Just like that, one two three four! (Requiem for a Dream (DVD))

Member Name: Brett Bligh

Product:	Requiem for a Dream (DVD)
Date:	24/10/01 (631 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality anamorphic picture, nicely realised 5.1 surround sound, impressive array of extras, including documentaries and director’s commentary.

Disadvantages: Does not include the second audio commentary which was featured on the R1 edition, no foreign-language soundtracks, no subtitles in other languages (as you may guess from the second and third Disadvantages, I am clutching at straws).

‘Requiem for a Dream’ is the second feature film from director Darren Aronofsky, following his critically acclaimed debut, ‘Pi’. A character-driven piece, Requiem is essentially a look at how ambition can come to dominate an individuals life so completely that they become addicted to, and then obsessed by, whatever it is they desire with so much vehemence. This film received a somewhat limited theatrical release in the UK (as in most other countries), and so it is good to know that a good quality DVD edition of the film is now available.


THE FILM
The characters in this film are all people whose lives are either incomplete or unfulfilled in some very serious ways. Sara Goldfarb (played by Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn) is an old woman whose life seem to have nothing left to offer her: her husband is dead, her son visits her rarely and always brings trouble when he does, and the only joy from life comes in the form of a television show called ‘x’, which she watches religiously. When Sara is offered the chance to appear as a contestant on the show, she is delighted, but decides that she must lose weight in order to be able to wear her favourite red dress, an emblematic reminder to her of so much happiness past, when she does appear — but to what extent will she go to lose this weight, and what will the consequences be?

Harry is Sara’s son, a man for whom life has never gone right except in one important regard: he has a beautiful girlfriend, Marion, who seems to have a genuine talent for clothes design. Harry would dearly love to help Marion set up some kind of shop no matter what it takes in order to achieve that end, and has soon hatched a plan with his best friend Tyrone to buy up an incoming shipment of dope on the cheap and sell it on, doubling the group’s money and providing a useful platform for his intended enterprise. But as the dope deal goes wrong, Tyrone ends up in jail, M
arion decides to prostitute herself and Harry, himself now an addict, discovers that his mother has been taking ‘uppers’ in order to stop her craving food.

Whether it is the desire for a better life with a girlfriend, a powerful career in the drugs cartels or even an appearance on television, or whether it is simply the desperate craving for the next drug hit, is actually unimportant. The central theme of this film is simply of ambition, or addiction, or possibly of addiction to ambition. Addiction to what is unimportant. As these characters attempt to obtain their dreams they are forced to watch them torn apart irrevocably; unfortunately, with those unable to release their grasp on ambition, as the dreams are rent asunder, so is the person.

As with Pi, Requiem is a movie filmed subjectively, although in this case presented at all times from the viewpoints of one of the four central characters (Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone) rather than just the one. On those occasions where two characters are on the screen and yet their viewpoints cannot possibly be the same, split-screen is used and we simply witness both viewpoints simultaneously. Aronofsky himself has stated that he sees himself as a kind of Expressionist, and although the comparisons between this film and those of the original Expressionist filmmakers such as Lang and Murnau are not particularly obvious, they cannot be altogether ignored.

The result of all of this is that Requiem for a Dream is a very worthwhile movie, and a very interesting one, although possibly not one that would appeal to a purely mainstream multiplex audience due to its thematic complexity and its nature, which is by American standards rather dark. For an audience willing to tolerate unconventional narrative and filmmaking techniques, this film offers a myriad of rewards; for those less patient (and/or tolerant?) or in the mood for something more straightforward and ordinary, it may seem to be as lon
g-winded and depressing as the funeral dirge suggested by the title.


THE DISC

 Distributor: Momentum Pictures [MP021D].
I had not really heard of Momentum before I picked up this title, although I have since seen a very wide range of titles released through this distribution company. It has to be said from the start that this Requiem for a Dream disc is a credit to the company, but beware that not all of their releases are so excellently constructed (the same company’s release of Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’, for example, leaves much to be desired).

 Rating: 18.
This film features scenes of sex which, artfully composed as they may be, are still basically depictions of sex, sometimes in a rather brutal format. There is also a memorably unpleasant scenario involving Harry’s arm, or rather one of the damaged blood vessels in it into which he still insists on injecting himself when taking drugs. For both of these reasons, and probably others, the 18 certificate is understandable and reasonably justified.

 Region: 2 (PAL encoding).
Region 2 is intended for Europe (including the UK) and Japan, whilst PAL is a system used by the UK and Australia, among others. Essentially, this disc will play on any region 2, multi-region or region-free player which is compatible with PAL playback — if you bought your player in the UK there should be no worries whatsoever.

 Type and case: DVD9 with clear Amaray keepcase.
DVD9s have a single side with two data layers pressed to that side. The layer change during the film is not noticeable on my player. It should also be noted that the cover on the British inlay card differs from that shown along with this review (which is the US edition). To see what the cover for the Region 2 DVD looks like, go to: http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005N53K.02 .LZZZZZZZ.jpg

 Running time: feature 97 minutes
approx.
To the best of my knowledge the print presented here is the UK theatrical version of the film; the difference in running times (this film ran for 101 mins in cinemas) is entirely attributable to 4% PAL speedup.

 Picture format: 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.
Since this movie was originally filmed and exhibited in 1.85:1 this is the standard, and preferred, method of DVD presentation. The quality does vary somewhat, with some scenes featuring rich colours with deep and convincing shadows, whilst others are slightly bleached — this, is, however, attributable to the way in which the film was shot; it conforms to the director’s intentions and is no fault of the DVD print presented here. [Note: the DVD inlay card reverse states the aspect ratio as ‘2.35:1’. This is an error].

