark its

temporal progress.
Mansell captures with the music, themes that represent different
ideas throughout the film, and it is through this scoring that we
understand the interconnectivity among the title and narrative,
helps us see these characters' inner conflicts surface and the
situation develop. The violin is predominately used to underscore
the film and is part of a quartet(Kronos Quartet), including the
overture or main theme. But there is also an intelligent use of other
instruments and sounds, especially during the numerous montage
scenes which interject the film with quick cuts back and forth
between perspectives, choosing different sounds associated with
the images aids in the emphasis on those images. Mansell has
scored the main theme with Addiction in mind, which is repeated
when addiction is being emphasized and not when drugs are being
consumed. (The Function of Music in Requiem for a Dream, web.)

For the purposes of this essay, I am going to analyse the sequence

starting from 1:21: 43, the hospital scene where the doctor asks
Sara about when she started taking the pills and running till the end
of the film. The music here is very minimalistic with bells
arpeggiating a chord although a small accent with a synthesizer is
given when Sara replies that she started taking the pills in summer.
The tone of the synth is quite soft and dark which contrasts her
happy memory of summer when she got the invite to be on the
television show, and her current state of euphoria and being high
on drugs. The scene then cuts to the bathroom, where Marion is in a
foetal position in her bathtub, the same bell arpeggio and synth lead
continue and the texture starts to represent something similar to
what we associate to be the sounds heard inside water, although
towards the end of the cut, there is a short crescendo of another

synth layer culminating in Marion shouting and a string quartet

playing staccato rhythms. The sound design of the water bubbles is
layered such that it sounds similar to what Marion would have heard
inside the tub, this helps the music and tries to take her as close to
her state of mind as possible. The scene then cuts to the car, with
close up shots of Harry and Tyron, travelling to Florida and the
gangerine wound on his arm gets worse. The string section keeps
playing the staccato line and an additional synth percussion rhythm
line starts to fade in when Harry says that he needs to call Marion,
when the scene cuts to the hospital, the string section slowly fades
out and the synth percussion layer takes over. It has a screeching
menacing sound to it which very successfully captures Saras state
of worry and rejection of the medicine(shown when she says What
is it? I dont want it). This rhythm is slowed down after the injection
of the medicine and a cello glissando is played in sync with her
eyebrows both of which go down and it is a representation of loosing
conciousness and the sound design of the steps are hightened and
act as percussion hits(1:22:50). The scene then cuts to Harry in the
hospital ward, in pain and agony. During this time there is a lot of
movement in the shot as it follows Harrys movement, the music
sets a rhythm and pace to it, and its tone and texture points us to
his agony, which is also seen in the previous scene in the car. The
music and the scene is suddenly cut to Tyron, sitting in the waiting
room with the bells arpeggio playing. It signifies that stark
difference in the physical and emotional states of Harry and himself.
The shot again oscillates back to Harry and the string staccato
continues, cutting then to Marion, where the music switches back to
the bells. These numerous cuts in the scenes and the oscillation of
the music from the sharp string staccato texture to the mellow bells
texture highlights the difference between the state of Harry and the
rest of the characters. The contrast also showcases the difference in
their mental states, Harry is very clearly in agony, Sara is under the
influence of medicines whereas Marion is evaluating her situation

and lack of options and deciding to attend the orgy, Tyron on the
other hand is calmer in comparison. The music tends to group Sara,
Marion and Tyron together and separate out Harry. Harry has already
progressed further away into problems due to drug use and
gangerene and the rest of the characters are catching up with him.
The music then starts off with the synth lead that I spoke about
earlier and some raw percussion but increases in inensity when it
comes back to Sara on the hospital bed(1:24:23). There is another
layer of string staccatos that start when the attendants start trying
to feed her and she refuses to eat. This shows the worsening of the
situation of Sara to a much more painful and unwanted situation and
the start of her decline. The next instant, even Tyron is arrested and
a similar transformation of the music happens. In the next scene we
get a relief from the pulsating music, when Marion gets a call from
Harry, while she is getting ready(1:26:56). This change hints
towards the change of perspective of Marion, from being engulfed in
her own thoughts, comes out of her head. The music slows down to
a slow and sad melody, of two repeating notes, and is a mixture of
both electronics and strings.
The next scene starts with (1:28:29) the doctor taking Saras
consent for ECT treatment. Although Sara listens to what the doctor
is talking about, by her state of mind it is evident that she is not
able to process what he is saying and she signs the consent form.
The music here is a prelude to the main theme for the film. The
significance for its entry at this point is to point out that Sara has
finally succumbed and she is at a point of no return. The theme then
changes back into the triplet staccato rhythmic string section from
(1:29:41) as Sara is taken on a stretcher for treatment. This is an
indication towards the pain that Sara is going to experience during
the treatment. At this point Myrion has also reached her destination
to the party, the close up shot Marion being welcomed to the sex

