Black Swan 2010

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.

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.

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 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.