A Comparative Analysis of the Novel and the Film Adaptation Bachelor‟S Diploma Thesis

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Kateřina Vykydalová

Requiem for a Dream: A Comparative Analysis of the Novel and the Film Adaptation Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D.

2015

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………… Author‟s signature 2

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D., for his help, support and valuable advice.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...... 5

2. From the Novel to the Film ...... 8

3. Analysis of the Novel ...... 13

3.1 Summer ...... 13

3.2 Fall ...... 18

3.3 Winter ...... 20

4. Analysis of the Film ...... 25

4.1 Summer ...... 25

4.2 Fall ...... 30

4.3 Winter ...... 35

5. Conclusion ...... 39

Works Cited ...... 41

Resumé (English) ...... 43

Resumé (Czech) ...... 44

1. Introduction

Requiem for a Dream was first published in 1978 as the fourth novel by an

American writer Hubert Selby Jr. The author came to the attention of critics and the general public thanks to his successful, yet highly controversial, debut book Last Exit to

Brooklyn, which was the subject of a much debated obscenity trial in the United

Kingdom. Admittedly, these two novels belong to Selby‟s most known works, though they received relatively small critical attention. Generally, Selby is a rather underrated writer in American literature, and his later works are largely ignored by the critics.

Hubert Selby started to write without any formal education and the decision that led him to become a fiction writer was in a way connected with his lifelong health problems. Selby did not finish high school and at the age of fifteen he joined the

Merchant Marine. During these years at sea he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which triggered other lung problems, and he had to spend more than three years in a hospital.

However, these unpleasant years marked the beginning of his writing. As Selby himself said, “That‟s where it all started: reading and then a desire to write” (“Examining” 289).

And the almost fatal experiences from his youth, poor health and the struggle with substance addiction shaped Selby‟s life and were necessarily projected into his works.

His fiction is often described as depressing, bleak or disturbing because Selby is basically concerned with dark and taboo subjects. For example, Last Exit contains the graphic portrayal of violence and the later novels examine addictive behaviour and obsession, which always has destructive consequences for the characters. And Requiem for a Dream is not an exception since it deals with several types of addiction.

Interestingly, this novel was initially only an outline for a film with the aspects of dark humour, which Selby called “A Pound of Pure”. However, as he kept working on it, the story gradually became a novel with more serious undertones. And although some

5 reviews claimed that Requiem was “Selby‟s best work, maybe even the finest novel of a generation” (Stephens 120), the publication of the novel was not followed by any significant success.

The director Darren Aronofsky knew Selby‟s work very well, as his student film

Fortune Cookie was inspired by Selby‟s short story. After the success of the experimental and low-budget debut film Pi, Aronofsky and the producer Eric Watson decided to work on an adaptation of Requiem. This seemed as a risky and problematic project mainly due to the novel‟s difficult subject matter. Nevertheless, they insisted on adapting this novel and quickly secured the rights from Selby, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Aronofsky. In fact, Selby had a cameo role in the film as a prison guard and was often present during the shooting, where he was reading the parts of the novel out loud to prepare the actors for the scene. The film was then premiered at the Cannes

Film Festival in 2000. Generally, it was critically acclaimed and praised for its inventive visual style and soundtrack.

Without the film adaptation, the novel could have remained relatively unknown like most of Selby‟s works. Instead, it was reprinted after the release of the film and revived after twenty years possibly for another generation of readers. Still, the film paradoxically achieved more attention from scholars and critics than the original novel.

The novel and the film interpret the same story of four individuals who are pursuing their dreams, but eventually each of them falls into addiction. Harry Goldfarb, his girlfriend Marion and their friend Tyrone need money to reach their goals, so they start to sell heroin. However, they soon succumb to addiction and that slowly destroys any hope for a better life. The parallel storyline involves Harry‟s mother Sara, who believes that she will be a contestant of a television show. She becomes obsessed with

6 losing weight and unknowingly develops dangerous addiction to diet pills, which causes her mental breakdown.

This bachelor‟s thesis provides a comparative analysis of Hubert Selby‟s novel and its film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky. The main focus is put on the methods and techniques that are used for depicting the characters‟ mental and physical degradation. The thesis also aims to point out how the writer and the filmmaker utilize the apparently different means of expression, which the particular medium has at its disposal, to achieve similar effect on the readers or viewers. This intent can be summarized as the effort to bring the audience as close as possible to the main characters and their inner states.

The first chapter serves as a brief introduction to the theory of adaptation, and discusses the aspects which are relevant for the particular case of the selected novel and film. In the second chapter, the thesis concentrates on the novel, its unconventional prose style and the methods employed to expressively depict the characters‟ deterioration. The thesis also attempts to examine the possible influence of these methods on the reader‟s perception. The third chapter is then devoted to the film analysis, which follows the same structure as the preceding analysis of the novel, focusing of course on the filmic techniques and their effect.

2. From the Novel to the Film

As film often draws inspiration from literature, adaptations have become the subjects of discussions and comparisons in which one of the prevailing questions is a film‟s fidelity to an original novel. Nevertheless, sole reliance on the issue of fidelity entails several problems. Firstly, it reinforces the assumption that film as a younger medium can never achieve the quality of a book. It may also undervalue a film‟s artistic contribution because it often focuses only on the departures from the original. And

McFarlane reminds us, “The film has the right to be judged as a film; then, one of the many things it also is an adaptation […]” (“It Wasn‟t Like” 9). In fact, the filmmakers usually do not seek to create a mere adaptation that would be completely faithful to the original novel. They aim to create a new piece of art which would be capable to stand independently. More importantly, there are significant differences between these two media that cannot be neglected. In connection with this issue Lothe observes, “To

„transfer‟ a work of art from one medium to another is in one sense impossible” (86).

This implies that the complete fidelity to the original cannot be achieved due to the basic nature of both media. Therefore, these differences should be taken into consideration while comparing a novel and its film adaptation.

The primary difference between novels and films is the fact that “the novel draws on a wholly verbal sign system, [whereas] the film variously, and sometimes simultaneously, on visual, aural, and verbal signifiers” (McFarlane 26). It could also be said that the novel tells, thus the readers have to use their imagination in order to create the images. In McFarlane‟s words, the novel “works conceptually” (27). On the other hand, the film can directly show the images together with the sound element, therefore it works “sensuously, perceptually” (27). Fundamentally, each medium can affect its audience, though in quite different ways.

In order to understand the process of adaptation, it is also necessary to make a distinction between narrative and enunciation, which are the terms described by

McFarlane. While the former refers to “those elements of the original novel which are transferable because not tied to one or other semiotic system” (20), the latter includes elements “which involve intricate processes of adaptation because their effects are closely tied to the semiotic system in which they are manifested” (20). Similar distinction is made also by Andrew, but he uses the broader terms the “letter” and the

“spirit” of the original (100). In other words, novels and films share a narrative. And conversely, they differ in the way a narrative is presented since each of them possesses different means of expression. Obviously, the elements which are not capable of transfer require finding the cinematic equivalents for the novel‟s prose.

