Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassell, Natalie Portman, Barbara Hershey
Black Swan is out in the UK from tomorrow so here is another review for it. Check out the Live for Films coverage of the Black Swan Press Conference with Natalie Portman.
The One Where I Heart Black Swan, And Hope You Do Too.
Black Swan is one of those films that I shouldn’t really like.
For a start, everyone (bar the brave Romy Shiller HERE), seem to have fallen for it. If it’s not a five star film, it’s a four star in most reviews. I haven’t seen many people fall too far in the middle.
Me? I loved it.
And I don’t say, “love” like I normally do. I mean true love. Maybe even love at first sight.
Part of that is with Natalie Portman. She’s incredible here. Vulnerable. Trapped in a life we come to realize she hasn’t actually chosen. Brilliant.
Clichéd, too. Romy isn’t wrong there. This part of the film is nothing we haven’t seen before. The film does have missteps. Winona Ryder is one of them. Almost turning up just to have an iconic moment later on, where she reinvents the wheel when it comes to nail files. (That, plus James Franco severing his nerves, have given me more winces in the Cinema already than I had in 2010) It was only when I looked away that I realized how engrossed I had become.
I think part of the reason I was sucked in was the setting. It took me right back to the first time I saw Susperia. There is something creepy, and unnerving about a dance school. Especially when the lights go out, when you’re still practicing. (And getting it wrong, wrong, wrong).
Darren Aronofsky is fast becoming one of my favorite Directors too. How people can say he “is a master of making beautiful films you don’t want to see again”, is beyond me. This isn’t the first time he’s done pretentious. But I loved The Fountain, too. The more I think about it, it’s for similar reasons. I get that people wouldn’t want to watch Requiem For A Dream every Sunday, but films like that exist for a reason.
The final fifteen minutes of this film go far further than I thought they would. Whether what we are seeing is actually happening of course is for another discussion. Aronofsky blurs the lines so much, that it’s never clear. Did that scene ever even happen? Maybe. Maybe not. There is more than a little fantasy at play here.
The way he pushes the final fifteen though is why I’ll always return to this film. I see it as a perfect double bill with The Fly.
Believe me, that comparison is not as stretched as it seems. You know from the trailer there are suggestions of a transformation. You know that Natalie Portman can’t get the role of the black swan, right. She’s frigid. She’s a little bit inexperienced. Maybe even a little boring. Clichés, for sure, in any other context. Here? Here it works brilliantly. Nina is forced to look at her lifestyle, and that home life, and re-assess whether there are elements holding her back.
She scratches where those wings should be, because it’s niggling away at her. Her Mum knows this, but still tries to hold her back. Tries to control her. So we have a coming of age drama, too.
Nina is growing up, experimenting, wanting perfection. All of the things most people do when growing up. Aronofsky is pushing those boundaries all of the time, though.
I’m disappointed to read that groups of lads are going to see it just for the Portman/Kunis scene. What I love about Aronofsky is he has fun with this. Anyone hoping to get a cheap thrill from that scene will be disappointed. There is at least two jump scares within it, and not in your typical noughties horror remake kind of way. We are talking images you might not be able to shake. Characters turning into other characters. Maybe even meaning that at times a character is talking to themselves. You will either buy that or not. For me, it was up there with David Lynch getting people to call themselves at their own home… and speak with themselves.
I think the point is, if you had seen the trailer, chances are you’ll know whether you’re in, or out.
I just hope you’re in.
I hope that Black Swan makes a ton of money, and means Aronofsky can carry on making whatever films he likes. Then maybe, one day, he can come back and do a sequel. Because that I would LOVE to see.
Black Swan was nominated for Best Movie, at the Golden Globes. It did not win.
Just another of lifes little tragedies…
