Black Swan

It has been an embarrassingly long period of time since my last post, which speaks in equal measure of some extremely hectic and exasperatingly lazy periods that I experienced over the Autumn and Winter months. Nearly 6 months on it seems appropriate to step up my game and get back into writing more in my spare time. I plan for posts to become a more regular feature, ideally reviewing every latest release I see at the cinemas.

On that note, the most recent film I saw was Black Swan-if you have not heard about this film or don't harbour any interest in it please stop reading right this second because you're literally an idiot. Unsurprisingly Aranofsky's new film has been accumulating salacious amounts of Oscar/BAFTA/Golden Globe buzz-with a cast you wouldn't shake a well fortified stick at and a director whose career and filmography is as close to flawless as any of the true greats of cinema it was clear that Black Swan was never going to be bad, rather whether it would live up to it's extremely high expectations.

The plot of the film revolves around Natalie Portman's character Nina Sayers who is placed in the roll of both the White Swan and the Black Swan in a contemporary, visceral re-imagining of the famous ballet piece 'Swan Lake'. Nina is a sweet, nice girl and as her director and choreographer (played by the always unforgettable Vincent Cassel) tells her she embodies the innocence and virginity of the White Swan, her real task is to grasp and envelope herself within the role of the Black Swan. Complications begin to ensue when she's predictably extremely rubbish at playing the darker side of her role and as a rival ballet dancer, played by Kunis, begins to show more promise for the part than she does. On surface value the plot would appear to suggest a familiar tale of an underdog overcoming adversity and triumphing much to audience's great relief and cries to Oscar nominations a.k.a the Rocky model. Fortunately this isn't the case; this familiar narrative model works as a framework to contain a much more interesting inspection of a character's descent into madness, playing on themes of schizophrenia, sexual desire, metamorphosis and youth's transience.

(Darren See-it-ofsky)

With some of my favourite films of the past ten years or so to his name, Pi and The Fountain to name but two, I had huge expectations for Aranofsky's latest. In style Black Swan is visually redolent of The Wrestler with the frequent adoption of tracking shots and the use of grainy film stock which almost looks like it was shot on Digital. Yet Black Swan appears on many levels to depart from the familiarity of his previous work i.e. the theme of obsession is not truly present as it was in all of his other films. I was actually happy to see this development in the director's interests and you can definitely see him maturing more and more as now with each and every film he undertakes (although his upcoming re-boot of the X-men franchise with The Wolverine unfortunately might scupper this progression). The consistent and almost suffocating use of mirrors within the film help to truly reinforce the notion of Portman's other self as well as raising into question what is real and what isn't-what's the reflection and what's reality.  The use of hand held tracking shots during the dance numbers is absolutely stunning-dizzyingly mystifying in pace, inspiring awe and fear into the audience in equal measure. Although not as inventive or subversive in his use of cinematic technique as has been seen in his previous work this is a maturely and extremely competently directed feature which perfectly sets up the gradual transformation and suggested metamorphosis of Portman's character.

The draw of the actors' performances are arguably what will pull in the crowds to see this film due to Portman and Cassel's fame. Personally, I hate Natalie Portman (predominantly for being Queen Amadala/Padmé in Episodes 1-3) and was relatively livid when I heard of her casting in the lead role. However Cassel is easily one of my favourite modern actors and has excelled himself in everything he has starred in, with the regrettable exception of the God awful Satan, so there was still hope. Fortunately Portman is actually quite brilliant and I have a new found respect for the actress who took a large part in defecating on a sacred franchise along with George Lucas and Samuel L. Jackson. Although I know nothing about ballet whatsoever I felt that she looked like a true professional and I was extremely impressed with her balletic performances. The dance number in the closing scene literally took my breath away-the mixture of her sharp, lurid glares into the camera and the swooping troughs and peaks of the cameras oscillations resulted in a stunning finale. Cassel is as powerful and domineering on screen as anyone would expect from him and Kunis provides a competent and enticing performance as Nina's rival Lily.

I have heard lots of people saying they want to see Black Swan or that they went to see it based entirely on the fact that Portman and Kunis 'get it on'. Whilst they do, and whilst it is pretty great when they do, it is disappointing that is all most people seem to talk about after the film. The scene in question holds so much more narrative significance than just being an exhibition of two fit birds (*insert Swan pun here*) getting off. The sequence in question was actually pretty unnerving, not just because I knew every bloke in the room had a crippling erection, but for its importance in the relationship between the two characters and the protagonists confused perception of reality. By all means feel free to go and see this film for the sex scene but I would hope that people get more out of it than a cheap 20 second guffaw, because the sequence and indeed the film is much more important than that.

There is a lot more to Black Swan that I would love to write on but hasten not to in fear of plot spoilers so I think it is best to simply confirm what most people already suspected-this is a very good film. With a fascinating narrative exploration into a character's insanity and suffocation within a roll, Black Swan provides some truly fascinating and intense moments of shock, tension, repulsion, passion and violence. I would highly recommend you go and see what you think for yourself, you won't be disappointed.