Black Swan (2010)
Well… what can I say about Black Swan…
Black Swan is the story of Nina (Natalie Portman) a hardworking ballerina, who wins the role of the Swan Queen in her company’s latest production of Swan Lake. Nina is the perfect Odette: innocent, fragile and gentle. But as she becomes more and more obsessed with perfection for her role and for her life, she begins to fear that the newest ballerina in the company, Lily (Mila Kunis) is out to steal her role and destroy her career, and finds herself slowly but surely turning into Odile, the black swan, daughter of an evil magician.
I will be completely honest, I didn’t want to watch this film at all. I have seen three films by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan included) and all of them have thoroughly disturbed me. So why did I watch this film, then, you ask? I’m not sure. Partly due to shining reviews by people whose opinions I trust, partly due to the incredible hype the film got, and partly to see if Aranofsky still had the ability to terrify me. Turns out, he still does. I will try to not let my personal fear of the director’s work hinder me in giving an honest review, however.
Let’s preface by saying that this film is a complete and utter mindfuck. What I have found in the Aranofsky films that I have seen, is that he plays with the audience. His greatest achievement in his films has been to leave the audience with a feeling of complete and utter dread or confusion. I say this in the nicest way possible, believe me, for a director to be able to frighten his audience to the core with atmospherics and genuinely breathtaking acting is a feat, in my book. And Aranofsky does this very, very well. Throughout the entire film I felt ill at ease; everything was always a little off, even in the scenes where things were meant to be perfectly normal, such as the rehearsal scenes and the final performance. Perhaps this is why I have never warmed to Aranofky as a director; sure, films are meant to astound you and make you see things in a new way, but his films have always left me feeling physically ill, no matter what the content of the film was.
That being said, the casting was superb. I am a huge fan of both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, and they fit their roles so perfectly that I was completely blown away. It’s difficult to plan a plot where a character completely loses their mind, let alone act that role once it is written. There are too many obstacles that stand between it being a brilliant work of fiction and a hideous parody of actual insanity. I have to say, that Black Swan most definitely hit the nail on the head with this one: the insanity felt very real. Not only was it written and shot very subtly, slowly but surely reaching its shocking climax, but it was also acted in such a way as to make it feel real and realistic (which is the most difficult thing).
The way the film was shot and acted tells more of a story than the one written in the script: Nina’s sheltered upbringing and obsessive behavior, Lily’s laid back and indifferent attitude, the director Thomas’ (Vincent Cassel) obvious and disturbing sexual obsession with his lead dancer… the acting and camera angles built a story so vast and deep that the audience feels as though they know the characters already before even the first line is spoken. The music is Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake backed up subtly by flutters of invisible wings and clicks of beaks. The fact that the music is the same throughout the actual performance as well as the background track to Nina’s normal life is what really helps in convincing the audience (and eventually Nina herself) that Nina is slowly and very surely losing her mind.
After watching the film and being unable to deny that it is very well made and acted, I still don’t like it. I can’t lie and say I do just for the sake of the people who wanted me to. I dislike the film and I will never watch it again. That being said, I can’t claim the film was awful and shoot it down. It was incredible, it achieved its desired effect of showing a slow and deadly descent into a psychotic breakdown of a very unstable person, and it left the audience (at least, this audience member here) feeling ill and frightened and not at all comfortable. For that I will have to give it a 7/10 and resolve to never, ever watch Swan Lake again and keep my childhood memories intact for now.
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