Black Swan was fucking perfect. Oh my god. That was so intense, so incredible, so flawlessly executed. My heart, man. So many chills. Ahhhhhhhhh. This had me squirming more than any other movie ever has. Absolutely incredible directing, cinematography and acting. Natalie Portman. I don't really have much more to say other than I love it to bits and if you haven't seen it already, you really really should because goddamn that was unbelievable. This is definitely now one of my top five favourite movies of all time.
Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is a complex slow burn I found to be utterly engaging. Natalie Portman gives her most commited and powerful performance as Nina, the Swan Queen.
Matthew Libatique's cinematography draws you to Nina with his hand held and tight close ups and shows both the majesty of the stage and the loneliness in the quest for perfection with his wide masters.
Nina's erratic descent and final recognition reminded me of something I was once told; once you know you are mad, it's really quite liberating.
Totally ballerina!
Wow... just wow. What an absolute masterpiece. The tension, the visuals, the drama, the anxiety, the music... my god, the music. This film is beautiful, and the final act with the on-stage performance was faultless - I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
"I was perfect." - Yes, you fucking were, Nina.
Didn't get drawn into the main character's turmoil. The atmosphere didn't feel intense. The sexual innocence and repressed stuff was cheesy teen stuff and just silly, including the jump scares and flashbacks. The whole story just bored me. The characters seemed to serve one dimensional purposes (controlling mom, old dancer, party dancer, stony-faced teacher) which can be fine and they do serve a purpose, but this is supposed to be a deep drama and with the rating I expect the storytelling to rely more on cliches?
Climate, poetry, anxiety causes shivers, chills running on the back, pretty psychedelic and Natalie like a dream.
"I was perfect"
Natalie Portman is phenomenal. Her slow descent into madness is horrifying. Mila Kunis is great too. I really loved the cinematography. The way the camera moves during the dances is great. The amount of mirrors is this movie is absurd. It must of been tricky to never have the camera be seen. The color palate is used really well to show Nina's state of mind. The score is fantastic too. Overall is definitely an amazing physiological horror and one of Aronofsky's best.
Black Swan. Everything about this movie is fantastic: the score by Clint Mansell, the choreography, Natalie Portman's performance. Darren Aronofsky put a lot of effort into directing this one: the way the camera works around the mirrors without being seen, the artistically place shots, just being an absolute genius with mirrors in general.
The constant shift between diegetic and Non-diegetic music also helps to subconsciously blur the line between reality and fiction. A conflict that occurs between Natalie Portman's character but on a significantly stronger psychological scale. Darren Aronofsky has proved in this movie that he's able to excel in shot after shot consistency as well as effective use of lighting in certain scenes to cause drama.
All of the casting was great in this movie, especially for Mila Kunis's character. She was perfect to play the carefree naughty girl in this movie. This movie does a great job showing the pressure and drama in these dance groups, once you hit a certain age. Other than that, I just love trippy movies, where the character descends into madness. One flaw I had with it though is that the ending did seem a little rushed but it's Darren Aronofsky wanted to tell the story he did for a reason and I can't argue with that.
I'm sure you guys have already seen it, but if you haven't I'd strongly recommend it.
Such an awesome movie ❤️
Erica Sayers: Everything will be better in the morning. It always is.
I did not enjoy the first half of the movie as it was very slow for my taste but about 40min in I was hooked even though I didn't know whats going on, this is definitely not for everyone but I urge you to keep watching even if the first half hour bores you as you will understand it was necessary for the build up to the end. With this Portman is probably my favorite female actress of this generation & I doubt anyone else could portray the character the same way she did, over all this is a great movie and well worth the watch.
This movie let me down. Natalie Portman's performance was absolutely fantastic, but I felt unusually disconnected from her character. The lack of personality was effective and realistic to a point, but as the story continued, I really just felt like I was watching a movie about a malfunctioning robot. Barbara Hershey was particularly amazing in her role and her scenes were my favorite. The final scene is also beautiful to watch. And just expertly crafted. I also liked how the music matches (and sometimes creates) the drama throughout the film, but overall, I am just not a fan. I'm glad that others have found something to love though!
Black Swan is a powerful psychological thriller that delves into the intense desire for perfection in the field of ballet and the lengths one will go to achieve it. The movie follows Natalie Portman's character, Nina, as she transforms from the innocent White Swan to the twisted Black Swan. Portman's performance is outstanding, leading to her Academy Award for Best Actress. The supporting cast is also excellent, including Mila Kunis as the loose and untethered Lily, Vincent Cassel as the fiery and passionate director, and Barbara Hershey as the dangerous and jealous mother. The film is shot in a gritty, grungy style and includes elements of violence, sex, and drugs, as well as mental visions and hallucinations. The spiral into chaos is reminiscent of "Requiem for a Dream" and the film explores the themes of the psychological toll of pushing oneself to the brink in pursuit of perfection.
