ABSTRACT
The barrel distortion of wide-angle lenses with very short focal lengths can produce wildly misshapen facial features that are more noticeable than the pincushion distortion of long telephoto lenses. This is because wide-angle lenses, with their much wider field of view, require a shorter camera to subject distance to frame a close-up, allowing facial features to be warped by the expansion of perspective and, if close enough, optical distortion. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream uses extreme barrel distortion to visualize the altered, drug-induced subjectivity of Sara Goldfarb, an elderly woman who gets hooked on diet pills while trying to lose weight before appearing in an infomercial. Using a wide-angle lens to convey the perspective of someone under the influence of drugs is not unusual, but the particular way it is implemented in this scene exemplifies the attention to detail that allows a filmmaker to fully exploit the expressive potential of a lens.
