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Behind the Scenes of "Requiem for
a Dream" |
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Other Articles |
Never
before have the horrors of addiction been depicted as hauntingly as in
the Oscar® nominated Requiem for a Dream, which will soon be
released on video. Based on the novel of the same name by author, Hubert
Selby Jr., the story was born from an actual visitation by ghosts
following a near-death experience!
As a young man, Selby spent over 4 years recovering from tuberculosis. He underwent many surgeries, during which time he had part of his lung cut out, 10 ribs removed, and developed hepatitis. Consequently, Selby harbored an aversion to hospitals. So, some years back when the author was sick with pneumonia, he refused hospital treatment, opting instead to recover at home. One night, he slipped into a coma; and it was then that two spirits pushed the bedroom door open, awakening his wife. The shimmering apparitions told Selby's wife that her husband would die if she didn't immediately get him to a hospital. Fortunately, Selby's wife heeded the ghostly advice, saving her husband's life. Returning to a hospital after many years proved to be a catharsis for the author, resurrecting vivid and painful memories of Selby's youth in Brooklyn, NY. In turn, these memories inspired Selby with the theme central to Requiem for a Dream -- that narcotics addiction is merely a metaphor for the bigger picture of the addiction to the fallacy of The American Dream. No stranger to controversy, Selby had to fight censors when his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn was briefly banned for obscenity only to later be made into a critically hailed film in 1989. Recently, Selby, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Requiem for a Dream, had to endure a lengthy delay in the release of the new movie when the MPAA tried to force the censorship of a particularly lurid, albeit crucial scene. Director Darren Aronofsky bravely refused to make the cuts, explaining that altering that scene would destroy the power of the anti-drug message he sought to convey. Critic Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly agreed saying: "This is the ultimate scared straight cautionary tale." |
