Requiem for a dream (Requiem for a dream)

Production and year: USA, 2000 Genre: Drama Director: Darren Aronofsky Screenplay: Darren Aronofsky, Hubert Selby Jr. Music: Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans Medical topic: amphetamines as a weight-loss drug, drug addiction, television addiction Description: The film’s plot follows four characters who, as they gradually sink deeper into drug addiction, spiral downward and completely ruin their lives. Ellen Burstyn plays a woman addicted to watching TV who, upon receiving an invitation in the mail one day to appear on her favorite show, decides to lose enough weight to fit into her best dress. To speed up the process, she goes to a doctor who prescribes her amphetamines for weight loss. Dissatisfied with the initial results of the treatment, she begins taking increasingly larger doses, even as the side effects grow more severe. It’s not hard to guess where her addiction leads her. In parallel storylines, we meet her son, as well as his girlfriend and a friend, who, through drug addiction, get into trouble with the law or completely ruin their health. The film, underscored by suspenseful music, is incredibly atmospheric, depicting the destruction of a person as a whole under the influence of addiction