To specify what constitutes a narrative, it may be useful to look at Barthes‟s system of narrative functions. He claims that every narrative is made up of functions that are categorized into two groups: distributional (or functions proper) and integrational (also indices), while each of them is subdivided into another two categories (qtd. in McFarlane 13). The major part of the transferable elements is located within functions proper (13), thus this category is worthy of further exploration. It is made up of cardinal functions, which create “the irreducible bare bones of the narrative” (McFarlane 14), thus they cannot be deleted without changing the basic plot structure or meaning, and of catalysers, which “are complementary to and supportive of the cardinal functions” (14). While adapting a novel to a film, any omission or change of some cardinal function may cause that the film will be perceived as being substantially different from or even unfaithful to the original.

As noted above, the film‟s fidelity to the novel should not be the primary concern in the analysis. Nonetheless, it may provide valuable information about the

9 process of adaptation and the relation between novels and films. In regards to the elements that are easily transferable, it is observed that “[t]he skeleton of the original can […] become the skeleton of a film” (Andrew 100). This happens in the case of

Requiem for a Dream, as the film transfers most of the possible elements. Specifically, it preserves all four main characters and the relationships between them (though the character of Tyrone does not have much space in the film). The film closely adheres to the original novel also in terms of transferring its cardinal functions. As it was already mentioned, Selby collaborated on the screenplay for the film with Aronofsky. And even though they worked on it separately, their versions were remarkably similar. As

Aronofsky adds: “I would say about 80 percent [of the two versions] was the same.

Basically, we were telling the same story” (“It‟s a Punk Movie”). Therefore, the main plot events of the film and their arrangement are presented in the same way as in the novel. For instance, the film transfers the events such as the phone call from a television company for Sara, her start with diet pills, the fact that Harry and Tyrone develop and put in action the plan for selling heroin, or their journey to Florida. Moreover, in both the novel and the film, the ending is rather unresolved and without any consolation.

Both works thus do not provide any sense of catharsis for the audience.

Generally, a film adaptation of a novel is concerned with conversion of a large span of pages into approximately an hour and a half, and therefore cannot avoid significant compression. Accordingly, some of the minor events (catalysers) are omitted in the film version of Requiem. And even though omission of these complementary events does not affect the meaning, it may give a subtly different impression. For example, the film largely skips the passages in which Tyrone (he is of African-American origin) and even Harry have to face an extreme hostility and racism at the South. And also the scenes depicting the horrifying and inhumane treatment that Sara gets in a

10 hospital are reduced in the film. Therefore, the film slightly softens the impact of these scenes by omitting the surrounding actions.

Conversely, the film introduces some minor events which cannot be found in the book, but they actually support the novel‟s thoughts. One of these innovative features is the character of Tappy Tibbons and his infomercial or show called Month of Fury. The first and the last scene of the film take place as if within this show. The host of the show constantly persuades the audience to get on his diet, thus the show is full of false promises and repetition of the phrases “Be excited”. Therefore, it attempts to evoke the idea that “television is loud-mouthed, repetitious, [and] even dangerous” (Dillon 71).

This is particularly important for Sara‟s storyline because she is addicted to television also in the novel. And in the film this is her favourite programme, so she watches it all the time.

In addition to the formal aspects, a time lapse between two works plays a certain role in the process of adaptation, since it may “be influential on how the original text is rendered in its transposition to the screen” (McFarlane 187). The publication of the novel and the production of the film are separated by more than twenty years. Naturally, some aspects from the novel need to be updated, but in the case of Requiem those are only details. For instance, the dream about opening a coffee house from the novel is changed to a clothes store. As Aronofsky explains, a clothes store is more probable than a coffee house simply “because of Starbucks” (“It‟s a Punk Movie”). Nevertheless, the time period of the film is left rather unspecified. In particular, the characters sometimes use old-fashioned slang, which is retained from the novel. Also the costumes are not exactly specific for the period in which it was filmed. And even the muted and slightly faded colours of the film support the time ambiguity because they make the film look older. Furthermore, Sara from the novel is watching commercials, soap operas or quiz

11 shows, and these kinds of programmes are very often tied to a particular period.

Therefore, Aronofsky included Tappy Tibbons and his show instead of any existing programme.

Even if a film transfers all the possible elements from a novel, there is still a high probability that it will produce different experience for the audience (McFarlane

26). Mainly due to the fact that on the level of enunciation the film will always be distinct from its source. Essentially, in the areas that require adaptation the film has to employ “the three large classes of film narration—mise-en-scène, editing, and soundtrack” (McFarlane, “It Wasn‟t Like” 7). Thus, the subsequent analysis of the novel and then of the film aims to examine how these two works depict the selected elements, bearing in mind the specificities and limitations of both media.

3. Analysis of the Novel

The style of Selby‟s prose can be described as unconventional or atypical. In his novels, the author often breaks the rules of punctuation or grammar; this is most visible on the overall omission of quotation marks. Essentially, it can be assumed that this style is vital for interpreting of his novels and has a certain purpose. And Selby explains what effect he wanted to achieve in his works: “My intent […] is to put the reader through an emotional experience and not have him just read stories” (“Examining” 290, original emphasis). Selby attempts to take the readers inside his characters‟ minds and present their mental processes subjectively. Therefore, this chapter aims to point out and analyze the techniques which are used to depict characters‟ states of mind, and their physical and mental deterioration. In regards to Selby‟s intent, this chapter will also discuss the possible effects on the reader.

For the purpose of this thesis, the subchapters are divided according to the seasons of the year during which the novel takes place. These three seasons serve as the temporal markers, and they also carry a symbolical meaning because they are connected to the gradual deterioration of the main characters. And although the arrival of the new season is not explicitly announced, it is possible to find certain information about the change in the text.

3.1 Summer

The first part of the novel quickly reveals characters‟ addictions to the readers.

Harry and his friend Tyrone use the money obtained by pawning Sara‟s TV set to buy heroin. Also Harry‟s girlfriend Marion is an occasional drug user. And Harry‟s mother

Sara is addicted to television. The pivotal moment in Sara‟s life comes with a phone call, which informs her that she was chosen to be a contestant on some unspecific television show. Later she even receives an official form, and during the course of

13 summer Sara becomes obsessed with being on television. She also desperately needs to lose weight in order to fit into her red dress, and that is why she goes on a diet.

However, she does not have the willpower for it. After several nights full of nightmares about food and hallucinations about talking refrigerator, she turns to a doctor who prescribes her some diet pills. Sara does not recognize that these pills contain dangerous amphetamines and she soon becomes addicted to them.

At the same time, Harry and Tyrone develop a plan for obtaining more money by selling heroin. And after a short period of work, they are able to start this drug business.

Harry, Marion and Tyrone spend the summer days doing virtually nothing but taking drugs and dreaming about their bright future. Marion and Harry dream about opening up a coffee house while Tyrone only wants to escape the streets and live a better life.

The success of their drug business enables Harry to buy his mother a new TV as a present, especially because he pawned her old TV set many times. Therefore, he makes a rare visit to his mother, during which he notices that she is hooked on the diet pills. He tries to warn her, but then gives up and only promises to come back soon.

Already the formal structure of the book can be perceived as being in accord with the content of the novel. Each chapter is further divided into the smaller parts which are separated only by gaps. And these parts then variously focus on one of the main characters. This structure forces the reader to constantly switch between the individual storylines, and therefore keep the connections and parallels between the characters and their addictions. Moreover, the long blocks of text stretching across the pages are visually monotonous; this is caused mainly by the lack of punctuation and infrequent usage of paragraphs. Thus, it is not easy to orient in the text and this sense of chaos emphasizes the altered states of mind of the main characters.

