Black Swan Reviews

I personally do not think this movie the best movie of 2010, I did prefer The King's Speech and The Social Network. But overall, Black Swan is a very, very good film.

Albeit one with cracks. While the film succeeds as a character study, with a compelling lead character, there are some occasional logic and originality lapses, not in the script though as the script is very original that still holds the level of intensity in the slower parts, and with exception of Nina and perhaps Lily some of the characters could have done with more depth.

Those flaws aside, I loved it. But I can understand why people mayn't like it, I especially have a good friend who found it ham-fisted and found it left a bad taste in her mouth, it is often very adult and graphic with some sexual content. Anyone expecting Swan Lake are better off finding a video production or buying a ticket to somewhere like the Royal Ballet, this is not Swan Lake but a melodramatic and psychological character study revolving around a ballerina and the production of that particular ballet.

I remember reading that Darcy Bussell(who I respect) criticised the movie for an inaccurate portrayal of ballerinas or somewhat. I am not saying she is wrong, but I think it depends on the ballerina.

Even with any problems the film has, it is beautiful, tragic, haunting and nightmarish not to mention somewhat thought-provoking. The camera work with its contrasting black and whites to create contrasting moods is great, complete with stunning costumes, scenery and sets. The choreography is good and you do feel the sweat that the performers exude when performing, but I would have liked more close-ups of it perhaps.

The music is haunting and melancholic and the snippets of the Tchaikovsky ballet that you hear throughout are a delight to hear, but again it could have been more, and the finale is dark and exhilarating. The acting is mostly very good. Vincent Cassel is appropriately slimy, Barbara Hershey is terrific as the controlling mother and Mila Kunis is surprisingly wonderful in her meatiest role yet. But what made Black Swan are Darren Aranofsky's bravura direction and the mesmerising titular performance of Natalie Portman.

In conclusion, a very good film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