 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, both in English.
The 5.1 soundtrack is nicely put together, with many of the effects packing plenty of punch and the music from Clint Mansell (who also scored Pi) and the Kronos Quartet presented in a highly effective manner. I have not watched the film all the way through on the 2.0 track (what’s the point?), but it would appear to be a functional, if obviously inferior, alternative to the 5.1.

 Subtitles: English.
The subtitles are removable and well presented.

 Extras: “Memories, Dreams and Addictions”, Anatomy of a Scene, Tappy Tippon’s Life Story, Deleted Scenes, The Making of Requiem for a Dream, Trailer, TV Spots and Director’s Commentary.

‘Memories, Dreams and Addictions’ is essentially a 20-minute interview of celebrated author Hubert Selby Jr. (who wrote the original novel on which Requiem for a Dream is based), conducted by actress Ellyn Burstyn. The footage is a little rough (essentially like video footage, the interview is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio) and neither the quality
nor the style in which the footage is presented are that great, but the interview itself is rather interesting, covering a great deal of ground from Selby’s childhood hero-worship of Paul Robeson and Mahatma Gandhi to his physical disabilities (which include brain damage), to produce an image of a rather quirky and somewhat strange man who nevertheless manages to convey a sense of charm through his honesty and cheerful self-criticism.

‘Anatomy of a Scene’ is a short documentary about the film originally produced for the US Sundance Channel. With a length of approximately 5 minutes, this documentary, which is presented mainly in 16:9 letterbox widescreen (except for the title sequence, which is 4:3), features clips from the film accompanied by explanatory statements from director Darren Aronofsky, who covers topics such as the setting of the film in the area of New York in which he grew up, the use of hip-hop montages in the film and the various techniques used in filming the project, as well as the development of the project from its novelistic source matter.

‘Tappy Tippon’s Life Story’ is basically a 7-minute long compilation of infomercials, the source material from which the extracts shown in the film are taken. Presented in 4:3, this is rather convincing material, and I would not have been surprised to have tuned into US TV (or late night Sky or cable television in this country) and actually seen this material playing. Plus, as an added bonus, we finally get to find out what the third and final step of the Month of Fury programme actually is.

The Deleted Scenes section features 10 such scenes of varying lengths, each presented in 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen of adequate rather than excellent quality. An added bonus is the option to accompany the viewing of each of these scenes with a mini-Director’s Commentary or not; in these commentaries Darren Aronofsky essentially explains why the scene bei
ng shown was not used, the most common reason simply being that “it slowed down the film”. Each of the 10 scenes is given an individual title, such as ‘On the Road to Florida’ and is separately accessible from the menu. In general, this is a good way to access the material included, but I would have to say that the first 5 scenes, which are linked and comprise an entire sequence exorcised from the middle of the film, might have been more conveniently located together as one long piece of footage and accompanying commentary.

‘The Making of Requiem for a Dream’ is, as the director clearly states in his opening commentary, a sequence of behind-the-scenes camcorder footage edited together in place of a professional documentary. Actually, however, this proves to be not such a bad thing, and the documentary, which is constantly narrated by Aronofsky himself, provides a feeling of witnessing the creative energies and filming efforts behind the film far more effectively than a more professional and standardised production might. The overall running time of this special feature is 35 minutes, the footage being presented in 4:3.

The 90-second theatrical trailer is presented in 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen. The quality is rather good; the theatrical trailer is regarded by many DVD enthusiasts as an essential feature of any good disc release, and the example of the form presented here is competently executed, even if not deemed worthy of the anamorphic treatment.

There are two TV spots presented here, both of which are from American TV and both of which are short and to the point. Strangely enough for TV spots, the footage here is 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen.

As in his commentary on the Pi DVD release, director Darren Aronofsky immediately conveys in the disc’s Director’s Commentary an enthusiasm for the film which makes it difficult not to find him interesting. Aronofsky has a wide range of stor
ies to tell and subjects to cover — almost every actor seems to have been cast, and every shot composed as it was, for some specific reason, and the 90 minutes pass quickly and amiably. NOTE: the US DVD release of this disc also contained an audio commentary by Director of Photography Matthew Libatique. The fact that this second commentary is not included on this disc is probably the only major source of disappointment with this purchase.

 Menus: the menus are stylishly designed, with the main menu both animated and accompanied by a score extract from the film. The extra features and audio setup are located under a menu option called ‘Juice’; strangely, however, the Director’s Commentary is included in the audio settings rather than the Extras (this, of course, makes sense technically, but is unusual in practice).


CONCLUSION
When buying a DVD release of a film I have a mental checklist of features which I would like that release to have. Firstly, I like to see the film in its original theatrical exhibition ratio, anamorphically enhanced if possible for 16:9 TVs. Secondly, I like to see a decent soundtrack, 5.1 if possible. Thirdly, I approve of the inclusion of theatrical trailers on the disc. The fourth item I always check for is a director’s commentary.

Of course, in theory most DVD releases would possess all of the above with much more besides, but as anyone who buys DVDs regularly will know, even very famous films can often suffer from very poor DVD editions, and for more obscure titles good treatment is actually the exception rather than the norm. It is, therefore, pleasing to see that Requiem for a Dream, a film which, despite good critical reception, is hardly well known, has been released in such a highly competent fashion. There are certainly other discs on the market with considerably more in the way of content than this, and the lack of the second audio commentary which was included
on the US edition is a nagging annoyance, but the fact is that this disc not only met, but exceeded, my expectations of what I was buying. On this basis I therefore award it full marks.

Summary: