Review: Black Swan

Black Swan
Year: 2010.
Directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Screenplay by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin.
Story by Andres Heinz.
Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis.
Music by Clint Mansell, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Costume design by Amy Westcott.

I must admit I was expecting a lot from this movie. A lot. I love anything that involves baller, Tchaikovski, or simply, massive amounts of glitter and poetry. And this movie has it all.
By the very beginning, with the opening dance sequence, I fell in love. That way of emphasize the choreography with those camera travellings, OOOMG! What can I say? I have a weakness for camera travellings, especially if they’re circular. This movie looks like the perfect mix between Perfect Blue and The Red Shoes, and I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who finds similarities (links here and here)! Honestly, I think I could find a link between The Red Shoes and anything else in the world, lol.

This film is in my opinion, a visual (and of course, auditory) delight. The angles, the choreographies, the costume design… Everything in this movie is set with the most gorgeous taste just to transport you on stage… and backstage. And that’s the most interesting part, because beneath all the luxury and beauty of this art, you can find ballerinas’  skinny, exhausted bodies, bleeding feet, the extreme sacrifice of provide your life to ballet and, in Nina’s case, anxiety and psychosis. The way Aronofsky tries to extrapolate physical pain to mental illness is captivating, and at some moments, pretty gore (but hey, not complaining, I loved those morbid scenes).

I can’t help reminding something more when I think of this film, the second part of ‘Flowers in the Attic’, ‘Petals on the Wind’. To talk about ballerinas sacrifices and New York’s day by day of a prima ballerina makes Cathy Dollanganger (Dahl) come to my head. I would certainly get mad as these two if I had to stand on pointe twelve hours a day! And just eating pomelos, lol!
Now seriously, I think all the cast was breathtaking. Mila Kunis (renamed by me as ‘Mila Kunis-linguns’ now and forever) was charming, Vincent Casell was very ‘sexy’ (quotations marks because I can’t feel attracted to him at all, sorry fangirls) and Natalie Portman was SUPERB. Really. That girl is so fucking beautiful! Even with all her hair combed in a bun, without make up and with that horrible underwear, she’s outsanding. And she makes Nina interesting. In hands of another actress, Nina could have become a boring character, a vulgar wimp, but Portman gave to her the density she demanded to be real and to make all of us feel identified (to a greater or lesser extent) with her obsessive and perfectionist personality.

 

I could spend a couple more hours explaining how much I’ve liked this movie, but I think you got the idea and I have a lot of things to sew :D.
Before I go, I want to share four posters I found on the net that are incredibly interesting. They look like old expressionist film posters to me, amazing and disturbing. Which one is your favourite? I can’t choose!
Good night!

Ariel

(In the end this has turned into a ‘OMG I LIKEZ BALLET ZO MUCH :B’ post and I didn’t say a single interesting shit about the movie. Nevermind…)

One Response to “Review: Black Swan”

1. Utena says:

   March 15, 2011 at 5:59 pm

   En serio, me encanta esta primera entrada, amor. No podría ser de otra manera, con Cisne Negro de por medio :P Tu review fue esplendorosa, con todo ese frikismo genialoso hacia el ballet que no te pega nada.
   y joder, HAS IDO A PONER JUSTO LAS FOTOS DE LA PELÍCULA QUE MÁS ME GUSTARON. Te quiero, mosha.

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