Cisne Negro es un poderoso thriller psicológico que ahonda en el intenso deseo de perfección en el campo del ballet y los extremos a los que se llega para lograrlo. La película sigue al personaje de Natalie Portman, Nina, mientras se transforma del inocente Cisne Blanco al retorcido Cisne Negro. La actuación de Portman es sobresaliente, lo que la llevó a ganar el Premio de la Academia a la Mejor Actriz. El reparto secundario también es excelente, e incluye a Mila Kunis como la Lily suelta y sin ataduras, Vincent Cassel como el director fogoso y apasionado, y Barbara Hershey como la madre peligrosa y celosa. La película está rodada en un estilo arenoso y sucio e incluye elementos de violencia, sexo y drogas, así como visiones mentales y alucinaciones. La espiral hacia el caos recuerda a "Requiem for a Dream" y la película explora los temas del costo psicológico de esforzarse al máximo en la búsqueda de la perfección.
I expected no less from Darren Aronofsky. This movie was absolutely beautiful, I felt every second of it, every emotion that Nina felt. I felt it with her. It was extremely powerful. Natalie Portman is one hell of an actor, she portrays this role EXTREMELY well. The last moments filled my body with gut-wrenching anxiety, but... In the best way possible. At the last seconds, my heart dropped. It was... Just amazing. She died for perfection, the same way the story went...
Natalie Portman did an outstanding job
This is quite an interesting film. I don't remember if I knew what to expect the first time I saw it, but it is still pretty surprising when you notice minor details you might have missed the first time. The two main actresses are both awesome. I love seeing characters slowly evolve over the span of the film, especially when it is this crazy. Honestly I did not know the whole time if the stuff was real or fake or what the final statement would be. The final scene is flat out awesome though.
Oh, and pretty damn good score. Has this Tchaikovsky guy done anything else?
I don't know if it's because I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be immersed in a film the particular evening I decided to watch Black Swan. I hope so as it used to be one of my favourite films.
It really is a cinematic beauty. Not to be enjoyed on the small screen as it's dark, smouldering chills cannot envelope and capture you in the way Aronofsky intends in this moral tale of perfection, obsession and insanity.
I personally would've liked a little more normality in the first act to really show Nina's descent into madness, however, the lack of this shows how her mind was already teetering closer to the edge than the next person's.
I feel like I want to watch this again already because although the story did drag a little for me as I've watched it so many times. I really didn't get to feel the vivid colours and swift movements and the creeping in the shadows as I streamed the movie. This has influenced me into thinking about investing in a projector/home cinema set-up.
As I delve further into my discovery for cinema, I'm looking to new films to surprise and excite me and unfortunately, this was too recent a watch to do that however, this is a visual masterpiece that I will revisit later down the line for sure and give a better more indepth review of the film itself as my concentration improves also.
'It was perfect.'
wow. by the time in writing this i haven't seen "tree of life" yet, but this is the most overrated movie in years...
Absolutely brilliant! Portman is so extremely powerful, thank you!
This movie will officially rip your face off.
I didn't understand shit, but it was so exciting and disturbing. Best thriller I watched recently
After watching this I went to know more about the film and what inspired the story as I do with every film and with this by the time I realized where I am, I was learning about the Renaissance, this film is perfection, a great projection of the "Swan Lake" and shows how destructive desire and desperation can be.
The relationship between obsession and madness. Top-notch editing makes this such an effective horror film, and the makeup/special effects in the second half are pretty bonkers.
Wasn't expecting this film to be this good. Love Natalie Portman's acting!
Totally overrated. I spent the entire film waiting for something to happen. Very slow paced and the storyline only just kept me watching. I was hanging on for a great twist or ending, but neither happened, and then the end. Where was the horror? 1st half 3, 2nd half 4, so it barely scores 4/10.
"I just want to be perfect."
I had no idea what it was about the first time, and had forgotten about it when I rewatched it. Brilliant, but also painful at times to watch. Ballet is no joke.
I didn't like any of the characters. Nina (Natalie Portman) was talented but pathetic. Barbara Hershey played Nina's overprotected Mother/Frustrated former Ballerina-Jock and gave me "Carrie" flashbacks.
I'm not going to pretend that I followed what was real or what was a dream. The Lily character was significant but I wrestled with it. I suppose she was representative of Nina's bottled up dark side. It was easy to hate Thomas, especially early, but he did drive Nina toward the perfection that she sought and finally achieved.
This is a weird film which is to be expected as it's an Aronofsky thing. I've never been to a ballet but I'll be damned if I wasn't on the edge of my seat when Nina took the stage for the opening of Swan Lake. Good stuff.
Great performance by Natalie Portman!
I could not finish it.
Very weird movie. I think the last 20 minutes were the best.
