So it would seem the film world is all in a flapper after the Golden Globes. He won this, she won that, this film won whatsit. However, one of the biggest talks of tinsel town this month has been the, homely-girl-next-door actress, Natalie Portman. She has managed to sweep up a whirlwind of pre award season chatter with her performance in Darren Aronofsky's latest film, Black Swan, critics and fans goading her on for Best Actress, which she indeed won at the Golden Globes, and rightly so.
It is odd to use the following phrase in conjunction with Portman, an already established actress, but watching this film is like watching an actress being born, or in this case, reborn. Black Swan is a masterstroke of cinema, a blot of brilliance on the landscape of Hollywood that many a film snob like to make snide comments upon; Hollywood, an industry affected by sequel-titus and afflicted with reboots and remakes. And then Darren Aronofsky comes along, and presents us with this film. And what a film.
The reason for the usage of the earlier description of 'homely-girl-next-door', was to show the real transformation Portman bestows upon herself in her role as Nina Sayers, high rising ballet dancer who has dreams of being cast as the Swan Queen in the latest reimagining of the infamous ballet, Swan Lake. She begins as a porcelain gentle and fragile girl with an over bearing mother figure, their relationship showing parallels to the destructive mother-daughter relationship of Brian De Palma's also brilliant, Carrie.
Nina comes across as an isolated figure, regularly sat by herself in the backstage corridors of the dance halls, girls giving her snide comments and malicious giggles. But although fragile, there is a hard rigid mask to her that encases the character of Nina within her own secular world. From the outset the character is one of paradoxes, hard and private yet apologetic and sympathetic. When she manages to reach her dream and is cast as the Swan Queen, this inner character of inconsistencies begins to come untethered as multiple dominant figures impinge on her sanity. Nina is torn in different directions that only allow for further dots of insanity to weasel their way into this private and enclosed world she strives to live in.
But fill a bowl with too much water and it will eventually overspill, and this is just what happens, Portman spectacularly delving into the over spilling psyche of a damaged girl who cannot cope with the controlling figures leering over her. As stated, Natalie Portman becomes a whole new actress, a powerhouse of acting talent with the watchful eyes of Aronofsky directing her to perfection. As the transformation from white swan to black afflicts Portman's character, we are instead presented with an altogether different swan; a grey swan, a swan of madness and disaster, a swan who is attacked by horrific hallucinations that terrorise Portman and her audience in equal measure.
Nina dips in-between the different coloured worlds and their rules, finding sexual adventure in the world of the black swan, brought about through Vincent Cassel's Swan Lake director, and Mila Kunis' seductive fellow ballet dancer. And as she falls further down the rabbit hole, we find her constantly trying to climb back out, back to the sensibilities of the white swan and her formulaic box shaped world that she inhabited prior to her Swan Queen casting.
Aronofsky brings his touches of genius to the film-making, elevating what would have already been a fascinating film into a classic piece of cinema. His camera drops us suddenly and abruptly into his claustrophobic narrative world from the outset, the camera always in close, trapping the audience within Nina's self-created world and keeping us in touch with a character who is so out of touch. It creates a rollercoaster ride for the audience and makes for an incredibly intense film as the moments of surreal hallucinations tear holes in what would have been a consistent narrative.
But rather wonderfully this inconsistent narration brings about ripples of uncertainty as we are sucked into a dimension of doppelgangers and untrusted shadowed reflections. It is hard to find a single scene in the film where there is not a mirror, presenting us with as many different versions of Nina as she seems to have of herself in her head. And yet again praise upon Portman for giving us this believable portrayal of so many characters wrapped up within a single entity. The final complete transformation into the black swan is an incredible moment to behold.
Of course further praise goes to Aronofsky for his pitch perfect direction of Portman and his control of the camera. The initial opening dream sequence has the camera wrap in amongst the tittering feet of Portman, his hand held shots strangely not tearing away the glamour of ballet but improving it. With his sweeping and up-close camera, something that could have torn down the veils of the magic of ballet manoeuvres but instead escalates it into even more of a poetic art form. These scenes are then juxtaposed against the realistic back stage breaks and tears of the performer's feet and the strain these athletic bodies are put under once the magnetism of the dancing has faded.
Black Swan is every bit a Darren Aronofsky film as his past endeavours. As he has stated, it is a follow up to his previous film The Wrestler and Black Swan does indeed play out like his sequel, both films delving into similar themes. The pocket-marked and scarred hulking form of Mickey Rourke is now replaced with the delicately torn and coming apart at the seams figure of Portman's ballet dancer, Rourke's damaged heart replaced with Portman's damaged mind. But then it could be stated that the dark moments of the film that look into the recesses of a person's mental state as they fall apart under the pressures of their God given talent, has more in connection with what Aronofsky presented us with in his debut feature film, Pi.
It is easy to sit here all day and glorify Black Swan but it is a film that simply has to be witnessed to be believed. At times disturbingly scary and others emotionally intense, it is a masterpiece that is brought about through superb performances and incredible direction that will suck you into the unstable world that the film sets out to create.
By the time the credits are rolling you'll find yourself stuck within the landscape of Nina's broken mind, victim to the same limbo she has been afflicted by, with the lasting effects of Darren Aronofsky's intrusive film washing over you. In short, Black Swan is a massive film that deserves a massive audience.
5/5
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