El cine de Darren Aronofsky puede resultar raro si se le da una revisión a todas sus películas. Por un lado puede pegarla en ciertas instancias pero en otras sinceramente no se ve a la altura, y más allá de su característico uso de la cámara en mano, sus películas más aclamadas por la crítica especializada suelen tener varios aspectos en común si hablamos de lo escrito.
Con lo último voy a que, si bien, sabe hacer historias diferentes la una con la otra, siempre guarda como una especie de parentesco con su forma de meter un ‘’debacle’’ en sus personajes, teniendo dichas películas, este principio.
En Black Swan, la cual está inspirada en la famosa obra Perfect Blue, del director Satoshi Kon, vemos mucho énfasis en este asunto; una chica a la que le apasiona el ballet, y que se encuentra compitiendo por la oportunidad de su vida de participar en la tan prestigiosa obra de El Lago de los Cisnes, pero con el pasar del tiempo se va enterando poco a poco que el mundo en el que está metida resulta ser más siniestro de lo que aparenta.
No es ningún misterio que Aronofsky sabe elegir un buen soundtrack para sus producciones, y en este caso no podemos decir lo contrario, ya que no solo la música usada especialmente para la película se siente adecuado, sino que la música clásica que también se emplea siempre resulta muy agradable de escuchar, y más en una película que precisamente trata sobre ballet.
Los trucos visuales, ya sea con los cortes para jugar con las perspectivas o con la iluminación, logran sumergir bien al espectador en toda la decadencia emocional que se está representando, y esta misma decadencia se hace muy llevadera al mostrarnos cómo siempre están sucediendo cosas, haciendo que la experiencia sea enganchante y siempre tengas una morbosa curiosidad por lo que le pasará al personaje.
Mientras tanto, y metiéndome ya con lo más importante, se entiende el punto que se está haciendo al sernos presentado el setting; las bailarinas llegan a ser bastante egoístas entre sí y muchas veces la competencia puede llegar también a ‘’comerse’’ mentalmente a cualquiera que esté allí metida, y el punto que se intenta dejar claro con la protagonista es bueno, mostrando el cómo el sentido de la competencia así como la presión constante que se sufre tanto por esta como por la exigencia de los entrenadores es algo que lleva a muchas chicas a la misma depresión. Por otra parte, es acertada la manera en la que muestran la forma en la que muchas veces, los entrenadores se aprovechan de sus alumnas para sacarles ventajas sexuales incluso.
Lamentablemente, esto es lo único positivo que tengo para decir de la película, ya que su problemas, radican dolorosamente desde sus mismos aciertos.
Primero, siento que la película intenta de forma muy forzosa parecerse a Perfect Blue, pero el problema es que no cuenta con el suficiente material como para emplear sus conceptos. Con esto último intento decir que en varias ocasiones vemos un montón de ilusiones, simbolismos, y metáforas visuales, que dan a entender que estamos enfrente de una ‘’lucha interna’’ de nuestra protagonista, y ese es mi principal lío: nunca hay realmente una base de la que podamos sacar esto. Todo lo que vemos en la película se debe a la interacción de la protagonista con el escenario que la rodea, ella no está en una situación de confrontación consigo misma. En Perfect Blue esto sí se veía debido a que Mima tenía que luchar contra su pasado y el ir perdiendo de a poco su identidad, cosa que acá no existe puesto que primero, a Nina la vemos desde el inicio como una bailarina, lo que evita que podamos ver alguna lucha contra su pasado o una identidad desde un inicio establecida para luego dar paso a alguna exploración acerca del tópico que rodea esta idea, y segundo, no hay una auténtica decadencia psicológica propia de la protagonista, sino que lo único que vemos al respecto es cómo es constantemente torturada mentalmente, pero no es como que sean sus elecciones las que la lleven a esta decadencia, más bien es una serie de eventos desafortunados y el encontrarse con puros personajes hijos de puta lo que termina por hacerla ’descender’. A lo que quiero llegar con todo esto es a que, si lo que querían era criticar tanto al mundo del espectáculo como a las elecciones de las mismas personas dentro de ese mundo, no tuvieron que poner a un personaje principal que está todo el tiempo sufriendo y que por lo visto no es capaz de dejar de llorar.
Hablando de eso último, otra de las diferencias con Perfect Blue viene desde que, en la primera, teníamos una protagonista que cae tan bajo al punto de recurrir a vender su cuerpo a una marca pornográfica, y acá solo estamos presenciando a una bailarina de ballet que está una hora con cuarenta y ocho minutos llorando porque el mundo del ballet resultó ser un duro reto el cual afrontar, y puede retractarse y volver a empezar en cualquier momento, no es como que ahora su imagen quede manchada de por vida contrastando con una inocente que corrompió ella misma, como en la superior Perfect Blue.
A todo esto, ¿se supone que debo sentirme mal por la chica cuando cosas malas le pasan? Quiero decir, no es como que ella no se encuentre en un contexto muy específico y esté haciendo un escándalo por su pasión y por las enormes ganas que posee de quedarse con el papel. Y esto último lo entendería si al menos esta fuera una historia de auto-superación o de ‘’afrontar las dificultades de la vida’’ como The Wrestler, pero temo decir que si esto era lo que querían, no les salió muy bien que digamos si consideramos el hecho de que nunca hay una lucha interna por superarse en Nina, y el que nunca vemos un cambio en ella, y por el contrario, solo la vemos sufrir pasar por cosas turbias, relaciones rotas con seres queridos, y demás tortura que por alguna razón debe hacernos pensar que Nina obtuvo un desarrollo o qué sé yo.