party. This rhythm is interjected and changed to a different one

when Sara is first treated with electric therapy, and the doctors
shock her(1:31:00). All the scenes and actions are perfectly timed
by the editor to match the music, and this shows that all the
characters have gone down to the abyss and are being controlled
like puppets by their overpowering situations and their addictions.
This sequence continues for another couple of minutes and the cuts
start to pace up, similar to the close-up montages, and end at the
point when Harrys limb is cut with the surgical saw.
The scene then cuts to a montage sequence which opens with a
white fade onto the brightly lit pier setting which is frequently used
within the film(1:33:02). This is heightened by the set- Coney Island
pier, and the general palette of the screen, which is an array of blue
and faded tones- all signifying calmness and serenity. The fade from
white hints at the notion of a flashback, or resuscitation (Siu). There
is no music here which gives a tension relief, and also symbolises
the calm frame of mind the characters believe they inhabit while
under the drugs euphoric influence. It also symbolises in a way that
Harry finally attains the end point of his ambitions, but as he
reaches the end, the lady in red(the aim of his life and/or Marion)
vanishes and he is left with vast emptiness.
The main theme of the film finally starts when Harry realises that he
has lost Marion and his arm and essentially everything in
life(1:33:59). He starts weeping and at the same time the main
theme starts, the shot is then cut to Marion, who just returns home,
lies on her couch with drugs in her hand. Tyron is shown next with
him coming back from work, exhausted, he lies on his bed, thinks of
his mother(Oedipus Complex). The next shot is Sara lying in the
mental institution. She seems to be restrained, within an enclosure,
a indicator of her physical and mental entrapment. Her look of
desperation changes to a smile, and suddenly her dream comes to

the foreground as the recurring image of the game-show lights

appear, and the audience suddenly starts to share her hallucination.
The lights flash, and Sara walks onstage wearing the red dress.
Everyone of thhem are shown to be reduced into a foetal position.
This concludes the finale of the movie, wherein Aronofsky
successfully showcases of the plight of each character. The use of
editing is particularly successful, the shots are in a variety of
lengths, but become shorter as the sequence comes to its endestablishing a sense of desperation, but keeping everything in time
with the music, sometimes even the acting seemed to be
choreographed to be in time with the pulsation of the melody and
synth beds.
You create a hole in your present because youre not there. . . . And
then youll use anything to fill that vacuum. It doesnt matter if its
coffee, if its tobacco, if its TV, if its heroin, if its ultimately hope.
Youll use anything to fill that hole. And when you feed the holejust
like the hole in [Harrys] armitll grow and grow and grow until
eventually it will devour you (Aronofsky) (DOMINGO). I believe
Aronofsky is greatly successful in this film and in terms of the
narrative, the music allows us to live in the same dream as do the
characters. We are able to see through their perspectives, the
haunting of addiction and how it dominates their lives. It becomes
the soundtrack of their minds.

References
1) DOMINGO, DANLLY. 'A Requiem For Addictive Personalities'. Web:
http://www.nyu.edu/cas/ewp/domingorequiem03.pdf . 26 Mar. 2015.

2) Siu, Thomas. 'Analysis Of Cinematography And Editing Used In The Final

Sequence Of Darren Aronofskys Requiem For A Dream (2001) (Sequence
Length: 4:05)'. Web:
https://filmstudiesalevel.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/requiem-for-a-dreamfinal.pdf . 26 Mar. 2015.
3) 'The Function Of Music In Requiem For A Dream'. Web:
http://web.csulb.edu/~dtsuyuki/portfolio/Writing/Essays/requiem
%20ESSAY.pdf . 26 Mar. 2015.

4) Aronofsky, Darren. Directors commentary. Requiem for a Dream.

Artisan and Thousand Words, 2000. DVD. Artisan Home
Entertainment, 2001.