The Dionysian Re-Invented in Film

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2002)

It always begins with music. This spirit emerged from the power of the dithyrambic chorus, because `language, as organ and symbol of phenomena, can never reveal the innermost depths of music, and as soon as it engages in the imitation of music, can only ever skim the surface, while even the most eloquent lyric poetry is powerless to bring the deepest meaning of music as much as one step closer to us.' The opening notes from the Kronos Quartet are tidal waves coming out of the idyllic seas of common imagery. Even the title, Requiem for a Dream , speaks towards the dithyramb which calls the death of the Traumbilder that were once held so dear. The key scenes of this film do without the burden of words and allows the music and the images wash over the audience. The ice cold current of the Kronos Quartet flows fast through the spinning images of Sara, Harry, Marion, and Tyrone's lives collapsing from stark reality exploding-through their pitiful constructs. This churning of images blends the characters into a solitary unit of grotesque failure in the face of their aspirations. Once again, the flow of music leads and defines the path of the images.