Tampoco es como que lo que se esté contando sea de tanta trascendencia, y es que por favor, ¿a quién le importa el ballet? Si el escenario fuera dentro de una mafia o si necesariamente tiene que ser un deporte, una plantilla de un equipo de fútbol (no digo que el ballet sea un deporte, o que no sea importante, solo tomo en cuenta la atención que recibe en nuestra sociedad), sería mucho más interesante el explorarlo debido a que bueno, a la gente le importa más el fútbol u otros deportes, pero el ballet no es algo tan fuerte o de tanto peso en nuestra realidad actual como para querer dar tanto énfasis a los problemas que se dan dentro de ese contexto.
La cosa empeora cuando nos fijamos en el resto de personajes, los cuales, fuera de los principales, actúan como simples herramientas para detallar el setting. Y para el caso tampoco es como que los principales brillen mucho que digamos.
Thomas es más como tu típico entrenador exigente al que la película intenta mostrarnos como un Fletcher cuando en realidad ni es tan duro con sus métodos, y resulta ser solo la protagonista llorando por ser, como el mismo Thomas llega a decir en la cinta, débil. Como punto aparte, todo este asunto de él cachondeando con su alumna hace un punto entendible, pero cuando nos enteramos que la relación entre estos dos resulta ser algo más serio y no un simple cachondeo, pasaríamos a argumentar que dicha relación carece de una base sólida y nunca es realmente indagada, así como el mismo personaje de Thomas, no sabemos realmente mucho de él fuera de su oficio y su artificial relación con Nina.
La chica con la que Nina mantiene un acto lésbico nunca se llega a sostener de algo que no sea intentar dar una especie de punto rarito acerca de las ilusiones de Nina, pero de eso ya hablaré más adelante, de momento quédense con que este personaje jamás es explorado a fondo y su punto es uno bastante ambiguo como para considerarla un personaje del todo ‘funcional’.
Beth llega a sentirse como un simple recurso que la película utiliza para sobre-dramatizar la situación. Ya saben: se siente remplazada por Nina y se termina suicidando para enturbiar más las cosas pese a que esto no es algo que pase con tanto frecuencia y la construcción de escenario nunca se encarga de enclarecer esto, y además es bastante evidente que se trata de otra forma (bastante forzada y repentina para el caso) que tiene la película de hacer sentir mal a la protagonista.
Al final el único personaje más o menos rescatable es la madre, pero incluso ella, además de ser un personaje del que nunca sabemos tanto realmente, sufre bastante de este problema que ya mencioné que tiene la cinta de sobre-dramatizar las cosas, siendo su relación con su hija muy raramente inestable (por decirlo de alguna forma) para mi gusto.
Lo peor de la película, y lo que representa la verdadera gota que colma el vaso, es lo pretenciosa que se siente la película al querer transmitir ideas.
Procedo a explicarme: se supone que en el filme hay un mensaje relacionado a la naturaleza o la identidad, y la única razón de porqué podría percibir esto así es porque ya vi Perfect Blue; de lo contrario, solo vería simbolismo sin dirección o sentido.
Seamos francos, ¿alguien realmente entendió el significado de la chica suicidándose por alguna extraña razón en el final? ¿Alguien entendió qué quiso decir la película con todo esto del falso asesinato a una compañera de parte de Nina? ¿Qué me dicen de los cuadros de la casa hablándole a la chica? ¿Y qué hay de la transformación de Nina en un literal cisne? Todas estas supuestas metáforas comparten algo en común, y es que cualquier tema profundo, metafísico, o cualquier meta-comentario que se esté intentando comunicar, queda con una exploración totalmente anulada debido a que nunca son cosas establecidas directamente por el guion, y lo único que estamos viendo es una historia sobre ballet. No un estudio psicológico, no una exploración temática, no una indagación en la naturaleza humana; solo una historia de ballet que por tener a una protagonista teniendo problemas emocionales en un contexto turbio pretende tener un significado ‘’profundo’’, cuando nunca se está elaborando en algún mensaje más allá de que el mundo del ballet puede ser algo turbio y feo.
Lo que en Perfect Blue era algo más críptico, en Black Swan es basura pretenciosa, puesta para aparentar que debemos escarbar en alguna enseñanza solo porque la primera película tenía algo de metáforas visuales y esas cosas majas que a todos los casuales pretenciosos incapaces de analizar un verdadero simbolismo les encanta, ¿acaso no tengo razón, muchachos?
Así que sí, es una mierda, no vale la pena, y poco y nada podemos sacar de algo que intenta ser Perfect Blue, pero que fracasa prácticamente en casi todo lo que se propone.
Si quieren algo interesante relacionado al ballet, váyanse a ver Princess Tutu; y si por casualidad les interesa ver algo bueno que haya sacado este director, existe The Wrestler o en su defecto Requiem for a Dream.
Por mi parte, termino mi labor acá diciendo que esto es de las peores cosas que ha sacado Aronofsky en su carrera como director, y curiosamente es de lo que más aplaudió el público, ojo ahí.

