Black Swan

[planet news]

First of all, thank you Yoda Family! ^_^

*The image above is from my favorite scene of the whole film.Oh absolutely. The ballet sequences, especially that one, were amazingly shot with the camera constantly encircling Portman---too focused in on herself, on getting everything right---in an unsteady, claustrophobically close way as if she is about to topple over any minute. Only when she transforms into the Black Swan---which if you browse the storyline seems to be concept unique to this film (???)---does the camera cease its motion and finally embrace the audience and her freedom against it, not as before, as a blur or even a blackness, but the stunning shot you chose.

Most of the film is metaphorically thick with instances of Swan Lake bleeding through her work and real life.The thing about Vincent Cassel's character was that he too displayed the dualism of the Black/White Swan, which simply must be Aronofsky's interpretation. Even though the mother most accurately fits the role of the villain Rothbart, Leroy is in one shot depicted precisely as Rothbart and he is somewhat villainous in the film as well. Of course, he is also the price which must be fought over by the two swans.

So... I guess the whole movie's about dualism, which almost defeats my main criticism that the film alternates too lazily between dark and light by using classic shock tactics instead of trying for a more gradual "whole world is unraveling" technique that Pi and Requiem utilize and succeed amazingly at. I think Pi is the film's closest relative, though I read on wiki that Aronofsky considers it more as a companion to The Wrestler due to the performance art parallels. Nevertheless, The Wrester is not at all a subjective film that questions reality in any way. All I mean is that, formally, the film is trying to subjectively convey a mind unraveling from reality, and---due to the fact that Nina has to return to work everyday and function believably---can't spiral more and more out of control in a "smooth", linear manner. Instead it has to rely on wham-bam type shocks which, conveniently, END EVERY SINGLE SCENE.

The final performance is absolutely beautiful and blew away any expectations I had conceived from the slow build up.Absolutely. One of the best things I've seen on screen in a long time.

7.5/10

[wintertriangles]

I'd give it an 8.5 but yeah I'm glad someone else noticed that camera work

[Powdered Water]

Can't wait to see this. I plan to either today or tomorrow.

[wintertriangles]

I will tomorrow as well to make sure I love it as much as I think

[TheUsualSuspect]

Black Swan

http://www.scannain.com/media/black-swan-poster.jpg

Aronofsky is a visceral director, most of his films are polarizing, Black Swan is no exception. Here, he takes the beautiful and artistic art of being a ballerina, which seems so innocent, and turns it into a sick and twisted mind melt of a film. Black Swan grabs you, shakes you and leaves you wanting more. The film is far from perfect, but it shows that Aronofsky is certainly a master of his craft.

After winning the role of the lead in a production of Swan Lake, Nina becomes obsessed with trying to be perfect for a demanding instructor, her overbearing mother and even herself. Her world is thrown upside down when she thinks that the new girl is vying for her spot, yet not everything is black and white.

Portman plays Nina, a girl who was thrust into his life by her mother, who gave it up to raise her. Her constant obsession with being perfect leads to her ultimate undoing. She tries so hard to please her mother, her instructor and herself that she starts to loose her mind. Her life begins to mirror the story in the production. I say the word mirror because Aronofsky uses this object in almost every scene he can. He shows the duality of the character, she plays both the white swan and the black swan. The creativity of the mirrors is quite something, I don't know if it's true, but it feels like there is a mirror in every scene of the film. As if it's another character, Nina's self reflection trying to break into this life.

Mila Kunis is the new girl who is both beautiful and talented. So of course she becomes Portman's alternate. Her eyes are hypnotic and she plays the role of the bad girl with an attitude. The polar opposite to the uptight and proper Portman. Yet the obsession and paranoia eats away at Portman enough to lead her to some dark places.

