The scene I chose for this assignment is the "Quaalude/Lemmons" scene from Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. In this scene, Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DeCaprio, takes Quaaludes with friend and colleague Donny Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, and takes way too many of them after thinking that they aren't working. Unfortunately, the powerful Quaaludes hit at the worst moment possible. In this movie, the Wall Street brokers have been excessively using their money from schemes and fraud for drugs, strippers, and other illegal activity. Because of this they start to attract the attention of the FBI, which Jordan finds out during this scene.
In The Wolf of Wall Street, the main themes that repeat throughout the film is excessiveness, extravagance and addiction. Every aspect of the film is outrageous and unbelievable, which Scorsese portrays perfectly in every scene. In the Quaalude scene, Donny and Jordan notice that after 30 minutes the drug effects have not hit them yet. So in order to speed up the process they start taking more and work out to get their adrenaline pumping. At that same moment, Jordan receives a call from his father, Max Belfort, asking Jordan to call him immediately at a pay phone nearby. Once Jordan finally drives to the nearby country club, his father notifies him that the FBI have tapped all his phones and are recording everything in his mansion. Unfortunately, as he receives this news, the Quaaludes finally hit Jordan.
The two start talking normally, this is shown through cross-cutting techniques to show each side of the conversation. After saying a few lines each, Jordan's father Max asks, "What the f--- are you saying? I can't understand you. Say that again?" then Jordan responds in gibberish. We, the audience, now realize that the Quaaludes have hit. Jordan's voiceover explains that since the Quaaludes that have been in storage for 15 years, the delayed fuse took 90 minutes to kick in. Scorsese uses extreme close-up shots of Jordan, of his lips, eyes, and with a distorted effect to show the transition. This trippy effect and focus on his face shows the dramatic effect the quaaludes have had on him (screenshots below). In order to show the progression in time in this scene the cinematographer used an anamorphic lenses with shallow depth of field. The use of spherical lenses also capture the blurriness of vision Jordan is experiencing.
The scene continues with the physical effect of the Quaaludes on Jordan. Scorcese uses an aerial shot of Jordan laying on the ground struggling to get up. Jordan's voiceover continues to speak and calls this the "cerebral palsy phase." The use of voiceover reflects Jordan's thoughts during the scene. Ex: "Come on, come on. Think. What else is there? That's it I can crawl like Skyler" is heard as Jordan tries to crawl to the door. Aside from the voiceover, the rest of the audio on film is silent. This emphasizes every motion Jordan makes in his struggle to move. The camera is shot in a slower frame per second to slow down the scene. Since each clip of him struggling is shot with a slow motion effect, the audience gets a clear understanding of Jordan's experience.
As Jordan finally makes his way to the exit, we hear the diagetic sounds of the outdoor country club. Crickets and bird sounds play in the background along with Jordan's grunts and moans. One great effect that is used in the scene is with the stairs Jordan tries to roll down from. Though there are only about 8 actual steps, the clip reverts from the actual stairway that is there versus what Jordan believes is there. When Jordan looks at the stairway, his vision of the stairs is dramatized, same with his fall.
Once Jordan finally makes it to the car and speaks to his wife, he realizes that Donny is on the phone (which is being tapped by the FBI) with their Swiss bank contact. The seriousness of the FBI situation begins to unfold. The lack of movement and slow shots changes the pace of the film as well. Before this scene, in the film each scene is fast-paced and glamorized. Since this entire quaalude scene is very slow, it shows the viewer that this scenario triggers the end of their Stock Market scams, money laundering, and extravagant lifestyles.
The relationship between the sounds to the images works perfectly in this scene because they both give off a sense of dramatic tension. This includes the silent room tone in the beginning, voiceover of Jordan's thoughts, and distorted visual effects. The mixture of bland colors in the scene with bright lighting emphasizes each move Jordan makes, taking the focus away from everything else. The scene's cuts are seamless and have a smooth rhythm. The order of the shots work accurately and true to the entire quaalude experience as portrayed by Jordan. The sequence is both hilarious but horrifying and help the overall goal of the film since it shows that the lifestyle of the Stock Market "Pump and dump" contributors eventually hit a stop.
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