3/10

This is an incredible film from Darren Aronofsky. Natalie Portman's character is a very interesting study. Beautiful.

'Black Swan' is the best film of 2010, it features some incredibly disturbing moments of sex and violence

But that's irrelevant to it being great, or is it? 'Black Swan' focuses on disturbing imaginations of the main character Nina (Natalie Portman), who has visions of death and monstrosity! She is performing in Swan Lake as the White Swan but ends up turning into the Black Swan

'Black Swan' features great acting from Natalie Portman and the supporting cast including Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis! It features an unpleasant but serious script and some intelligent directing by Darren Aronofsky!

well i can say that this movie was absolutely perfect u feel much exited when u r watching it for the first time or watching over and over cuz it looks much realistic just like a true life story i dont know why some people think that its reaaaly scary and stuff but its not ,its unique just a little scary but not that much, from the best things i like in this movie the amazing performance of natalie and Mila as well but of course natalie's one cuz its just a masterpiece!!: the great dancing, in mastering the role the innocent shy girl and also the make out scene :3 but i think the best part in all this movie was the black swan dancing scene even it wasnt realistic like she thinked the magical wings transformation came with great dancing that was realy awesome :D .

There is one massive reason for watching this film. Natalie Portman.

This film takes you on the haunting journey of a naive and innocent ballet dancer as she embraces the darker sides of life in order to fulfil her dream role.

Black Swan will make you feel uneasy, it will shock you, it will suck you in and you not be able to look away. It is a unique piece of film- making, and it's final scene is perhaps one of the best final scenes in cinematic history.

Natalie Portman's performance is absolutely stunning and easily deserved her Oscar. The film is definitely not for everyone, but for those who can cope with it will have to respect her career-topping role.

There are part's of this film i like, love and hate! It will divide people, I didn't know what to think after seeing this film, but given time I could see how special it is. Viewing comes with a warning, but viewing is essential - if you can stomach it!

I started watching this movie out of boredom, for a few minutes before sleep and I found myself shivering at 4 o'clock in the morning wondering what the heck happened... I knew Darren Aronofsky was good after watching "Requiem for a Dream" and "The Fountain" but I didn't expect this... Anyway if someone stole the whole show that was Natalie Portman... she delivers the performance of a lifetime. Forget "Star Wars", "V for Vendetta" and keep a bit of "Leon" and "Garden State"...You are not the best young actress at the moment but you are definitely on the top one! If Natalie doesn't deserve an Oscar for her portraying of Nina Sayers then nobody ever did. This movie takes the story of dual personalities to a whole new level of unknown, which is beautifully portrayed by Natalie Portman, taking her to a spot where the Oscar doesn't look like just a dream anymore. It's a touching story, based around a small group of characters, and that's a place where Aronofsky is at his best (i.e. Requiem for a dream). Also, it would be unfair to forget Vincent Cassel, who showed himself in a totally different manner creating a strong, patriarchal character. In the end, this work of art is worth every single dollar and minute you spend on it. It's a guaranteed classic!

When the credits first rolled at the end of Black Swan all I felt was disappointment mixed with a little anger. It wasn’t the film I had expected and I felt a little cheated.
But then I went home and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And a week later I was still thinking about it. It’s become ingrained in my mind and the more I think about it the more impressed by it I become. That’s how subconsciously powerful it is.

First off, I have to reiterate the fact that this film is not for everyone. Like Aronofsky’s other work it is dark, it is brutal and it is taxing on your emotions. I got the impression that a lot of people in the cinema were there to watch what could be an Oscar-winning performance from Natalie Portman without realising what sort of film they were about to see. And it was interesting to see how many distressed faces there were when the lights came up at the end.

Natalie Portman’s turn as the titular ballet dancer is fragile, sad and demure and watching her descent into madness is upsetting and troubling. From the first glimpses of a possible double in the opening half hour to her full on psychopathic frenzy in the last you really watch her unravel and gain insights into her broken mind.
This is what the film does best – portrays a deteriorating mental state through hallucinations, sounds and actions. It becomes difficult towards the end to know what is real and what her mind has created in the effort for her to become the Black Swan Queen.

The supporting cast are perfunctory and somewhat clichéd, which was one of the main problems I had with the film (the other was the clichéd use of mirrors/reflections). Mila Kunis’ Lily in particular seems to be purely a token opposite for us to judge Nina by; her strengths are Nina’s weaknesses and vice versa. Vincent Cassell’s Thomas is passionate and sleazy but ultimately two dimensional.
The shining light amid the supporting cast is Barbara Hershey, a terrifying and domineering force on Nina as her mother, who seeks to control and pacify her only daughter.

So, since that initial disappointment and anger I am desperate to see Black Swan again.

I'm really and truely amazed by this movie. It didn't come short of my expections. It's the kind of genre I love most: dance, gloomy, thriller and a bit of self-discovery.
All of the cast did an awesome job, but i have to say that I'm fascinated by Natalie Portman. She's such a gifted actress. By the way she took two years of ballet lessons, just to be able to take the lead role of the Black Swan. Nevertheless, to me it seemed like she has done nothing else all her life. The only remark I could possibly have is that the sexual scenes are a bit too explicit, they could have been screened a bit more descretely. But by and by it was astonishing and the suspense never subsided. The ending was also just perfect.
We see the stuggles of a girl becoming a woman in an overly demanding environment, and above all she's being pulled to different sides, each demanding of her to do the opposite. She finds it hard to find her true self and please everyone. Her aiming for perfection, ironically lead to her destruction, but there's some sort of pleasure in that too. It's seems to be the only way to perform the "Black Swan" to the extreme acutness.