Nina becomes so entranced with the story and her performance that she can no longer tell the difference between her hallucinations and reality, even when she plucks a feather from her back and stares at it with her beady red eyes. That's a haunting image. Nina's obsession mirrors Aronofsky's own obsession to the art and the process of filmmaking. Every shot, every colour, every beat is mapped out in his mind and I believe he captured every moment on film. The cinematography in the film is fluid and beautiful, yet visceral when needed to be. There are moments that will get under your skin. I can watch a person being mutilated to no end in Saw, yet the little things that happen in Black Swan are enough to make you cringe. Remember, it's the little things that count.

I praise Aronofsky for taking a different approach to each film. The run and gun style of the Wrestler is far from the picturesque beauty of The Fountain. Black Swan lands somewhere in the middle. The film begins and ends with a beautiful dance number. The last performance in the film is quite beautiful to be honest. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next, she was possessed and I loved it.

Portman shines in a role that should earn her an Oscar nomination and the film manages to be one of the best of the year. The supporting cast was marvelous, Vincent Cassel is seductive and menacing. Mila Kunis, as stated before is a great counter weight to Portman and Barbara Hershey as Nina's mother feels like icing on the cake. Her relationship to her daughter rivals Carrie at times. I was engrossed with Nina and her deterioration from start to finish. When she told the story of Swan Lake to this guy in a bar, I knew how the film would end. The film takes some time to get to where it wants to go, so the pace is one concern I have with it, yet there is enough of a pay off in the end.

Black Swan is a film that stays with you, whether you enjoyed it or not. Aronofsky doesn't apologize for his films, he makes them the way he wants to and I applaud him for it.

4

[WBadger]

Yay, I can't wait to see this as it will be my first Aronofsky film. :o

[planet news]

The man has been unrecognizable between films. Compare this to The Wrestler to The Fountain and you will be very hard pressed to fine formal parallels. I mentioned some stylistic similarities between this film and Pi earlier, but I think that's the first time he's revisited a form in his career.

[Machiavelli]

I think that Deran Aranovfsky is total perfectionist...

[wintertriangles]

The man has been unrecognizable between films. Compare this to The Wrestler to The Fountain and you will be very hard pressed to fine formal parallels. I mentioned some stylistic similarities between this film and Pi earlier, but I think that's the first time he's revisited a form in his career.After re-watching I saw a number of documentary-style shots like The Wrestler but other than that even Clint Mansell's score is impossible to connect. The only similarities between all his films I notice is that he deals with a human urge to overcome the insanity of reaching an ultimate, nigh impossible goal. Pi is obvious, Requiem is thinking you can survive off your own source of goods, The Fountain is transcending death, The Wrestler is obvious, and Black Swan is, as I said before reaching perfection for your love. So, unrecognizable, cinematography-wise sure, but that's a good thing I think. And it's interesting because he didn't write The Wrestler or Black Swan but they still fit his "thing".

[Fiscal]

I just found out that Black Swan was shot with DSLRs and 16mm (http://www.eoshd.com/content/482-Darren-Aronofsky-new-film-Black-Swan-shot-on-7D-1D-Mk-IV-and-16mm). It is INSANE how powerful the 5D mk ii and 7D are. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing I just bought the 5D mk ii :)

We used a Canon 7D or 1D Mark IV for all the subway scenes; I could just carry a 7D and shoot on the subway all day with a very small crew. I did some tests with my wife beforehand to figure out my ASA, my stop, and how I was going to deal with the focus. I didn’t use any rigs with it because I wasn’t trying to shoot in the traditional way. I tested a bunch of different exposures and then brought the footage to Charlie Hertzfeld at Technicolor, who put it in the system so I could look at the highlights, the moiré and the resolution. Then I went back to the drawing board to do more tests. The 7D has more depth of field than the 5D, but I needed that because I didn’t have a follow-focus unit and needed to work really fast. I shot everything documentary-style. I did all the focus pulls by hand, and we’d just look at it on the camera’s monitor. I ended up shooting on a Canon 24mm lens at 1,600 ASA to get as much depth of field as possible at a stop of T81⁄2."

"I shot all of that rehearsal footage with the Canon 5D Mark II, which gave me references for the shots we wanted to make. I also figured out a lot of the mirror shots during prep, because we were rehearsing in a room with a three-sided mirror.

