Colors and other Elements in Requiem for a Dream

For the 89398th time, I watched Requiem for a Dream last night with a few of my friends. I’ve always admired this movie for it’s cinematography, whether it was the split screens, the extreme closeups, or for strapping the camera to the actor. However, while watching the film this time around I noticed something that really stood out to me; color. In a lot of my classes recently we’ve been learning about how important color is in any sort of media: photography, television etc. In this film 

In the beginning of the film, there is a strong use of cool colors, showing the calmness of all the protagonists who are not yet in any real trouble. However you start to begin to see the color red a lot more frequently when things begin to go down hill. For example, one of the films protagonist Sarah Goldfarb, has a recurring dream of herself on a television show in the same red dress. She becomes obsessive with this red dress, as she does with being on television. This obsessed begins her downfall and soon more reds show up. Next, she decides to dye her hair a similar shade of red.  These reds really stood out to me more than any other color. The reds played the role as a foreshadow for her losing her mind and symbolized danger in her life and mind. A scene that really portrays this is when she’s spinning around in her red dress and applying red lipstick on herself. This creepy slow motion scene is full of reds, and gives an eerie feeling. The bright red was the only color that would stand out in the scene, making you focus your attention on her and only her. 

Although the other character’s did not have colors that stood out, there was a strong use of cool colors when Harry Goldfarb another protagonist was fantasizing or drugged up. When he lays with his girlfriend doped out, the lighting has a blue tint to it and when he fantasizes about her, the blue sky stands out more then any other color. This represents the tranquility and calmness in his mind. 

This movie has a lot of amazing elements other then colors, the soundtrack adds to the plots mood and the camera shots as mentioned before differ from each other and really stand out. Although this movie has a sad ending and isn’t for the weak stomach, I recommend this film to anyone who loved Black Swan or The Fountain.