Black Swan tells the story of one fragile woman’s dream coming true and quickly descending into a nightmare of her own making. Given the numerous headlines we have seen of artistic types having a tenuous grip on reality, Black Swan seems all the more tragic. Would no one help this poor lamb free herself from the slaughter?

The general fallacy of most viewers going into Black Swan is that it is somehow about a ballerina going crazy because of her commitment to a role, and a film steeped in eroticism with a hint of thriller and horror mashed in for good measure. But our ballerina is clearly struggling to maintain her grip on reality from the first moment that we see her. Her opening dream sequence in which she is the star of Swan Lake is a prophetic vision of the doom to come. As she dances with the demonic creature that has split her into two personalities and sends her to her eventual death, we can’t help but get the feeling that this girl takes this story far too seriously.

And then there are the moments on the subway or walking home from work where people’s faces transform into her own and back by the time she takes a second look. Surely, this is not the norm for most people. Or the way that her room and relationship with her mother are so repressed and infantilized. She has never truly matured past the age of, oh, twelve, let’s say.

Nina is not going crazy, Nina is already crazy. She has already taken the story of the White and Black swans into her soul and when she lands the lead role in Swan Lake she has already decided to re-imagine her life and the main players in it as the characters from the ballet. She possibly even invented entire characters to fit in with the roles and emotions needed to fulfill her self-selected destiny.

I was always riveted and intrigued watching this artist strive for perfection at all costs, allowing her fragile mental space to crumble as she seeks to free herself and mature as a dancer. Why did everyone just let her continue on? Could no one see that she wasn't just stressed, but having a complete emotional and mental breakdown? As Nina descends deeper into her paranoid schizophrenic state aspects within the film such as character traits and visual motifs change accordingly. Look no further than Mila Kunis’ Lily, a character who seems to be three different people depending on the prism through which Nina sees and relates to her.

There appears to be about three different Lily’s. The first is the femme fatale of the ballet company. She’s not as precision perfect as Nina, she’s more sensual, dangerous and care-free. She is a threat in a luscious package. The second is the frenemy that helps Nina adopt her Black Swan identity. Lily opens the floodgates for Nina to explore her latent sexuality, going out, having a good time and making stupid decisions. And the last is the woman who is gunning for Nina’s prime time slot. The proverbial Eve to Nina’s Margot. And Kunis’ performance is fiercely committed and smoothly changes from one to another. I wish that there would have been room for her in the supporting actress race at this past year’s Academy Awards as her character is made all the harder and more difficult to pull of since she must transition between these extremes within the same scene quite often. That's no small feat for anyone, let alone the girl from That 70's Show.

And, of course, there is Nina’s mother – a woman who gave up her dreams of being a prima ballerina to raise Nina. A narcissistic mother-from-hell that sees her daughter as a vehicle to live through her dreams and an enemy to be controlled and repressed, their relationship is the kind of sick borderline-incestuous co-dependent emotional mess that no one should live through. Does Nina’s mother know that her daughter is so painfully delicate mentally? And if she does, why did she never help her? She is the kind of stage mother who ignores their child’s own desires and dreams and forces them into a field they might not want to go into. She controls every aspect of her daughter’s life and has an emotional freak out when Nina starts to gain her own independence through the Swan Lake role. Barbara Hershey nails the role. Her taunt face is a mask to hide her own perfectionism and unstable mental state that she has inevitably thrust upon her daughter.

And in Natalie Portman’s central performance Black Swan has a heroically committed anchor to spin out all of its craziness. I love Portman’s lost-little-girl face in extreme close-up during the dancing sequences. As Aronofsky’s camera spins, twirls and moves with her character during rehearsals, Portman’s face expresses nothing but an eager-to-please-and-be-loved earnestness that feels so real for such a brittle dancer like herself. Portman is never anything but perfectly on point, emotionally speaking. Her newly made body – dangerously thin and sinewy – gives the perfect illusion of a dancer’s body. And the way she has learned to move makes her passable in the role. Much as been said about whether or not it is Portman in the dancing sequences, and since so many of them are framed from her shoulders up, I would say that yes that is indeed Portman. No one ever denied that she had a body double, so any controversy about her having a body double for full body dancing scenes is moot. She may lack great technique, but she is plausible in the role.

Black Swan’s screenplay may trade in clichés with its story beats and sometimes clumsy dialogue, but it always feels real enough in its phantasmagoric hallucinations and paranoid freak outs. The hand held camera always makes us one with Nina; we are always in her head from the start to the end. We are complicit in every thought and action she undergoes, and it can be a visceral, bruising experience.