Boring and empty... :(
Natalie Portman was amazing but the movie itself was pretty slow. Not my favorite
The best movie about ballerinas I've ever seen! Come to thing of it, I've never seen a movie about ballerinas :S Brilliant movie non-the-less. 5 outta 5 stars!
A journey into one's perfectionism and self-destructiveness.
Natalie Portman killed it.
The lesbian scene in this was inadequate and unsatisfying.
I'm impressed! Definitely not for everyone, but I got sucked in completely. Great re-telling/interpretation of the Swan Lake, great acting by Portman and the other main characters, and a way, way different feel to the movie then I was expecting from a ballerina story. Probably an absolutely-love-it or absolutely-hate-it type of movie.
superb! Seen it on the big screen and at first I was like "wtf am I doing here", at the end of the movie, I was more like "Natalie Portman is the best actress ever"...
never seen such a fluent metamorphosis made by actor and director
"Black Swan" is a psychological thriller film that follows the story of a ballerina who gets consumed by the pressures of her role in "Swan Lake." It's intense and visually stunning, with an incredible performance by Natalie Portman. I highly recommend it!
I don't know why it took me so long to watch it, but now that I did I can't find words to describe. It's perfection, drama, pain and impressive acting. One of the best movies of my life.
A movie that brilliantly executes and showcases an innocent ballerina's descent into obsession and madness. Director Darren Aronofsky illustrates symbolism of reality and hallucination and grips the viewer's attention using exceptional cinematography and tension backed by the score and performance by Natalie Portman. This film tackles many dark and intense themes about mental health struggles which may not cater to everyone's needs. But overall "Black Swan" is a work of art and should deserve all the praise it gets.
Basically a woman breaking down from a lack of maturity and the pressure of growing up. The soundtrack also goes crazy.
Poetic, visceral and engaging. Natalie Portman looked stunning. It would be better if Thomas had greater complexity in his lines.
Well, well, well if it isn't Whiplash's evil sister.
Well, first the things I didn't like:
Things I liked
Things I absolutely loved:
P.S. I made a misjudgment.
My first watch since seeing it on release in the cinema. A lot of it stuck with me all this time tbh. It's a harrowing film with some really disturbing moments. It unsettles you so effectively.
As the viewer we're none the wiser to what is reality and what is Nina's delusions. A true unreliable narrator, we're watching as she slowly loses herself in the pursuit of perfection. Clint Manshell's score is just as haunting as the film and I've found myself listening to the final pieces since this viewing.
Another beautifully told story by Aronofsky.
Black Swan from the start feels a step above and removed from reality. It tries to capture ballet not in form but in feeling- much like how ballet relies on physicality and intense, precise movement and melodrama to convey feeling without words, this film does the same through its own medium. Whereas on the stage you, by its nature, can only see the dance from one angle, Black Swan embraces the camera and uses disorienting, intimate angles from the very first dance scenes to convey a sense of precariousness to everything, where one slip of the foot could lead to a crash. And the film only doubled down further the more it goes on.
Every actor commits to their role by amplifying them, stretching them out, not obliterating the nuances but leaving them speckled in the fabric like font on a worn and stretched shirt. Portman's Nina embodies fragility, wide eyed and soft voiced. One touch or word could have her shatter. And then when the film calls for it, she embraces the siren's call, the catharsis of falling, the fleeting power of the breakdown when you know everything is about to fall apart and you won't be able to bounce back from it but oh, that moment isn't here yet and so you are invincible. Perfect. Cassel is a total sleaze, the male auteur convinced that his misogynistic projections are genius readings and his abuses of power favors of love. Hershey is the perfect stage mom, love and possessiveness, support and envy, care and abuse all wrapped up into one indistinguishable ball. Kunis' Lily's part is to contrast all this, to be the one Normal person and therefore the person Nina is the most paranoid of. She's what Nina wants- to be like or to be with or both, her freedom and detachment both a magnet and repellent to her- but will not allow herself to admit so in reality, and a reflection of her demons and fears in her mind.
The psychological and body horror are well done. More than a few skin peelings made me wince. But some big swings miss, like a scene with the drawings that made me laugh, or some questionable CGI contortion. These contribute to an odd sense of detachment from Aronofsky. There's a voyuerism to this film, where Nina doesn't feel lived in where we are experiencing this heightened reality with her but rather gawking at her breakdown and- of course- her latent homosexuality. Is there a thematic reason for it? Certainly- you can draw a clear line between it and Nina's suppression both from herself and her mother, her slotting into only one world and path and way of being. But when the lead straight actress says herself "Everyone was so worried about who was going to want to see this movie. I remember them being like, ‘How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do you get girls to a thriller?’ And the answer is a lesbian scene. Everyone wants to see that," it leads one to wonder if this and the masturbation scene are more gratification than story. Though I've yet to see either, I hear Requiem for a Dream and The Whale get similar complaints, so I'm left to wonder if this film is more character study or freak show.