[TheUsualSuspect]

They didn't even have permits for those subway shots.

[SamsoniteDelilah]

Portman's performance easily justifies the price of admission to this one. blackswanThe entire cast is spot on - Vincent Cassel walks the incredibly fine line required so we're not quite clear if he's a letch, in love with Nina, a good director who knows just the right buttons to push to get a pitch perfect performance from his star or all of the above. Mila Kunis make the transition from comedy very gracefully and powerfully. She almost plays two characters, given that we see completely different versions of her character, and it's all very engrossing. Barbara Hershey is terrifying and awesome, and yet vulnerable and wounded in a couple of scenes. I had a hard time not feeling sorry for her, even though she's pretty evil. But Natalie Portman is breathtaking in this role above everyone else. Her reaction when she learns she's been cast gave me palpitations - it's completely over the top, but she's so fully invested. It wasn't til after the movie was over that I thought that was probably the first indication that the character is in trouble.

The story is ostensibly about a dancer who is just breaking out of the corps and finding the spotlight. Less obviously, it's about a woman who has held on to her childhood in both body and mind beyond what is healthily feasable, and is facing changes in herself that terrify her. It's about the sacrifice of Innocence in favor of becoming a fully formed adult. For much of the film, Innocence is at odds with sexuality. In the end, it's more than that.

My only fault with this film lies in the fact that it ends with information that we had from the trailer: this girl is unravelling. I think the rest of the story is fascinating, but would have liked to see more at the end of it; I just felt it presents Nina's story without really making a point about anything except "mental illness is a bitch". Oh, ok I guess I do have one more quibble, and that would be that this unravelling is apparent from the start and develops pretty steadily and inexorably. You walk out saying "yep, she went crazy. I thought she was going to go crazy and she went there. No turns, no pauses, just straight to Crazy."

Even with that problem, I'd recommend this film. The photography is gorgeous. It's a study in supporting the storytelling through costume and set. And there's Portman's performance, which is perfect. 8.5/10

[Ziesha007]

wow what a great poster... to be very frank , i really liked the movie

[mojofilter]

This movie is a dark one...in a very good pleasurable way.

Even though I'm not at all a ballet fan, I was hyponotized with the awesome cinematography. Darren Oronofsky is dead on in his direction.

Above all, Natalie Portman is outstanding. She is in the lead this year to win the Oscar for Best Actress. The only other actress who comes close is Michelle Williams for her performance in Blue Valentine.

Mila Kunis might have really earned her Best Supporting Actress nod. However, I think Barbara Hershey was completely overlooked. She was incredible as the overly protective mother to Natalie Portman's character. I just hope the Academy nominates her in that category for the Oscars. Winona Ryder was also incredible in her role.

Black Swan completely interested me. It's one of the best psychological thrillers ever made, and it's far more effective than 3/4 of the horror films coming out these days.

4.5 out of 5

[christine]

Just like to echo the praise in all the posts above. I've always appreciated Aronofsky's work since seeing Pi back more than 10 years ago, and Black Swan is just another excellent piece of work.
Can't remember the last film I saw where it felt so visceral, I was absolutely cringing at some points. It's amazing how he can make so terrible pulling a piece of cuticle or cutting nails down to the quick - way more horrific than a whole slew of gore films.
Fantastic acting all around, but Barbara Hershey as the mother - wow!

[rauldc14]

Haven't seen this movie, but I'm wondering how solid the odds of it winning best picture are.

[honeykid]

It appears to be this and The Social Network, with The King's Speech as an outside favourite. Of course, as the nominations haven't been announced yet, they could still surprise us... They won't, of course, but let's not rule out the possibility.

[mark f]

How solid? I'd say the Jell-o won't ever set for Black Swan in the Best Picture category.

[eMilee]

I am headed to see it tonight so I will write my two cents after I get home. I look forward to it :D

[The Prestige]

Just saw this earlier one in the afternoon. I'm gonna go on and say that I completely underestimated Darren Aronofsky pre The Wrestler. Before I felt he was this overhyped, glorified music video type director with interesting but poorly executed ideas, but his last two films have made me believe the hype. In fact, I would now say that he has transcended the hype.

