Black Swan Review- by Michael Carlisle

Title: Black Swan

 Year: 2010
Director: Darren Aronofsky


Country: U.S
Language: English

Until Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)came out with Black Swan I would have never thought a film about ballet could be so dark, gripping, emotional and intense. Black Swan takes you on a wild ride of emotions, especially of paranoia and fear. It shows the dark side of perfection, control and ego.  It's a masterpiece of great madness and great beauty. It is truly a great artistic accomplishment ,


The nature of Ballet is one of perfection, it demands the kind of physical and mental training that could potentially consume one’s life. Ballet is a grand art, built on destroying boundaries and distorting reality. To perform even the simplest of ballets is no easy task, for it is extremely draining to even the person with the smallest of roles. We wonder why we see so many anorexic ballet performers, we ponder the idea; do madmen take ballet or does ballet make madmen?  Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is one who is slowly crumbling from her fight between the ideals and realities that Ballet presents to her.

Was ballet Nina’s choice? Surely when we meet her mother, played by Barbara Hershey, we get the feeling that Nina has been sheltered most of her life. Indeed the apartment they share feels more like a cell to Nina and when she has a conversation with her mother it seems that she is not quite in tune to reality. Nina has been practicing ballet most of her life, but it is very doubtful that it was always her personal choice to practice ballet. Indeed there are many parents nowadays who have great expectations about their children and will do anything to make sure these expectations are met, regardless of how the expectations affect the child or conflict with reality.

Natalie Portman’s performance as the slowly self destructive Nina is quite impressive. She manages to go from one emotional extreme to the other without skipping a beat. Her role was very physically demanding yet she was able to conquer the challenge. I had some doubts about her, as I’ve only seen her as Padame in the Star Wars prequels, but her performance in Black Swan reminded me that I shouldn’t judge an actress just because of a few bad films they have been in.

Nina dances for a company at the Lincoln Centre in New York which has decided to master the old Ballet classics, among these is the well known Swan Lake. Nina wishes to be the lead for this production but the director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), thinks she’s too sweet to play the lead, the black swan. Thomas Leroy is an egotistical man who is very sexual, and uses his power over the ballerinas to get them n bed. Nina is posed with a problem; does she let go off her innocence in order to get the part or remain attempting to be a “perfectly” good. What is perfection?

Like the other Aronofsky film I reviewed, The Wrestler, the main character in this film has such a need for greatness that it becomes self destructive. Tragically many people find a need to be “perfect” in one area in their lives, which leads to being worse off in many other areas of their lives. I’ve met people who desire to look “perfect” only to become anorexics who need to miss school to go to therapy, or doctor’s appointments because of malnutrition. I’ve met people who are so obsessed with doing well in school that they miss out on a social life, and more importantly (in terms of health) sleep. When one becomes obsessed with perfection, they dig themselves into an early grave. For there is no such thing as “perfection”. Perfection is a mountain that has a summit which cannot be reached, the higher you climb the higher the summit becomes.

Lily (Mila Kunis) is a new dancer who recognizes the beauty in imperfection. She is confident, bold and loose. She does what she wants, when she wants, with whoever she wants. Lily is the exact opposite of Nina and this fascinates her. Lily should be the role model for every ballerina who strives to be great, as in the traditional sense, Lily should not be considered “great”. Although, at least she doesn’t lose her mind from trying to achieve a false sense of “perfection” She knows it’s bullshit and she doesn’t care.

 The lighting is very essential to the makeup of the emotions of this film, as well as the incredible score. The score is perfect for setting up the emotional intensity of the scenes, it made Black Swan much more creepy. Aranofsky brings a lot of  dark mood to the film with his fluent and poetic use of the camera which is as graceful as the dancers on the film are. I can't say enough about the Mise-En-Scene and how well it contributes to the atmosphere of Aranofsky’s genius because there are so many spectacular things about this film, the costume design, the makeup, the use of colour.

In conclusion, Black Swan not a very simple film and there are edits that make some scenes somewhat confusing but a masterpiece is not simple entertainment. It seems impossible to make a good film about insanity without confusing the viewer a little bit, who completely understand inanity? Black Swan is a dive into the soul, it is a deep search for morality and understanding. It is a film that will remain on people's minds for years to come. I suggest watching The Red Shoes first however as it’s quite similar, though I feel Black Swan discusses the nature of ballet more thoroughly that its 40’s counterpart.  It is the answer to the question "is perfection worth the price? Praise it! 4.5/5