Black Swan (Aronofsky, 2010)

[ayaa1977]

There is absolutely no nudity in Black Swan yet they find it offensive. I guess groping also arouses them. The head giving scene could have been chopped and we wouldn't have missed much.

Yes there was not, and to his credit, Aronofsky has shown restriction when it comes to nudity in this film. But the sensuality of the film is heightened without ever having to let the actresses take off their cloth. If I may play the devil's advocate here, it is not about the scene between Mila Kunis's Lilly and Natalie Portman's Nina. There is also two very important masturbation scenes, and chopping would have effected the film a lot.

As you'd have guessed, I have seen the film, and it worked for me, though I admit that the screenplay is not the strongest thing about it, as the film got very ridiculous toward the end. To me the biggest thing I liked is Natalie Portman's Nina, she is just amazing. You feel for her and you can almost feel her suffering, as it was so visceral. She really conveyed the troubled Nina in the best way I can imagine. It is truly a role of a lifetime. Aronofsky's direction, although in your face and not subtle at all, succeeded in getting us in Nina's head and skin. The scenes when she is physically suffering from all the training, breaking her toenail, or when she accidentally peal the skin of her finger, those are horrific shots that he brilliantly depicted without having to make them overtly gross. Also the dance scenes and the way they shot make it seem as if we are in the thick of it not watching from afar. Those things plus the excellent supporting performances from Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder of all people. These all things make me forget the sloppy way the film handled Nina's final act. It is a film I want to see again, and that means that I am leaning more toward camp Shariq and KT, but not as much enthusiastic about it.

My Rating 3.5/5   

[ayaa1977]

Jim Carrey spoofing Black Swan on SNL. It is LMAO kind of hilarious

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bd7lttA5rVM&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/bd7lttA5rVM&rel=1</a>

[shariqq]

How crazy is this director? After months of prep and pre-production, including Hugh Jackman putting on pounds and pounds of muscle, Aronofsky has dropped out of Wolverine because it would require him to *stay away from his family for too long*. Seriously, wtf? Is this man ever going to get any big budget production ever again?

[animatedude]

well i'm so sorry but i think it's a very understandable reason and i'm glad he didn't do it..why would i do a poop X-men movie when you just made an Oscar worthy movie?

An industry friend explains: "Aronofsky was ambivalent about doing this project from the get-go, not EVER liking Chris McQuarrie's script, which he was reworking. So the success of Black Swan gave him enough clout to finally leave it without repercussions from Fox. Deadline Hollywood is feeding readers some company line that McQuarrie's script is not to blame, but it's one of the reasons [Aronofsky] is taking a walk."

[shariqq]

AK: any insider info on this that you can share?

[fizz]

This is a good thing, for both director and the film (the two would just never...gel), though it would have been interesting to see Aronofsky's take on things, I don't think it would have worked. My mind was always dreading he'd given us an Ang Lee like Hulk. Expect a lesser director (with some random credentials) to take over.

[madali]

Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

In a lot of ways, Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" resembles his debut, "Pi". Both are about people so obsessed about a subject they feel passionate about, that the line between reality and fiction is blurred in  their mind. In "Pi", the mathematician saw numbers and formulas in everything. In "Black Swan", the ballet dancer sees her role in the next play taking over her and the pressure of being perfect destroys the foundations of reality.

Nina's life has been ballet and only ballet. Her only real human connection seems to be with her overbearing mother who appears to have molded Nina to be a ballet dancer and nothing else. In a new play, she has to play a dual role, both of a innocent and pure character, the White Swan, and her evil twin, the Black Swan. Nina is mechanically perfect in the role of the former, but the play's director insists she does not have the emotional passion needed for the Black Swan. It is her attempt to better herself in her new role that causes cracks in her mind.

There is a similarity to all of Aronofsky's films and his success and failure of his works seems to be based on his playing around with a single basic form of film. Aronofsky could either repeat his films or try new things, but he seems to be doing an attempt somewhere in the middle, as if he is trying to make the perfect film of an original idea. "The Wrestler" was his most humane, realistic film, while "Pi" being the polar opposite of it. Everything else is in the middle, with those two extremes, to me, being his two great films. Somewhere in the middle of these two might be his true masterpiece, but he has yet to find it.

3/5