The reader seldom finds any direct information about the characters‟ external appearance in the novel. Selby explains that he does not include physical descriptions of his characters simply because he is more interested in “what goes on inside a person”

(“Examining” 288, original emphasis). Therefore, the omission of physical description signals that the emphasis is put on the inner life of the characters. In connection with his style of writing, Selby usually says, “I create characters, from how they speak” (qtd. in

Stephens 106, original emphasis). And although it may be difficult from the beginning to distinguish who is speaking, since the quotations marks and introductory phrases are completely omitted, each of the main characters has a distinctive speech. For example,

Tyrone‟s speech is full of street slang and vulgar words as well as Harry‟s speech. On the other hand, Sara‟s speech is decent; she uses words from Yiddish slang and cliché phrases as if taken from television. Also Marion‟s speech is distinguishable; her utterances are generally longer and mirror her upper-middle class origin and education, as she is often making allusions to literature. In addition, Selby mentions that he writes

“by ear” (“Conversation”). Basically, it means that he is trying to capture the real speech and its rhythms and then presents it on the pages of his novels.

One of the most noticeable techniques used for presenting characters‟ mind processes is the direct representation of their thoughts or feelings. The author often relies on this method throughout the whole novel. For example, after the phone call

Sara‟s life starts to revolve around her possible appearance on television, so her thoughts are connected with that as well:

Maybe I should diet? I wont eat. I/ll lose thirty pounds before Im on television.

Then with a girdle Im looking like Spring Boyington . . . a little . . . sort of . . .

Hair! I/ll get Ada to do my hair. Maybe they do it. Special. O . . . I should have

asked . . . asked who? What was his name? I/ll remember, I/ll remember. It will

come. He said they send me everything in the mail. I look good in the red dress

with ‒ No! Red doesnt come so good on the set. (Selby 21)

Again, the author does not use any introductory sentences before these direct representations of thoughts, but the first person and the present tense are clearly distinguishable. And according to Cohn, this form refers to one of the techniques for expressing a fictional character‟s mind in third-person context, and that is interior monologue (13). Moreover, Cohn observes that interior monologues “create the illusion that they render what a character „really thinks‟” (76). And the authentic feeling is also supported by pauses, questions and the associative nature of these passages.

Besides the characters‟ utterances and their interior monologues in first person, the text is almost equally presented through narrator‟s words. The narrator of the novel is uninvolved in the fictional world and possesses the knowledge of every character, thus he is able to present the characters‟ actions as well as their consciousness.

Admittedly, this third person narration may distance the reader from the characters‟ experiences, especially because it is the narrator who is in the foreground. Moreover,

Selby himself claims, “I have no right as an artist to interpose myself between the people in the book and the reader. They should be able to communicate directly. They should not have to go through a middleman” (“Conversation”). Still, the author needs the narrator to describe the situations or characters‟ actions. Therefore, he uses several methods to avoid the narrator‟s interference between the reader and the characters. And

John O‟Brien suggests that “Selby gives us certain narrative information but still maintains the sense of being inside his character‟s head” (qtd. in Payseur 14). Thus, it can be assumed that Selby achieved the desirable effect.

Specifically, the author is switching between the first and third person narration.

And the overall lack of quotation marks reinforces the effect of seamless transitions

16 between the characters and the narrator, as there is nothing that would visually divide them in the text. But more importantly, the narrator at certain moments “appropriates two important components of the characters: their language and their logic” (Payseur

20). In general, the narrator merges with the characters and it may happen that he becomes indistinguishable from them at some point. Nevertheless, this effect cannot be labelled as undesirable. The narrator‟s presence is suppressed and the focus is on the characters and their thoughts or feelings. This merging of the narrator and the character is apparent in the scenes connected to Harry or Tyrone, because their speech is distinct from the narrator‟s usual word choice. After visiting his mother and finding out that she is hooked on diet pills, Harry is trying to process the whole situation: “He didnt know.

Shit! It was confusing as hell. Red hair. Red dress. Television. […] Jesus, he didn‟t know what in the hell to do” (119).1 The past tense and the usage of the pronoun “he” suggest that the words in this passage belong to the narrator rather than to Harry himself. In this scene, the narrator reveals what Harry feels and also expresses similar uneasy and confused feeling as Harry, which is indicated by the usage of curse words.

The conflation of the narrator and the characters is noticeable even if the language is not easily attributable to one of the characters. For instance, in the situation of Sara‟s frustration from a diet, the reader gets to know that she pushes as much lettuce as she can into a measuring cup simply to get more food. And the speaker of the sentences, which comment on Sara‟s actions, is ambiguous: “Well, actually you couldn‟t call it cheating because it was only half a cup of lettuce . . . Well, it really depends on how you measure: loose or tight. If youre just putting a little lettuce in the measuring cup theres already more air than lettuce” (59). The context of this excerpt implies that it is the narrator who is speaking, and this is also supported by the usage of

1 The inconsistent usage of apostrophes is typical of Selby‟s prose. He usually leaves an apostrophe completely or replaces it with a slash to prevent confusion with the word “ill”. 17 the pronoun “you”. And particularly in this case, it creates an impression that the narrator is “speaking to readers as if this is something they will understand” (Payseur

23). And by avoiding specifying who is talking it seems that “when the narrator speaks to the reader, Sara is too” (Payseur 23). Thus, this method again allows the author to bring the characters closer to the reader.

In some cases within the novel, it is unclear whether the described situation is real or happens only inside the character‟s head, and that may confuse the readers. A specific case of this phenomenon is Harry‟s fantasy, which begins to unfold shortly before Harry and Tyrone start their business. The text smoothly proceeds to his imagination, which covers several pages and even the narrator participates in describing the situation. Hence, “the reader for a moment is seduced into initially accepting it as real” (Giles 101). However, this lasts only for a brief moment until Harry begins to describe the details about his extremely successful career as a drug dealer. In fact, this blurring of boundaries between reality and fantasy is intentional since the novel primarily deals with the characters‟ pursuit of their dreams. Eventually, they become addicted to these dreams, and they seem to live in this illusion rather than in reality.

3.2 Fall

The change of season and situation is summarized by the narrator‟s words:

“New York was no longer a summer festival” (131). Tyrone gets the bad news that uncut heroin is no longer obtainable on the streets. This means that Harry and Tyrone cannot sell but can only buy heroin for their own consumption, though its potency is significantly lower. The situation becomes more complicated when their dealer Brody is killed. Subsequently, Tyrone is arrested on the street with the packages of heroin in his pockets and ends up in a cell with other drug addicts and drunks. Harry bails him out, but it requires most of their saved money.

Sara develops a schedule which she repeats every day. In the morning she takes all the pills at once and drinks a pot of coffee to push away her bad feelings. After that, she usually calls to McDick Corporation to get more information about a show but without much success. She is now wearing her red dress all the time and hallucinates that people step out of the television and walk around her apartment. And when she is forced to visit a doctor, he does not pay much attention to her poor mental state and only prescribes some sedatives.