Still, even if it is the latter, it's a well made one. It's a trip that pulls you along, and the ending with a killer performance from Portman got me choking up. Black Swan isn't perfect. But it doesn't need to be to be plenty engaging, thought provoking, and mesmerizing.
A movie with a clear message: the unrealistic societal expectations that are put on women in highly competitive positions makes them an easy target of sexual predators, mental health issues, abuse and other forms of malicious intent.
It’s a very well done piece, the characters and acting are excellent, and the music is great too.
I thought the horror element was a little half baked in the first two acts (it only gets scary very sporadically, and I could’ve done without the jump scares), but it’s all just build up for the phenomenal third act. Regardless, the drama is strong enough to keep you engaged for the first hour.
My only complaint is that the directing and visuals are a bit average at times, which is odd because that’s usually one of Aronofsky’s strengths.
8/10
Some people really seem to love saying that Black Swan is a scene for scene rip off of Perfect Blue (1997). But I honestly think those folks are over-exaggerating to the highest degree. I can definitely see the similarities but they are different enough in my opinion and both deserve to be seen for their own merits. Similar? Definitely. Inspired by? Definitely. Thematically alike? Definitely. Borrowed from? Sure. Rip off? Hardly.
Considering Perfect Blue includes deformed stalkers, insane fans and internet chat rooms which to the best of my memory, Black Swan does not, I’d say those people are simply just talking pure nonsense.
Black Swan was a really interesting character study on how the process of losing yourself to your work. This movie had some fantastic imagery that kept the viewer guessing if it was an illusion or fact. Natalie Portman's portrayal was fantastic, really solid work here. The dynamic between her and her mother was so taboo and uncomfortable, but so raw that it felt completely believable. The movie gets in to so very intense scenes that left me feeling slightly uncomfortable, but that is what the movie was trying to achieve. I was suppose to be uncomfortable and it made those scenes all the better for it. There are some pacing issues with the movie, as it did hit a few lulls for me, but overall I found myself engaged.
Score: 85%
Verdict: Great
"Black Swan" is undoubtedly a well-crafted psychological thriller that incorporates intriguing elements of body horror, although it does have moments of campiness. While the premise suggests a sophisticated drama, it's clear that the film is firmly rooted in 80s and 90s genre tropes. In that sense, I was hoping for it to be even more extreme and exaggerated. Natalie Portman is perfectly cast in the lead role, though Vincent Cassel occasionally feels a bit over-the-top. Furthermore, I had anticipated the overbearing mother to play a more prominent role in the story, but regrettably, her character remains underdeveloped.
"It was perfect"
I didnt said it, the movie said it.
And it is 100 percent right.
Absolute masterpiece on subjective realism. One of my all time faves.
A timid, devoted ballerina experiences both sides of the hunt, having finally usurped the long-standing lead for her company's next major performance and then immediately spotted a crosshair upon her own back. Along the road to opening night, prodded by competition from a new dancer and a taxing, handsy show director, she reluctantly confronts the various psychoses and anxieties that have been brewing, unimpeded, in her psyche for years. Will she finally learn to cut loose and embrace her id, or fall apart en route?
Natalie Portman is a nervous wreck in that leading role, finding comfort in the rigorous pursuit of perfection on-stage, but tumult and uncertainty everywhere else in her life. She's perfectly cast, petite and toned in a physical sense but versatile enough to dig deep and project the agonizing struggles that writhe within. Director Darren Aronofsky, no stranger to plumbing such depths, brings his usual grim, unflinching perspective to the scene. It's a good thematic marriage. Aronofsky’s work is almost always oppressive and exhausting, which is why it took me ten years to get around to watching this one. In a very real way, I dread his films and what they'll put me through.
Portman's performance (not to mention that of Mila Kunis, in an indispensable supporting role) and the gorgeous dance choreography saves it from being a total plod, but Black Swan is anything but a pleasant experience. Profound at times, pervasively uncomfortable at others, it digs until it hits the bone and then it digs some more.
Masterpiece . One of a kind movie.
Maybe my favourite movie off all time..Its magic its from another planet and natalie portman was perfect!
I wish I could watch it
obsess is the keyword, believe me
Definitely one of my favorite films of all time. Natalie Portman is pure perfection.
BESST MOVIE EEVER IL OVE IT SO MUCGH
Amazing in so many ways! Pace, camera work, sound effects, Natalie Portman...
It blew me away. Aronofsky is the new Cronenberg.
I liked more requiem for a dream but this is good too.
OOh, swan bumps!
ThisMovie is great. In my top5.
Shout by hhk9BlockedParent2019-07-30T05:36:57Z
Overrated. Not a bad movie but doesn't deserve such a high praise. Amazing acting by Natalie Portman.