Psychological dramas emphasise the unstable state of character(s) minds; films such as Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2001), Girl, Interrupted (Mangold, 2000) and Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) to name a few, are al prime examples of how aesthetic is able to convey instability through visuals rather than the spoken word.
Both Fincher and Aronofsky use dark colour palettes and low key lighting to convey the mental debilitation suffered by their protagonists. Blues, greens and browns are used throughout the films to both foreshadow and convey the themes.
Fincher carefully juxtaposed the aesthetic of the scenes with and without Tyler Durden, in order to foreshadow the revelation about Tyler's true identity; with Tyler's scenes being more "hyper"- eg desaturated colours with lots of 'false' lighting. Fincher shot most of the film at night, and chose to use highly shaded areas if shooting during the daytime. The film is shot in urban settings and the director embraced the fluorescent lighting provided fromthings such as street lights, billboards and buildings as all of this added to the 'false' sense of reality that the Narrator experiences, as well as commenting on the effects of consumerism.
In Requiem for a dream, Aronofsky uses over 2000 jump cuts (a typical film uses 300-400) as well as lots of long shots, tracking shots and time lapse photography to give the full effect and outlook onto what life with an addiction is like.
'Girl, Interrupted' uses a much paler aesthetic and look, due to
the setting of the film (a mental institution) which therefore reflects the clinical and oppressive themes of the film. The director uses contrasting colours to amplify the main characters and key symbols; for example, Susanna (Winona Ryder) has black hair, this is a clear stylistic choice which the director has made in order to show that she does not belong .
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