The combination of the effects of pills and coffee makes Sara feel constantly uneasy and anxious. There are also signs of her paranoia as Sara feels “[l]ike theres a voice in there saying look out, LOOK OUT!!!!” (123). Her bad mental state is further implied by these “LOOK OUT!” phrases, which are written in capital letters to suggest loudness, that unexpectedly interrupt Sara‟s or narrator‟s words. Moreover, to signify this disturbed state of mind to the reader in the most expressive way, the author uses short sentences. For instance, when Sara walks out of the house after another terrifying hallucination of the moving refrigerator:

She walked down the street. Swaying. Wavering. Holding on to the wall. She

reached the corner. Stopped. The traffic. Traffic! TRAFFIC!!!! Cars. Trucks.

Buses. People. Noise. Movements. Whirls. She was dizzy. (137)

This passage continues in a similar manner until her friends find Sara desperately holding up a pole. It describes and at the same time reflects Sara‟s confused state.

During the course of the novel, Selby utilizes certain scenes in order to reveal the important part of characters‟ mentality, which is their “capacity for self-deception”

(Giles 99). Harry, Marion and Tyrone deny the seriousness of their addiction and constantly “romanticize the drug world and convince themselves that they can conquer

19 it” (Giles 98). Naturally, the reader has a better knowledge of their situation so the irony in the characters‟ words cannot be avoided. During summer, Harry and Tyrone reassure themselves that they would never succumb to heroin and they would never use more than sell. However, in fall they are already addicted and they still deceive themselves.

This is most strikingly expressed in connection with the scene in jail, where Tyrone notices some sort of similarity between him and an old drug addict. It seems like the look into his own future, but Tyrone quickly dismisses this possibility: “An anyway, ah aint got no habit. Not like he be talking about. Ah could cut it loose any time ah wanted an when the time come ah jus kiss this old shit goodbye an […]” (145). Nonetheless, also Harry is disturbed by the identification with the old man: “How could anybody let themselves get to be that low for krists sake? If I ever got to be half that bad I/d fuckin kill myself” (147). The repetition of these similar scenes, in which the characters are deluding themselves, is important for emphasizing the nature of their problem. It also foreshadows their end, though drug addiction is inevitably associated with damaging consequences.

3.3 Winter

During the course of cold winter, Sara‟s condition is not improving. Still obsessed with being on television, she decides to go to McDick Corporation. She is visibly in a miserable state and that is why someone calls an ambulance and Sara is taken to a hospital. The young doctor recognizes her symptoms and wants to treat her medically. However, his orders are countermanded by the senior doctor and Sara is send to unnecessary shock treatments. This radical method of course causes deterioration of her already bad condition, and after the series of shock treatments she is committed to a mental asylum.

Meanwhile, Harry and Tyrone have to spend long hours on the cold and dangerous streets in search for drugs, which are harder to obtain with each day.

Eventually, the source of heroin appears but the price is doubled. Without enough money, their only chance is Marion‟s psychiatrist Arnold, who gives Marion money in exchange for sex. Nevertheless, few days later the situation is again desperate and the constant need for drugs leads Marion to prostitution. Harry still dreams about their business success, therefore he plans a journey to Florida, where all the drugs dealers are supposed to reside. Together with Tyrone they get a car and head to Florida without telling Marion. This proves to be a terrible idea, as Harry‟s arm infection from frequent usage of a dirty needle worsens during the journey. They end up in jail and are sentenced to three months on a work gang. Several days later, Harry, who is in agony from the pain, is taken to a hospital and his arm is amputated.

In the novel‟s last part, which also represents the final stage of characters‟ degradation, the author utilizes slightly different techniques than in the rest of the novel.

Generally, the reader is now provided with more information about the characters‟ environment. They are presented by the narrator, because through the eyes of the characters it may be misleading. And as the author does not devote much space to detailed describing of the characters‟ environment throughout the novel, these descriptive passages attract the reader‟s attention. However, they should mainly emphasize the bleak and disturbing atmosphere. The following passage is a short excerpt from the long section depicting the drug panic that affects the city and turns some of its parts into dangerous and desolate places:

Every hallway was cluttered with sick faces with runny noses and bodies

shivering with cold and junk sickness, the cold cracking the marrow of their

bones as they broke out in sweats from time to time. […] And so the city became

even more savage with the passing of each day, with the taking of each step, the

breathing of each breath. (155-6)

The author graphically and almost poetically depicts this depressing scene, and his choice of words is designed to induce unpleasant feelings. In addition to horrifying imagery, this scene also illustrates the destructive nature of addiction. Harry and Tyrone are spending time on the streets, where people are dying in search for drugs, but they are still deceiving themselves that they are not on the same level as the junkies around them. However, it is again clear to the reader that the characters are willing to do anything for their addiction.

As already mentioned, the author usually avoids providing the description of characters‟ external appearance because it is not crucial for creating his characters.

Nonetheless, the bad condition, in which the characters happen to be in the last part of the novel, is significant as it suggests their physical deterioration. Thus, it is possible to notice the short descriptions that the author includes in this part of the novel. Inevitably,

Marion starts to look like an addicted person. This is revealed when she meets Arnold, who notices her “thin haggard look” and needle marks on her arms (161). Also Sara‟s physical appearance shows how deep she sinks into her diet pills addiction: “The flesh was hanging from her upper arms like a hammock” (172). Later in the novel after the series of shock treatment, Sara is described even more horribly: “Bones stuck out everywhere. Her hair hung dead from her head. Her eyes were clouded and didnt see.

Her skin was gray” (216). This is the final stage of her decline, in which even her own friends cannot recognize her.

The scenes portraying Sara‟s treatment in a hospital are disturbing, and that is why the author employs several techniques to strengthen the effect. For example, when

22 she gets her first shock treatment, the narrator expressively describes this extremely painful procedure as it is experienced by Sara herself: “Sara could feel her bones snapping and smell the burning of her own flesh as barbed hooks were thrust into her eyes yanking them out of their sockets […]” (195). In fact, Sara goes through “final stages of her dehumanization” in the hospital (Giles 110). To convey this, the novel does not offer her thoughts in first person anymore. It is only the narrator who presents her consciousness and later (in her very last scene) only plainly describes her actions. This is in sharp contrast with the rest of the novel, in which the reader is provided with the exact thoughts and feelings of Sara. Thus, Sara loses her voice and is reduced to an empty person in a mental asylum. This signifies that she is destroyed not only physically, but mainly mentally.

In connection to the novel‟s ending Selby states, “It‟s not really an end, it just stops” (“Artinquiry” 16:52). And according to Lothe, an end in a book plays an important role because it should “maximize the total effect of the aesthetic product” on the reader (63). And because the novel is primarily concerned with the characters‟ gradual deterioration, Selby reinforces the overall effect by leaving his characters at their worst possible moments.

To sum up, Selby depicts his characters‟ physical and mental decline not only traditionally through language, but he also employs certain techniques to create more impressive portrayal of the fall into addiction. Firstly, he places the focus on the characters‟ minds by omitting most of the physical descriptions and defines his characters by their way of speaking. And the author also makes the characters believable by imitating the real speech. Another technique used in the novel is interior monologue that subjectively presents characters‟ intimate thoughts. The narrator, who is

23 not superior or restrictive, often merges with the characters, which principally “allows the narrator to express the mentality of the character to the reader” (Payseur 21). To suggest characters‟ fractured reality, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the real events from fantasies. And also their altered states are reflected in the structure of the text (long blocks of text, short sentences, capitalization). The author foreshadows the end of the characters by narrative repetition of certain scenes. Furthermore, Selby uses the advantage of the omniscient narrator, who expressively describes the terrible conditions and desperate situations, mainly in the last part of the novel.

