Monday, February 28, 2011

Black Swan ~ it's all about duality. black and white.


Like a ballet performance, Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan begins with a showy opening act and closes with a dramatic finale. What happens in between, as we watch a ballerina named Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) lose herself in her new role as the Swan Queen in a New York City ballet production of Swan Lake. I have high expectation for this film since all the reviews that I read before watching this film were extraordinary. For me, before you watch this film, it is best for you to switch off the more sensible side of your mind, along with any idea that you’re going to experience a documentary-style portrait of the world of ballet. This film will really works if you let yourself be swirled up just like the main character Nina Sayers in a storm of hysteria, paranoia and tears. It’s too impulsive and emotional to be picked apart at the level of logic and too ludicrous to exist in a world other than its own. It is huge fun, but only if you’re willing to swallow all the art-form agenda.


Nina Sayers is beautiful, vulnerable, sexually naive and susceptible to mental illness. To play the role of a lifetime, Nina must develop deep into her own dark side. As her hallucinations and anxiety attacks escalate in tandem with her progress in rehearsal, artistic breakthrough fuses with nervous breakdown. This is a movie about fear of penetration, fear of your body, fear of being supplanted in the affections of a powerful man, love of perfection, love of dance, and perhaps most importantly of all, passionate and overwhelming hatred of your mother.

The camera works of this film is beyond words. My favorite scene will be the club scene which was made and edited beautifully. The last half hour of this movie also is extraordinary. This film let us into a journey of hysterical mind of Nina Sayers.

The young Aronofsky made three startling, status-quo-smashing movies: Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain. Whatever glory he won for The Wrestler, that film was lazy visually and clichéd in its telling. Black Swan is much more sophisticated, using The Wrestler's stalking camera and grainy images but bringing sensational dexterity to the dance scenes.



Black Swan is all about duality, and the same can be said for how you perceive the film. Those who can chalk up the overwrought suspense and indulgent sexual scenarios to Aronofsky's creative vision will soak up Portman's performance, the drama, and the many layers of psychological issues. Those that take the film more literally may have a hard time with the one-dimensional characters (even Portman's superb performance feels like it could go even deeper), the pointed symbolism, and the cliches. Whichever side you land on, I can guarantee that Black Swan will leave you with plenty to think about and talk about for days to come.

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