Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Black Swan - Natalie Portman Discovers Her Inner Swan



Black Swan is one of those movies that is said to be hard to tell people about. There's so much going on that it just has to be experienced. Natalie Portman headlines this psychological thriller that co-stars Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and the always awesome Winona Ryder. She really needs to do more work. I love her.


The plot centers around Portman's Nina Sayers as she descends into her dark side in order to dance the part of The Black Swan in her ballet company's production of Swan Lake. What happens to her can be interpreted in many ways. It could be in her mind, it could be really happening, or the whole movie itself could just be an illustration of the artist's psyche as it goes through it's process. The movie tends to share a lot in common with German Expressionism and Argento's Suspiria.




The movie is very sexually charged as well as adrenaline induced. You're not really given a chance to breath. Just sit back and enjoy the thrill ride pretty much. The juxtaposition of the elegance of ballet and the dark imagery that Nina projects onto it and experiences in it can be very jarring, but Natalie portrays Nina with such reality that you're never really completely wondering what's going. Whatever happens to Nina is exactly what the audiences experiences so her questions are the same questions the audiences have and sometimes those answers are not given, to the audience or to Nina.

Elegantly and theatrically filmed, this film is surely one with class.

Black Swan - Purchase the soundtrack here

1 comment:

  1. Nice. I haven't seen it yet. Glad you didn't spoil it :)

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