4. Analysis of the Film

The film Requiem for a Dream has a noticeable visual language that is rich in various cinematic techniques and effects. And the director Darren Aronofsky clarifies,

“[W]e tried to discipline ourselves as much as possible, to make sure that every stylistic element that we chose in the film had a narrative reason” (qtd. in Thompson 9). In fact, this visual style of the film is crucial for supporting the narrative, and in a broader sense it influences the viewer‟s perception of the film. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to point out and analyze the film techniques that are employed to stylistically illustrate characters‟ descent into addiction and mainly to explain their subjective inner states to the viewer.

The film is distinctly divided into three parts “Summer”, “Fall” and “Winter”.

The beginning of each part is announced suddenly with white letters on otherwise black background accompanied by the striking sound, which resembles a slamming of a metal door. And as well as in the novel, each season marks not only a temporal change, but also the significant changes in the lives of four main characters. Thus, the chapter follows this division.

4.1 Summer

The film begins with Tappy Tibbons‟ show, but then suddenly the TV is unplugged and the viewer finds out that the previous scene took place only on television. The actual story begins as Sara Goldfarb hides in a closet because her son

Harry is again stealing her old TV set, so he can pawn it and buy heroin. Shortly after the beginning of the film, Sara gets the crucial phone call. She is excited and immediately tries on her red dress, which she wore at Harry‟s graduation. However, she cannot zip them up and thus decides to go on a diet. She actually gives up a diet after a few days and rather starts to take diet pills. Several scenes later, Tyrone and Harry

25 obtain the high quality heroin and they start to sell it on the streets, meanwhile Marion returns to designing clothes. The business is successful, and Marion‟s dream about opening a clothes store gets more realistic shape. The days are passing and Sara is losing weight, but she still does not have any information about a show. When Harry visits Sara to tell her about the new TV, he notices that she is different, and finds out that it is the effect of diet pills.

The film opens during summer which is the period of success, productivity and hope for each character. Generally, the summer atmosphere can be described as

“organic, open-ended, connective, inviting, warm and filled for action” (Moreno 219).

This is supported by the colour palette of the film. In fact, there are different dominating colours in each part of the film, which are used for creating a clear delineation and visible contrast between the seasons. The colours of the summer period are bright and warm, and they are used for the costumes as well. Also the light, which illuminates most of the scenes, is designed to evoke the natural sun light and it works together with the colours on creating a sense of warmth. In substance, images in summer are pleasant to watch, and they show the brief hopeful moments in the lives of the characters.

Shortly after the film‟s beginning, the viewer is taken into the process of drug use through a rapid sequence of various simple actions filmed in extreme close-ups.

And the whole sequence is accompanied by the exaggerated sound effects of the appropriate actions (a lighter being lit, sizzling of liquid). This technique, which is called “hip-hop montage2”, is utilized mainly for portraying drug use during the whole film. These montages are fast and “the viewer is bombarded visually and has to keep track of sets of images in order to construct fragments of a story” (Curry 9). As an

2 The term for this technique was first used by Darren Aronofsky, and as its name suggests it draws inspiration from hip-hop music (Kulezic-Wilson 19). 26 illustration, the images in the first hip-hop montage include: “teeth ripping open a package/a particle of substance viewed under a microscope/a lighter flame/bubbling liquid/syringe-filling/iris-expanding/ripping open again/a splash of liquid in what appears to be a bottle top/depression of syringe/internal view of flowing blood cells”

(King 128). Specifically, this technique allows the viewer to be extraordinarily close to this process because it is presented from the notional point of view of a user (Curry 9).

In addition, these quick montages, which contain more or less the same images throughout the film, are constantly repeated as the characters become more addicted to their drugs. Thus, it is as repetitive and stereotypical as addiction itself.

Drugs necessarily alter one‟s consciousness; they may create hallucinations, slow down or speed up the perception of time and they blur the distinction between the real and the unreal. Consequently, the film tries to express these altered states of mind of the main characters through various cinematographic techniques. One of them is the already mentioned technique of hip-hop montage. Beside other things, it attempts to partly imitate the state induced by drugs for the viewers (King 156), especially by the rapidly changing images and intensified sound effects. Furthermore, the distorted perception of time as the effect of drugs is implied at several places in the film. For example the party scene, in which three young characters take some amphetamine pills, intents to show how fast the time passes for them. The distortion is suggested primarily by the use of fast motion. Moreover, the dialogue between the characters continues as normal, hence this scene creates also a disjunction between image and sound.

Referring back to the novel, the characters‟ fantasies are at certain moments barely distinguishable from the real events and the purpose is to imply their distorted sense of reality. The film also presents fantasies or hallucinations as the actual events so the viewer is tricked to believe in them. For instance, Harry‟s hallucination appears

27 while he and Tyrone are sitting in a small restaurant. At that moment a policeman walks in and sits next to Harry. Policeman‟s steps are unnaturally loud and it may give a hint that this situation is taking place inside Harry‟s mind, which is altered by drugs at the given moment. However, the film naturally proceeds as if the events on the screen are real, and the viewer watches Harry stealing the policeman‟s gun and throwing it to

Tyrone. Then the sudden sound of impact breaks this scene and it is revealed that the incident is only a figment of Harry‟s imagination.

The life of Sara Goldfarb is rather stereotypical. In one of the first scenes, Sara is sitting in front of the TV and without losing her focus on the TV screen she picks up a chocolate candy from a box, and then slowly eats it. This scene suggests that television and food is her addiction. As Aronofsky asserts, “What Selby is saying is that anything can be a drug” (“It‟s a Punk Movie”). And undoubtedly, the film adopts this novel‟s message and even reinforces the parallels between characters‟ addictions by several methods. For example, Sara‟s habits are directly placed on the same level as actions connected with drug using. Thus, the viewers can see the constant repetition of the quick montage consisting of grabbing a remote control, pushing a power button and switching on the TV, which symbolizes her daily ritual.

When Sara gets on a diet, the film variously demonstrates that this diet is too demanding for her. As she reads the text in the diet book, it is not showed by the traditional static image that would allow the viewer to read what is on a page, but through cuts that almost jump on the page and focus on certain words such as “no sugar” paired with a sound effect. Therefore, the viewer can create a clear idea which part of the diet upsets Sara the most. Also it seems that her days are centred on mealtimes and the rest of the day drags. This is suggested chiefly by the sound of a clock ticking and the shot on a clock hand moving at a slow pace. Several scenes later,

28 her suffering on this diet is even more visual. She sees tempting food all around her apartment. And the hunger almost tortures her, because she is attacked by the flying donuts, cupcakes and pies that are falling from a ceiling of her bedroom. The camera offers this grotesque hallucination from her actual point of view, so the viewer is attacked as well.

There are several occasions in the film, where the screen is divided into two parts with the purpose to allow the audience simultaneously watch two actions. And it at the same time keeps the perspective of both characters. One example is the first scene in which Harry and Sara are separated by a door. Particularly interesting is the use of split screen in Harry and Marion‟s bed scene, in which they are lying next to each other.

Hence, is not necessary to divide the screen because they are not physically separated.