This was an near excellent film, despite it's predictability. Just as I had expected, Aronofsky fuses subgenres such as psychological thriller, horror, melodrama, dance musicals, etc. While it doesn't consistently work out, it's a pretty bold move to even go there. And while the film didn't speak to me the way that The Wrestler did, I can certainly see why Aronofsky would call it a companion piece to it in the sense that Portman's mental disintegration coming at a price for her love for her work somewhat mirrors that of Rourke's physical disintegration, though Portman's character herself goes through some pretty disgusting injuries too.

Speaking of Portman, I think this is easily the best performance I have seen her in. I don't think she has ever been better than she has here, and her overwhelming commitment to the role shows in that strong core and back muscle she developed throughout her training. The scene Samson mentioned stuck out quite a bit to me too. Seeing just how esctatic she was to get the role of Swan blew me away and made me really want her to succeed more than I did prior to watching the scene.

Hersey was excellent as usual. I didn't find her character 'evil' though. More creepy than anything but she definitely appears to be a sympathetic character so I don't think that there was anything wrong in feeling sorry for her.

My boy Vince Cassell was, as predicted, effortlessly wonderful. Liked that you couldn't put your finger on what the character was REALLY about. Rest of the supporting roles are good. I don't see anything special about Mila's performance though other than she's a nice contrast to Natalie performance wise. And Wiona Ryder wasn't all that too if i'm honest. I was under the impression her roles was a little meatier than it appeared, and she was gonna blow heads away, but shouting and looking miserable in a couple of scenes isn't enough to warrant cries of 'comeback'.

The final scene that Fiscal and Planet referred to is probably my favourite scene too. I've always appreciated the physical abilities of ballet dancers but never followed it at all, naturally. But seeing Portman act her little socks out in THAT scene was just astounding.

4 star film wit 3 exceptional performances, energetic camera work and nightmarish yet poetic imagery.

[eMilee]

WOW.. My mind is still spinning from seeing this!! I was amazed by everything in this movie. Natalie Portman deserves every award this year. To me, she was meant to play this part. Kunis, she played the perfect bad girl...such a change from Jackie on That 70s Show. Barbra Hershey, she was the scariest stage mother and you could almost taste the bitterness and envy in all the scenes she shared with Portman. Ryder, I was surprised that she was in this and she was eerie almost to say ''Look at me. Learn from me'' Cassell, smug and condesending to the point of hatred. I loved the way it was filmed, the costumes, and just everything about this movie.

I throughly enjoyed this movie and will probably own it once its available on DVD.

[thracian dawg]

I'll throw this up---simply because I had such a weird take on the film:

The Drama Queen

This season, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is moving onto the next stage of her artistic development and ballet career. Although technically flawless, she's not emotionally engaging and her ascension in the ranks may end here unless she surmounts this obstacle (this is higher than her ballet dancer mother ever got)

Dance is her entire life and she has few interests outside of it. She's essentially a virginal momma's boy (can you say that?) The night she's named prima ballerina doesn't the artistic director---for homework no less, ask her to go home and rub one out?

The intrigue? How does a young artist manufacture the representation of emotional states like great love or the heart breaking loss without having ever experienced either?

By simply becoming emotional---by deliberately inducing psychic turmoil. The early moments of the film has the camera literally pulling up within inches of the back of her head---seriously restricting the POV to her eyes and her mind only.

In a nutshell, everything was a subjective internal representation and had nothing to do with objective reality---which may have been totally indifferent if not innocuous. In this world, someone dashing down a hallway without a glance sideways becomes a deliberate snub. Assigning an understudy becomes a Machiavellian plot to get rid of her, etc, etc.

So ... SPOILERS!

She doesn't die in the end, but merely imagines her death in keeping with character. I thought the appearance of her doppelganger or the horripilating swan flesh are not signs of madness, but simply transformation scenes of her "getting" her character.

