Black Swan

IMDB
First time viewed:Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Naomi, Tyler

Finally saw Black Swan. And I loved it of course. It's a deceptively simple tale about the hell artists put themselves through for their art.

Natalie Portman was great. The audience is with the main character Nina all the way. We are inside her head from the start and unfortunately she is not the most reliable narrator as her judgement of reality slowly distorts throughout the film.

Aronofsky has made films like Pi and The Wrestler which are down and dirty, almost documentary styled and also Requiem for a Dream and The fountain which are more classically composed and very deliberate in their technique. This film feels like a mixture between the two but ultimately has more in common with documentary side of filmmaking but with more fantastic elements at play. It was interesting to see he just used some 16mm cameras and the canon 5D and 7D. It does have that grainy look and a beautiful muted palette where the only warm colour is the red of blood.

Like The Wrestler a lot of the film feels like we are following the lead character walking around and watching extreme close ups of their face as events unfold and how the react. I loved that we never had to see the usual wide shots of the ballet performances at the end, instead the camera always stays close to Nina, both onstage and off and we only ever get to see what she sees.

And what she sees is not necessarily what is real. It was very Cronenberg-esque, with all the physical manifestation body metamorphosis stuff. Her inner emotions begin to break out and transform the world around her as she sinks deeper into character. It certainly keeps the audience on their toes. The build up to the finale was quite tense.

For me, the unsung hero of this film is the sound design. There is a lot of overt stuff going on, but there are some more subtle things hidden underneath too that just work with the music to push the tone of the scenes and add these little tense moments. It's a very leading design but I loved it and can't wait to go back to hear what I may have missed out on before.

I have more to say but I'll leave it at this for now because no doubt I'll be seeing this again to further clarify some of my ideas about it. Definitely a fine film though, so go see it now.