Essentially, this device is employed to foreshadow the future of the relationship between Marion and Harry (Powell 79). Although their dialogue suggests that they are in love, the split screen causes that the audience never see them actually together, and each character is thus confined to his or her part of the screen, seemingly unable to connect. In particular, it should also “symbolize the concrete material barriers that stand in the way of Harry‟s and Marion‟s dream” (Eisenstein 4). In the end, it is their drug addiction that really divides them.

In addition to portraying drug use, hip-hop montage is used for portraying the characters‟ successful period. In the long sequence consisting of several hip-hop montages, the audience can see the actions connected with the drug business, and then as a result money is quickly piling up. The process, which may take up weeks, is effectively compressed into several seconds, and it seems to be quite effortless thanks to this quick rhythmic montage. Also Sara assumes that her weight loss on diet pills will be faster and less demanding than the previous diet, and thus almost effortless. Once she

29 takes the first purple pill, she triumphantly and cheerfully eats her meal in front of the refrigerator. Yet, the subsequent scene reveals her restless state which is induced by the pills. Now Sara‟s perception of time is speeded up, which is expressed for example in the scene where Sara is cleaning her apartment in fast motion. And again, her actions are compared to drug use as the film shows hip-hop montage of Harry and Marion using heroin, which is immediately followed by Sara‟s hip-hop montage consisting of pills and coffee. Moreover, the audience can see the constant repetition of several actions such as a gaze into an empty mail box, pill swallowing, sipping of coffee, zipping up the red dress and so on. It is obvious that Sara does not get out of her stereotypical life as she thinks, but she actually falls into the obsession of being on television and losing weight, which eventually leads to her diet pills addiction.

The scene in which Harry visits his mother stands out from the rest of the film. It is because this is the longest uninterrupted scene, and also because of its rather traditional execution. All the camera tricks and sound effects are purposely omitted to draw the viewer‟s attention to the dialogue and the performances, which reveal all the necessary information and convey the intended mood. Harry notices that Sara is grinding her teeth and warns her against these pills. However, she delivers her long speech, explaining that the pills make her feel better. She also says that the idea of being on television is the only thing she actually has: “Your father‟s gone, you‟re gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I‟m lonely. I‟m old.” Her words are sincere and explain her motives, and thus offer an insight into Sara‟s mind without any special effects. In addition, this scene represents a dividing line after which the lives of the characters start to fall apart and the film gains in speed.

4.2 Fall

The title “Fall” interrupts the scene in which Tyrone witnesses the murder and

30 then gets arrested. Harry pays the bail, and he later explains that there is a war between two drug gangs, which causes the heroin shortage. Consequently, Harry forces Marion to sleep with her psychiatrist Arnold in exchange for money, which they could later use for buying drugs. However, the plan for obtaining drugs fails, and Harry comes up with the idea to drive to Florida and find some drugs there. Several scenes later, Sara is at the doctor‟s where she complains about her state, but the doctor only gives her a prescription for valium. In this part of the film, she is almost trapped in her apartment, and most of the time just watches the same show on television while swallowing diet pills like candy.

The second part of the film could be labelled as the period of transition for the characters. Their addictions are becoming more profound, but they are trying to reassure themselves that things will get better so they keep using. However, during the course of fall their states get progressively worse, thus it is clear that they are heading down the spiral of addiction. And again, the change of season is accompanied by the change of colours to visually support it. The warm colours on the screen are replaced by various shades of cool colours such as blue and green, and also the scenes appear to be significantly darker due to the working with the light and shadows.

A considerable space is devoted to Sara‟s mental deterioration, which is the most expressive in this part of the film. And while in the novel her mental state is supported by the rhythm of sentences, the film can present her hallucinations visually and very vividly. Sara‟s apartment is now visibly darker, full of shadows and this claustrophobic feeling is supported by the shot on her new TV set, in which it appears to be huge in comparison with Sara sitting in her armchair. It is noticeable that Sara‟s expression is different, blank and her excess energy is gone. And more frequent hip-hop montages of pill swallowing signal that Sara has developed addiction to these pills. What is more,

31 her perception of reality is completely distorted and her mental state worsens with each extra pill, and that is variously performed by the cinematographic techniques. In fact, there is not a single scene which would offer an unaltered view on Sara, thus the audience becomes the part of her altered reality. For instance, the camera offers the shot on two diet pills; Sara swallows them both at once and then turns on the TV.

Subsequently, the audience is watching the show through Sara‟s eyes as Tappy Tibbons introduces a new contestant Sara Goldfarb, who is wearing her red dress and looks substantially younger. Naturally, this situation is unreal which is further suggested by using a fisheye lens when the camera switches to Sara. And in this shot Sara‟s head is unnaturally bulged in the middle of the screen. Suddenly, the refrigerator starts to move with the terrifying sound. The next shot announces that she is now taking three pills at once, and then the camera follows frightened Sara, who is walking in circles to the sound of clock ticking that is intermingling with the sounds coming from the TV. This scene illustrates Sara‟s mind process and at the same time produces the dizzy feeling for the viewer, who has to follow these disorienting movements.

There is only one scene in which Sara actually leaves her apartment, and it is the scene at the doctor‟s office. During this interaction with the outside world, Sara‟s altered mental state is in contrast with other people‟s states. Specifically, the doctor talks and moves in fast motion whereas Sara‟s movements are slow and she also slowly describes that “everything‟s all mixed up”. Therefore, the scene is shot through fisheye lens to visually reinforce her statement by spatial distortion. Moreover, she has aural hallucination in this scene. She hears the loud angry sound which her refrigerator usually produces. This sound appears unexpectedly, and therefore it is probable that the audience will be terrified by this sound together with Sara. In fact, horrible and unpleasant noises are used very often during the film and they are designed “to jar the

32 viewer with acute aural discomfort” (Powell 77). Thus, the viewer does not only passively watch the events unfolding on the screen, but may respond to these sounds.

It is evident that drug addiction now fully controls the lives of Harry and

Marion. Their existence is reduced to obtaining and using drugs. It is possible to observe that their conversations always relate to drugs or rather lack of drugs, and therefore they usually end up in a quarrel. And there are also signs of physical deterioration. Marion is feeling sick and uneasy without drugs, she restlessly moves in the bed at night, which is reinforced by the jarring non-diegetic sound. Harry notices a mild infection around a needle mark in his left arm, but he does not pay much attention to it. Hip-hop montages portraying drug use in this part of the film are scarce.

Apparently, this is a consequence of the heroin shortage. But in a broader sense, the fact that the constant repetition of hip-hop montages stops, “announc[es] dramatic changes in both the plot and the destiny of its protagonists” (Kulezic-Wilson 26). Furthermore, when the characters consume some drugs during this part of the film, the subsequent effect is not as euphoric as before. This serves as another sign that their addiction is serious and the drug becomes necessity.

When Marion is forced to meet her psychiatrist for money, the audience can draw the conclusions about her feelings without explicitly stating them, but suggesting them through various techniques. During the dinner with the psychiatrist, the camera shows that Marion stabs his hand with a fork. Seconds later, the shot on Arnold‟s smiling face reveals that the incident is only Marion‟s fantasy or wish, because she is obviously repulsed by him. The subsequent scene, in which Marion leaves Arnold‟s apartment, is filmed by the device called “Snorri-cam”, which according to Aronofsky creates “really subjective feel” (“Before Tackling”). The camera is placed on actress‟ body and moves together with her while her face is positioned in the middle of the

33 frame. Therefore, this device is steadily focused on Marion‟s expression and it “captures her character‟s degradation and heartbreak” (Eisenstein 7). The whole situation makes her physically sick so she vomits directly into the camera. In addition, the music underscoring this scene supports the unsettling mood.

