In October of 1999, Artisan released Requiem for a Dream, the second movie from Darren Aronofsky, the guy who brought us Pi. Based on the Hubert Selby Jr. novel, the movie is a gritty, gut-wrenching look at dreams as they become nightmares once the obsession of reaching them becomes too much.

The website for the movie, www.requiemforadream.com puts a heavy emphasis on the art-fuckery aspect of the movies' visual flair, with fake websites based on products and shows in the movie, multimedia noise shows, and distorted stills of the movie. Kinda like jodi.org, with a more defined mission drive, characters who you learn bits and pieces about, and Shockwave Flash designed pages. It makes you feel like you should be on something when you're looking at it. One thing though, you must be running at least an 800x600 display or you run the chance of getting stuck.

When you first start up the page, you get the title and the distributor. That then fades out to an ad banner (either Month of Fury, Juice, or another ad banner), which comes up to the countdown and the rallying chants of Tappy Tibbons' (Christopher McDonald) show, which leads to "tappytibbons.com", which quickly fuzzes out when you click on a part of the site to a display of the title. Letting that pass gradually gets you to a distorted still of two of the main characters Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto} and Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly). From here is where the path splits.

• Clicking on Marion, will curiously enough lead you to the Summer mentality of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), Harry's mother in the movie. We get the SARA: SUMMER display. Then we get another version of the Tappy Tibbons Website, which then leads to "www.slim-n-happy.com", a fitness site. And by the way the calculation device in the top right corner is functional. From here is a shot of Sara fantasizing about her gameshow appearance. And a letter sent about being a possible contestant on a television show. And a jumbled I'm gonna be on television sentiment.
  
  From there we journey to Sara's Fall, an single shot of the kitchen which slowly falls into audo-visual disarray when the links are clicked and held onto with the mouse button, with an anti-Red Meat message, Mac Error boxes, static lines, an off-the-hook phone sound, special attention to the refrigerator, and the way Sara's gameshow dreams devolve into nightmares.
  
  We then arrive at Sara's Winter, where she's in her doctor's office, wishing for a remedy from the feeling that she has, still wanting to be on television, and more addicted to diet pills than ever before. It fades into, and back out of, one of her ruined fantasies from the game show, a fantasy of herself younger, glamorous, and a winner. Eventually we get an Index of menu and by clicking on one of them we go back to the fantasy image, with Tappy's face falling apart, and a link behind it. And it leads to a stark and ruined version of the Tappytibbons.com site.We get pictures of Sara and Harry at a graduation ceremony, and we have a makeshift door which holds the clues of Sara's final fate. That leads us to a darkened collage of stills that lets us use the mouse to spotlight over them. Then we come to the credits (more on those below) and then shortly thereafter, back to the Harry/Marion path selection page.



• Taking Harry's path (and into his Summer) leads us amusingly enough to an internet addiction help site, "net-compulsions.org". Any link from here leads us (even more amusingly} to an online gambling "site". We get a chance at the slot machine, which wins of course, and when we go to claim our prize, we get two more choices. Two more images of Harry and Marion.
  
  
  • Harry's second image takes you a faked redirection message, then to the Summer of Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), Harry's best friend in the movie, with some accompanying dialogue detailing an upcoming drug deal. There's another version of the slot machine, and after a couple of more automatic wins, you're taken to the bonus round. And yes there's another choice...Harry or Tyrone.
    
    Tyrone takes you to his Fall, which presents the image of Tyrone with a gun to his head. Then we get a slot machine, a losing pull, the sounds and images of a heroin dose, and gunfire. Tyrone's Winter tells us that it "Seems like a thousand years since last summer". And with that we get grating images. A cry for help. Spotlight stills of Tyrone. And a page loading error. Backtrack to Tyrone's Summer and get to the menu again. Or you can backtrack all the way to Harry and Marion #2, either way you'll get to where you're going. It's just a matter of if you want to see everything.
  
  
  
  • Marion's image finally gets you to her Summer, which is her standing on Coney Island Boardwalk, and then multiple images of her, and then with a link...to Harry's fall. The image is familiar (the original choice), but it fizzles to another image, and a phone conversation between Harry And Marion, a desperate one, a sad one. And we're given two more choices...Harry and Marion.
    
    
    • Harry's path leads towards his Winter, with the Summer memory of Marion, and then a scream of her name, a shot of a needle in an arm, and silence. Many copies of the word "NO" across in one line, stacked on top of each other. A spotlight still of Harry. And the credits.
    
    
    
    • Marion's winter is presented with a greeting to Maid Marion. Other images we get are her face, random words, lips that say showtime, and a miniature barrage of drugs, naked bodies, computer scramble, and a face slamming against the ground. And we get the spotlight still of Marion, and then credits.

The credits page is utilized with mouse movement again, over any of the most textish phrases in the center of the page. If you wanna see the trailer, make sure you have something capable of RealVideo play, and go to www.clintatthecontrols.com. It's Clint Mansell (Pop Will Eat Itself) and his projects on the web and in movies.