Aronofsky employs a myriad of techniques of editing in Requiem. The most complex and dominant is what he has labeled hip-hop montage. In the commentary he explained that hip-hop has permeated every recess of culture with the exception of, for the most part, film. He therefore developed his own hip-hop technique, most noticeably in Pi, his first full length. While you can see the seeds germinating, the flower is not fully formed until Requiem.
This technique serves several purposes. It separates the viewer from the drugs. It glosses over them and allows us to focus on the altered behavior and perception of the characters instead of ruminating on the fact that they are addicts. It allows for a much greater sense of empathy than if we had to watch them shooting up. It is also a way to move the action along. When Harry and Tyrone begin selling drugs time flies and money piles. It is a masterful way to suggest the passage of a great amount of time. Oh, and it looks cool.
Another editing technique used quite a bit is split screen. The split screen is used mainly to direct our attention to a heightened sense of awareness that one of the characters is experiencing. For example, in the scene where Harry and Marion are caressing each other Aronofsky shows us the places on each character that they are focused on. They lose a sense of self and are enraptured by their lover. The visual representation of this has to be split. To try to convey this in one shot would feel cluttered and in disarray.
One of the most effective techniques is when he cues the different seasons. All of the titles are magnificent, from the decaying letters providing an ominous introduction and foreshadowing for their characters, on down to the title card. Winter in particular gets me every time, right as Brody is being splattered onto Tyrone, it drops with the sound of a steel gate and we are too engrossed in the action to care. It just puts you more on edge, drawing out tension and making you associate winter with complete desolation and downfall.
I am a very big fan of this film. I have a long history with it, dating back to middle school. I own the VHS, DVD, soundtrack, and original novel. I’ve seen it probably about 20 to 25 times now. This was the first film that made me identify style. It made me seek it out, try to understand how it was done. So many films are straightforward and linear that they provide no challenge, just entertainment. That’s why I latched onto Tarantino in my earlier movie watching days. I’ve since renounced him as a collage artist, but that’s beside the point. These films provoked me: they made me become an active viewer because of their content and their style.
I made all of my friends watch this at some point just to see how they’d react. The only thing that doesn’t hold up after so many viewings is Tappy, but that’s nitpicking. Ellen Burstyn draws me in every time, and I always hope that Harry and Marion come out okay in the end.
The one aspect that jumped out at me the most during this particular viewing was how from the first scene on all of the characters continuously tell themselves that everything is going to be okay. They do this religiously; as if mere positive thinking will bring them out of the holes they’ve dug. That makes everything all the more depressing.
Requiem is a very detailed, urgent film. It is quick paced, but full and developed. It makes you feel before it makes you think, but it does that, too. It is not a drug movie, as most call it, but a film about all addictions, be it mental or physical. It portrays the downward spiral we all could follow if we had been in the same set of circumstances. It is just about everything you could ask for in a film, on down its haunting last utopian image. A clean, well-to-do Harry with both arms intact and wrapped around his slim, beautiful mother with the light reflecting a perfect X over the entire scene, ensuring us that such happy endings are only meant for movies and dreams.
I once read an interview with Hubert Selby Jr., who when asked if Harry survived his surgery replied, “Of course he did. He has to suffer more.”