Turning to Sara‟s storyline, the quick montage suggests that she is now swallowing four pills at once. Inevitably, it produces more severe hallucinations than before. To suggest her final and complete dislocation from reality, the scenes combine several techniques. The camera switches between Sara‟s actual point of view and the view on Sara‟s face filmed through Snorri-cam. In connection with this device

Aronofsky also explains that it “makes the background all shaky and separates the character from their environment” (“Before Tackling”). Therefore, in this scene it gives the impression that Sara is floating through her apartment as if she is not in control of her body, thus reinforcing her mental state that actually cuts her from the control of her mind. The whole image is dark and quite grainy and the light is constantly flickering to the rhythm of the beeping sound. Her paranoia is suggested by her suspicious peeking through the curtains and checking the door. When the camera focuses on the refrigerator it abruptly moves forward. These horrifying hallucinations reach the highest point when

Sara in red dress, Tappy Tibbons and many other people come out of the TV, and the apartment becomes an actual TV studio. These people then mockingly dance around powerless Sara, their screaming “Feed me, Sara” intensifies, and eventually the fridge turns into a monster. This nightmarish scene causes Sara‟s fall into total insanity and forces her to run away from her apartment screaming with fear. The subsequent shot shows her empty but otherwise completely normal apartment that is slightly illuminated by the TV screen.

4.3 Winter

Sara somehow manages to find a way to the television company, but then she is taken to a hospital due to her wretched state. At the same time, Harry and Tyrone leave

New York while Marion is left alone without heroin, and as a consequence she starts to prostitute herself for drugs. During the journey, Harry suffers from severe pain from his arm infection, which gets progressively worse so Tyrone decides to take him to a doctor.

However, the doctor recognizes a drug user and calls the police, thus Harry and Tyrone are sent to jail. Unlike Tyrone, Harry is not capable of work due to his arm, and he has to be operated. Sara is getting some treatment in the hospital, but there are no signs of improvement, and that is why she is prepared for her first shock treatment. Marion arrives at the private party, where she appears as an entertainment for a group of men.

After the climactic scene, Harry wakes up from an operation and painfully realizes that his arm has been amputated. Marion returns home from the humiliating party; Tyrone struggles with hard work and the situation in jail. And Sara is confined to a mental asylum.

The winter time is the final stage that completes each character‟s decline. And therefore, the tempo of editing gradually becomes faster and the soundtrack is intensified. In the last part of the film, the characters “find themselves socially and spatially disconnected, confined, and captivated by the madness of their drug addicted bodies and un-realized dreams” (Moreno 222). Their individual storylines are symbolically interconnected through the fast cuts between them in the final scenes.

Thus, it seems that Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone reach the very bottom at the exactly same moment. Nonetheless, in terms of actual closeness they are far from each other, alone, and presumably unaware of the fate of the others.

Following the previous scene, Sara is now confusingly walking the snowy streets of New York; she is wearing only her red dress which stands out on the otherwise greyish winter background. The people, which are passing around her at high speed, are blurred to demonstrate her ongoing alienation from reality. After the hospital treatment

Sara can barely speak, but she is partially aware of her environment. Hence, the camera is alternately offering the close-ups of Sara‟s face, or the events around her from her point of view. For example, she is looking on the doctor while he is talking to her, but it is visible that he is slightly out of the frame because she is too weak to hold her head up and focus. Still, she signs the papers and gives her consent with electroconvulsive therapy. Apparently, she is not in a condition to fully understand what exactly it means.

However, there is a visible expression of fear and despair, as the tears flow down her face.

Harry and Tyrone stop on their way to Florida just to get their fix, which is as usual portrayed by hip-hop montage. The montage is subtly different this time, although the principle is the same. Previously, an image of a needle penetrating the skin or any other visually repellent image connected with drug using was never actually seen in hip- hop montages. Nevertheless, at this final part of the film the conditions of the characters are showed in a raw manner to expressively present the consequences. Therefore, the camera offers a detailed shot on a festering hole in Harry‟s arm and follows the whole process of injecting heroin straight into the wound. The image, which is disturbing and almost impossible to watch, is accompanied by the dramatic music that dies down when the drug enters the blood system and brings Harry temporary relief from the pain.

Subsequently, their desperate situation in jail is intensified by using various camera techniques and sound effects, which attempt to visualize the unbearable pain. Tyrone is holding the bars of his cell while Harry lies curled up on a bed in agony. The camera

36 vibrates with each painful scream for help and “the music becomes a series of high- speed blips and scratches, so that the rhythm of the edit and the beat seems to be generated by their intensifying anguish” (Thompson 10). The unpleasant feelings, which stem from this situation, are transmitted to the viewer through the used techniques.

In the climactic scene four individual storylines culminate together. The tempo of editing continuously accelerates together with the sound in order to intensify the characters‟ suffering. Sara is about to undergo the shock treatment and when the first shot of electricity flows through her body, she jerks in pain. Marion is forced to have sex with another woman in a room full of cheering men. Tyrone has to work hard and unconscious Harry is taken to an operating theatre. The cuts between the scenes are very fast so the sounds from the individual scenes are overlapping, and therefore they are mixed together into horrific combination. The sounds of ECT, the guard yelling at

Tyrone, cheering of men from Marion‟s scene and the non-diegetic sound effects are in rhythm with the accelerating tempo of editing and that is “pushing each character and the spectator to their limit” (Thompson 11). In the last seconds it is almost impossible to keep the track with the fast cuts, and as a result the images are nearly imperceptible.

Finally, the tension is released right at the moment when the sound of saw, which amputates Harry‟s arm, is heard and blood spatters his face. And then the frame fades to white.

The characters are filmed similarly in the last scenes to symbolically represent their similar fate: the camera first offers a close-up shot of each character‟s face and then slowly zooms out to show that each character curls into a foetal position. The camera movements are crucial in these scenes. McFarlane argues that the camera may be perceived as performing a narrator‟s role because it directly tells the viewer on which aspects of mise-en-scène he or she should focus (Novel to Film 17). Thus, the camera

37 first closely focuses on characters‟ expressions, which reflect their emotions. And then it by slow zooming out shows their close surroundings, which expose the truth about their states. For instance, in Harry‟s scene the camera moves further from his crying face to reveal his amputated arm. Moreover, this camera movement creates and impression that the audience is distanced from the characters, and thus all four of them are left to their suffering.

It is also possible to observe the visual change in the characters in the last scenes. Admittedly, the most visible physical deterioration occurs to Sara Goldfarb‟s character. Thus, the film achieves similar effect as the novel, where the author employs the descriptions of Sara‟s appearance at the end to show the terrible change. Her transformation is heartbreaking for her friends, who come to visit her. Sara comes in front of them in a grey gown with short grey hair and there is an empty expression on her face.

The very last scene of the film takes place in Sara‟s mind. The shot on Sara lying on a hospital bed slowly turns into the television studio, where Tappy Tibbons welcomes Sara Goldfarb on the stage, and informs her that she just won the main prize.