The next step in her artistic growth is learning how to turn this process off and on at will---to become a truly great performer. In addition to the being a great example of unreliable narrator "Black swan" is to the artistic triumph film (although wickedly told as a dark psychological thriller) to what "Rudy" or "Rocky" are to the sports drama.

4.5

[wintertriangles]

She doesn't die in the end, but merely imagines her death in keeping with character. I thought the appearance of her doppelganger or the horripilating swan flesh are not signs of madness, but simply transformation scenes of her "getting" her character.

The next step in her artistic growth is learning how to turn this process off and on at will---to become a truly great performer. In addition to the being a great example of unreliable narrator "Black swan" is to the artistic triumph film (although wickedly told as a dark psychological thriller) to what "Rudy" or "Rocky" are to the sports drama.That's one hell of an interpretation, and I would gladly agree with and support it if I didn't know Aronofsky's connection between this film and The Wrestler. In The Wrestler, Randy dies at the end whether you want to admit it or not, and since Darren said these films are linked, I'm inclined to say that Nina also dies. Shame, I liked the idea of imagining it.

[planet news]

Shame, I liked the idea of imagining it.Whether she or Randy dies or not is irrelevant to the validity of your interpretation, since death (as opposed to demise) always holds the same position in relation to your being---the perpetual possibility of the end of all possibilities. Aronofsky specifically does not show the aftermath of their demise---even going as far as to maintain the very question of its occurrence. Rather, in his films, death is the thing very that motivates them throughout the story regardless of the reality of their demise. In Black Swan, Nina's realization of her authentic being-towards-death is made all the more literal in her fidelity to her stage-role---her existential role. The same goes for The Wrestler. In short, if we are to play a role, we should always play that role to its fullest extent.Being-towards-death is authentic Dasein [human existence].

[Actor95]

I saw it, I loved it, I shall most likely see it again.

I thought the cocept was unique and brilliant. Deffinately worth seeing. 9 Stars.

[iniquity1978]

I seriously couldn't give this movie anything above a 7 or so. Overall it wasn't terriable but I found it pretty boring in general.

[wintertriangles]

I seriously couldn't give this movie anything above a 7 or so. Overall it wasn't terriable but I found it pretty boring in general.Care to say why?

[linespalsy]

Re: the whole "what's real? what isn't?" thing,

I'll have to wait until I see it again but my theory is anything we see from behind her is real and everything else is suspect/at least partly fantasized. I'm not sure about mirrors, does anyone else remember if we see any clearly-hallucinated things in mirrors?

[wintertriangles]

There was two mirror hallucinations, one at home where she saw winona coming at her and one in the studio where her reflection moved exclusively

[Sedai]

Just got back from this - fantastic film.

More later! ;)

[Brodinski]

I thought it was an excellent film, but I'm not sure I ever want to see it again. Deeply disturbing stuff if you ask me.

[TheGirlWhoHadAllTheLuck_]

Loved it. The Red Shoes is clearly a big influence but the film works nicely by itself. Will probably buy it on DVD :)

[jessstewart]

:facepalm: truly the worst movie i have ever seen. Really hated it. would not recommend anyone to see it.

[Exist]

Black Swan reminds me of the same carnal psuedo-symbolistic crap I would have written as a snub would-be writer in my youth, made me roll my eyes at both the film and myself.

[wintertriangles]

:facepalm: truly the worst movie i have ever seen. Really hated it. would not recommend anyone to see it.Is this the only film you've ever seen?

Black Swan reminds me of the same carnal psuedo-symbolistic crap I would have written as a snub would-be writer in my youth, made me roll my eyes at both the film and myself.
Another vague statement, how can something be pseudo symbolistic...if there's a relationship between the two ideas? Even so, there wasn't a whole lot of under the skin symbolism, the ideas behind the film are pretty simple, and compared to the writings of yours, which are I'm assuming based on similar peoples' "philosophy" essays, the film isn't arrogant or humorously, offensively ostentatious.

