Mise en scene, cinematography, sound and especially the editing all play key roles in the development of the story.

The sound throughout the film is sharp, and often heightened to an almost unbearable pitch. This takes the audience out of their comfort zone and places them firmly on the edge of their seats. The musical score consists of eerie classical music, which is usually associated with dramatic scenes in horror movies. The score also comprises of a continuous droning sound and buzzing noise from the broken lights, which are uncomfortable to listen to. From the very beginning of the film, the unsettling music seems to be

Aronofsky splits the film into three parts, subtitled Summer, Fall, and Winter. The seasons change along with the characters, as they all progress from good to bad, happy to sad. The next season would obviously be spring, so we are at least left with some kind of reassurance that each character has the ability to reclaim their lives and their relationships.

Aronofsky’s camera work in this film is phenomenal. He makes use of split screens, revolving cameras, extreme close-ups, distorted angles, goggle vision and repetitive symbols, all in an effort to accurately depict the drug induced experience.

Other ECUs occur mainly with Sara, because her hyperactive mind and body becomes sensitive to everything. As one can see in the transcript, Aronofsky uses ECUs in almost every shot of this sequence. Every one of Sara’s actions is enlarged so that the audience becomes completely engrossed in the ‘pill-popping’ process. ECUs are used when Marion applies makeup. It seems completely out of character for her, as she never wears makeup around Harry. When she wears heavy makeup the audience knows that she is about to prostitute herself. She hides behind the ‘mask’ to hide her true, and good identity.

Some topics in this essay:
Marion Harry, Sara Goldfarb, Tappy Tibbons, Requiem Dream, VCU Sara, Fall Winter, Harry Tyrone, Marion Arnold, Sara Sara’s, ECUs Marion, throughout film, fast motion, screen split, towards film, slow motion, screen split vertically, diet pills, motion seen, fish-eye lens, mise en, aspect film, sound children playing,