The prize is her successful and loving son Harry, who enters the stage. Harry hugs his mother and they declare how much they love each other in front of the applauding audience. However, this end does not soften the impact of the characters‟ dreadful fate, mainly because it is in a sharp contrast with the actual end, which leaves the characters completely alone and mentally and physically destroyed.

5. Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was a comparison of Requiem for a Dream in the novel and the film version. In regards to the theoretical notions described in the first chapter, the thesis discussed each work separately in order to provide a comparison that would pay attention to the specificities of each medium. It was also determined that the issue of fidelity to the original novel would not serve as a favourable starting point for comparison or as an objective evaluative criterion. This is especially relevant for the case of Requiem. Although the film can be perceived as being faithful to the novel (it retains all four characters, most of the dialogues, the linear order of the main plot events), it still offers a new experience for the audience, quite different from the reading of the book. Thus, this proves that the film‟s fidelity to the original is not decisive.

In the novel analysis, the given examples imply that the author tried to achieve the intended effect through several different techniques. The thesis mentions and finds important the role of the narrator or the structure of the text. However, as the novel has to rely on telling through language, the key aspect is then the direct exposition of the characters‟ thoughts and feelings mainly through the frequent interior monologues. It helps the readers to most accurately understand what the characters are going through during their gradual fall into addiction. Another important aspect that undoubtedly enriches the reader‟s perception from the novel is the graphic portrayal of the unpleasant situations, which strengthen the sense of despair.

The film analysis explored the visual style and various techniques that can be categorized into the camera work, mise-en-scène and sound. As the analyzed techniques suggest, the film has at its disposal more diverse methods for affecting its audience and their senses, thus it has a certain advantage over the novel. The analysis shows that visual and sound element can create more vivid presentation of the characters‟ altered

39 states, and therefore the film is capable of certain involvement of the viewers with the action presented on the screen. The film also finds its own ways for explaining the inner states of the characters, though they are not that complex as in the novel. This is caused by the fact that film is necessarily more visual, and therefore this visual part in one sense dominates over the language.

Works Cited

Primary Sources

Requiem for a Dream. Dir. Darren Aronofsky. Perf. Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Marlon

Wayans, and Jennifer Connelly. Artisan Entertainment, 2000. Film.

Selby, Hubert, Jr. Requiem for a Dream. 1978. London: Penguin, 2012. Print.

Secondary Sources

Andrew, Dudley. Concepts in Film Theory. New York: Oxford UP, 1984. Print.

Aronofsky, Darren. “It‟s a Punk Movie.” Interview by Jeff Stark. Salon. Salon Media

Group, 2000. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

---. “Before Tackling Batman, Darren Aronofsky Has a Dream.” Interview by Michael

Marano. Darren Aronofsky Online. n.p. 2001. 28 Apr. 2015.

“Artinquiry - Requiem for a Dream an interview with author Hubert Cubby Selby.”

Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 13 Nov. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Cohn, Dorrit. Transparent Minds. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978. Print.

Curry, Renée R. “Beautiful Junkies: Images of Degradation in Requiem for a Dream.”

Imaginations Journal 4.1 (2013): 7-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28

Apr. 2015.

Dillon, Steven. Solaris Effect: Art and Artifice in Contemporary American Film. Austin:

U of Texas P, 2006. Print.

Eisenstein, Paul. “Devouring Holes: Darren Aronofsky‟s Requiem for a Dream and the

Tectonics of Psychoanalysis.” International Journal of Zizek Studies 1.3 (2007):

1-20. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Giles, James Richard. Understanding Hubert Selby, Jr. Columbia: U of South Carolina

P, 1998. Print.

King, Geoff. American Independent Cinema. Tauris: London, 2005. Print.

Kulezic-Wilson, Danijela. “A Musical Approach to Filmmaking: Hip-hop and Techno

Composing Techniques and Models of Structuring in Darren Aronofsky‟s π.”

Music and the Moving Image 1.1 (2008): 19-34. JSTOR. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Lothe, Jakob. Narrative in Fiction and Film. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.

McFarlane, Brian. “It Wasn‟t Like That in the Book.” Literature/Film Quarterly 28.3

(2000): 3-14. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

---. Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford: Clarendon P,

1996. Print.

Moreno, Christopher M. “Body Politics and Spaces of Drug Addiction in Darren

Aronofsky‟s Requiem for a Dream.” GeoJournal 74.3 (2009): 219-26. JSTOR.

Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Payseur, Derek James. “„In the end its all nice‟: Sara‟s Addiction, Television, and Self-

Mediation in Hubert Selby Jr.‟s Requiem for a Dream.” MA thesis. U of North

Carolina, 2007. OAIster. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Powell, Anna. Deleuze, Altered States and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2007. Print.

Selby, Hubert, Jr. “A Conversation with Hubert Selby by John O‟Brien.” The Review of

Contemporary Fiction 1.2 (1981): n.pag. Dalkey Archive P. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

---. “Examining the Disease: An Interview with Hubert Selby, Jr.” Interview by Allan

Vorda. Literary Review 35.2 (1992): 288-302. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Stephens, Michael. The Dramaturgy of Style: Voice in Short Fiction. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois UP, 1986. Print.

Thompson, Lara. “In Praise of Speed: The Value of Velocity in Contemporary Cinema.”

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Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Resumé (English)

This thesis offers a comparative analysis of Hubert Selby‟s novel Requiem for a

Dream and its film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky. In the introductory chapter, the thesis shortly mentions the authors and the creation of both works. The main body of the thesis then consists of three chapters. The first of them provides a brief theoretical background to adaptation, which is fundamental for novel to film comparison. These findings are also applied to the particular case of the analyzed novel and film. Each work is then examined separately in order to pay attention to the specificities of the two media and the basic differences between them. The novel analysis concentrates on the methods employed to expressively depict the characters‟ mental and physical degradation. The next chapter is devoted to the film and focuses on the same aspects as they are presented through different medium. Both the writer and the director often explained what effect on the audience they wanted to achieve through their works. Thus, each analysis also examines in what ways do the used techniques influence the reader‟s or the viewer‟s perception of the particular work.

Resumé (Czech)

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá srovnávací analýzou románu Huberta Selbyho

Rekviem za sen a jeho filmové adaptace, kterou režíroval Darren Aronofsky (oficiální

český název snímku je Requiem za sen). V úvodu jsou stručně zmíněni oba autoři a okolnosti vzniku obou děl. Hlavní část práce se pak skládá ze tří kapitol. První z nich krátce pojednává o teoretických základech, které jsou zásadní pro srovnávání románu a filmu. Tyto poznatky jsou také aplikovány na konkrétní případ analyzovaných děl.

Každé dílo je poté analyzováno zvlášť s ohledem na specifika těchto dvou médií a na základní rozdíly mezi nimi. Analýza románu se soustřeďuje na metody použité k expresivnímu zobrazení mentálního a fyzického rozpadu postav. Následující kapitola je věnována filmu a zaměřuje se na stejné aspekty, které jsou avšak prezentovány skrze jiné médium. Spisovatel i režisér měli jasnou představu o tom, jak by mělo jejich dílo působit na publikum. Z tohoto důvodu se každá analýza zabývá také tím, jak použité techniky ovlivňují čtenářovo a divákovo vnímání daného díla.