[Exist]

Is this the only film you've ever seen?

Another vague statement, how can something be pseudo symbolistic...if there's a relationship between the two ideas? Even so, there wasn't a whole lot of under the skin symbolism, the ideas behind the film are pretty simple, and compared to the writings of yours, which are I'm assuming based on similar peoples' "philosophy" essays, the film isn't arrogant or humorously, offensively ostentatious.
Symbolism itself isn't nessesarily complicated. 'black' meaning 'erotic b.s. with the most wangeresque tchaikovsky climax' THE MOVIE HAS NO STORY, Gag me with a spoon!

[Justin]

Symbolism itself isn't nessesarily complicated. 'black' meaning 'erotic b.s. with the most wangeresque tchaikovsky climax' THE MOVIE HAS NO STORY, Gag me with a spoon!

The symbolism may not be very complicated, but does it matter?

It has a story, it's just very simple. Black Swan is more like a fairytale. In fact, Mulholland Drive works in a similar way...and pretty successfully, I might add.

And if this is another one of those gross exaggerations, like the ever popular,"....this was one of the worst films I've ever seen..", then just forget about it. This isn't worth anyone's time.

[honeykid]

Black Swan is more like a fairytale.
Oh don't say that. I'm already doing my best to convince myself to sit and watch this (only for Portman's performance, as the film has no pull for me) but mentioning "fairytale" in relation to the film maybe enough to make sure that never happens.

[mark f]

Yeah, that fairy tale stuff makes Black Swan sound like Ever After or several other Drew flicks.

NOTE: Exist, I didn't realize that Waco was in a San Fernando Valley Time Warp c. 1982.

[honeykid]

Yeah, that fairy tale stuff makes Black Swan sound like Ever After or several other Drew flicks.
I don't like Ever After. Love Drew, watched the film a couple of times, but I don't like it.

Looking forward to seeing Everybody Love Whales, but I don't think I'm going to like it. I'm only seeing it for Drew as it doesn't sound like something I'm going to like.

[akatemple]

Watched Black Swan a couple nights ago and thought it was a great movie, the transformation at the end was amazing, I never thought I'd like a movie like this, but I watched it for Natalie Portman, I've really liked most of her movies and she didn't let me down.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ug0l1QSATQ/TauGFkwLU1I/AAAAAAAADH0/EKh6hOJ74ec/s1600/18.jpg

[Deadite]

Overrated but still quite good. I thought it was more style than substance, the symbolism was cliche, and it ultimately went nowhere. The supporting performances were excellent, especially Cassel. Portman, of course, was the unraveling center of this finely crafted psychological thriller/character study that draws you in for the duration even if it holds no real surprises or depth.

[cinemaafficionado]

Ah, The Black Swan, nothing like a colorfull lesbian swan ballet:p
It's like Natalie Portman is just egging me on to convert her.

[Deadite]

Brando, yer a right bastard. :D

[Sexy Celebrity]

I love this movie.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_matnbwq8oa1ryig8eo1_500.gif

[Deadite]

You identified strongly with the crazy lady, perhaps?

[Sexy Celebrity]

You identified strongly with the crazy lady, perhaps?

Which one?

I did feel like I identified with Natalie Portman's character.

[cinemaafficionado]

Brando, yer a right bastard. :D

Well, you know Brando loves lesbians:p

[Deadite]

Which one?

I did feel like I identified with Natalie Portman's character.

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/897267_o.gif

[Lucas]

I think this film is a modern masterpiece to be completely honest. It's one of the best films the 21st century has shown us thus far.

[rambond]

I too think this is a modern great, i like how we go deeply into portman s character, and i like the way she falls in love with her instructor, and all the love triangles going on, the ending was nerve wreking

[Gideon58]

I agree that the film is slightly overrated...there are inconsistencies in the screenplay that nagged at me throughout...Portman was good, as always, though I think she's done better work.

[DocHoliday]

It's a great movie. I loved it.

IMO Aronofsky's second best film behind only The Wrestler.