Darren Aronofsky's cult film is already celebrating its quarter-century, with a theatrical and video re-release in a splendid 4K remastered version. Twenty-five years on, what remains of the shock Requiem for a Dream ?
It was one of the great films of 2000. We remember the ultra-rhythmic staging, reminiscent of music video aesthetics. We remember the confirmation of new stars, Jared Leto (29) and Jennifer Connelly (30), and the consecration of talents from the previous century (at 68, Ellen Burstyn received her5th Oscar nomination for this film, twenty-six years after The Exorcist). Requiem for a Dream, despite its modest box-office success, quickly became a cult film. Like David Fincher's Fight Club (1999), it is one of those films that combine an innovative aesthetic with a strong social subject (consumer society in Fight Club, drug use in Requiem for a Dream). Both films appealed to a generation of teenagers. While the staging of Requiem for a Dream, far from being timeless, is firmly rooted in its time, it has lost none of its effectiveness twenty-five years on. Is this a revival of the "Y2K" style, or a talent that transcends fashion? It's hard to say. Whatever the case, Requiem for a Dream 's hypnotic montage remains as seductive as ever. And it's this seduction that is also the film's chilling force, with the tragic fate that awaits its characters, victims of their addictions to drugs or heroin.
The effects of drug use are often presented as a spiral, drawing theaddict into its inevitable vortex. Requiem for a Dream's fast-paced staging does just that. The characters sink inexorably in their consumption towards a point of no return. And although we can feel disaster approaching, Darren Aronofsky's virtuoso direction forces us not to look away, as if we ourselves were caught up in this spiral. We could go on and on about what makes this whirlwind so hypnotic. There are certainly the numerous editing effects, such as image acceleration. There are also the famous close-ups of the character's irises after his drug consumption, which have become the film's signature shots. And then, of course, there's Clint Mansell's music, with the strings of the Kronos Quartet. The soundtrack's signature theme, the iconic "Lux Aeterna", is so devilishly effective that it has since been used dozens of times - sometimes excessively - in numerous trailers and commercials. Listened to in 2025, this soundtrack also takes on resolutely modern overtones. Clint Mansell is a close friend of Trent Reznor, founder of Nine Inch Nails and one of today's hottest composers(The Social Network, Challengers, Queer...). Mansell's music has recently been heard on Ben Wheatley and Rose Glass' Love Lies Bleeding.
But beyond this remarkable achievement, the film - which is also the subject of study in addictology courses around the world - presents a very precise observation of the mechanisms of addiction: the immediate saving effect of the substance, the euphoria that follows its consumption, the exciting or soaring sensation depending on the product ingested; and then, the irrepressible need to take it again, the feeling that it's impossible to live without it, the anger, the anguish, the paranoia, the hallucinations and soon the madness that withdrawal brings. In the space of a few months, a young woman full of plans for her future is forced to prostitute herself to get her fix. A naïve elderly woman prescribed amphetamine-based diet pills by an unscrupulous doctor becomes a shaggy madwoman talking to herself in the subway. Unfortunately, if you live in a large, modern city, you're bound to come across these sometimes frightening junkies. Darren Aronofsky's second film, as pop as it is chilling, and which has done more for the fight against drugs than many prevention campaigns, reminds us that this sinister fate can happen quickly and to anyone.
Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky
Re-release in cinemas and on Blu-ray 4K UHD on April 9
