Requiem for a Dream - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Requiem for a Dream or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Requiem for a Dream

[amber]

(at around 1h 22 mins) The overhead shot of Marion in the bathtub followed by her screaming underwater was an exact replica of a scene in the Japanese animated thriller, Perfect Blue (1997). Director Darren Aronofsky secured the rights to a live-action version of the film to enable including this scene in this movie.

[jesse]

According to director Darren Aronofsky, Tyrone is the only person capable of reclaiming his life. This can be seen in his last scene: in prison, he recalls memories of his mother fondly.

[riley]

The word "heroin" is never actually said by any of the characters in the film.

[jamie]

Each time after the drugs are used, it cuts to a shot of an eye with the pupil dilating. While this would be true after the speed type drug Sara was using, for heroin the exact opposite is true, the pupil should constrict. Hence heroin users are often said to have pinned eyes; their pupil shrinks to the size of pin pricks. In fact, all opiate users have pinned pupils.

[caroline]

The prop refrigerator for the hallucination scenes melted from the inside due to the light elements within.

[claude]

Three out of all four of the main cast are Oscar winners: Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Ellen Burstyn.

[russell]

Neve Campbell was the first choice for the role of Marion Silver, but declined when she found out the role required on camera nudity.

[bessie]

Marion (Jennifer Connelly)'s father worked in the garment industry. Jennifer Connelly's father also is in the garment industry.

[lynn]

Keith David and Peter Maloney both appeared in 'The Thing' (1982).

[norma]

When Ellen Burstyn first read the script offered by director Darren Aronofsky, she was horrified by it and rejected the role. It was not until after she watched a video of Pi (1998), Aronofsky's previous film, that she changed her mind and accepted the role.

[bernice]

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Ellen Burstyn stated that in her opinion, playing Sara Goldfarb was her best acting achievement.

[carla]

Director Darren Aronofsky asked Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans to avoid sex and sugar for a period of 30 days in order to better understand an overwhelming craving.

[tom]

Hubert Selby Jr. wrote the novel in 1978, when medical facilities were inadequate and often abusive and uncaring of their patients. This film doesn't mention the era it's set in, but it can be thought to be in the 1970s; ironically, the film was criticized for showing medical institutions in a bad light.

[ray]

Faye Dunaway turned down the role of Sara.

[bernice]

Premiere voted this film as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies."

[norma]

While Tappy Tibbons mentions several times that there are three steps to his program, only two steps are ever mentioned in the film; Tappy tells his audience to avoid red meat and to avoid sugar, but Sara is always prevented from hearing the third step. Director Darren Aronofsky had intended the third step to be the removal of pharmaceuticals from the equation. The film's producers asked Aronofsky to change the third step because they were concerned that pharmaceutical companies would feel that the film's message was targeting them or encouraging people to avoid taking medication. Instead of coming up with a new third step, Aronofsky edited the footage so that Sara would either start to daydream or feel the effects of the drugs and be unable to hear the third step. In supplementary material for the film, the third thing that drives most people crazy was changed to "no orgasms."

[addison]

The four main characters, Sara and Harry Goldfarb, Marion Silver, and Tyrone Love, are significantly named as they turn to drugs in order to gain a better life: Sara wants to be glamorous (gold), Marion and Harry want their own business (gold/silver), and Tyrone wants a better home than what his mother provided for him (love).

[wallace]

(At around 1 hour 11 minutes) During one scene in which Sara is hallucinating, her entire apartment is taken apart piece by piece as though it were the set of a television show. Several crewmembers of the mock television show pass Ellen Burstyn in her chair, including a man carrying a clip board with the Greek letter/mathematical symbol "Pi" on the back, the title of Darren Aronofsky's first film.

[elmer]

(at around 44 mins) During Ellen Burstyn's impassioned monologue about how it feels to be old, cinematographer Matthew Libatique accidentally let the camera drift off-target. When director Darren Aronofsky called "cut" and confronted him about it, he realized the reason Libatique had let the camera drift was because he had been crying during the take and fogged up the camera's eyepiece. This was the take used in the final print.