Unit Title: Anatomy (RCGA102) Film Review 7: Black Swan (2010 Darren Aronofsky)

A splendid way to round off the shape-shifters season.

This is a film that touches on many subjects. For me the overall theme is the madness induced or indeed required in the pursuit of perfection, a notion which many consider unattainable.

It is perhaps why Aronofsky chose the ballet as the setting for his film. Dance is an Art form where there is a defined right and wrong, much more so than in other arts. Where success and perfection are measured by sacrifice, time and supreme physical exertion, often to the point of physical, and in the case of Black Swan mental harm.

Natalie Portman the female lead is beset by stresses from the very start of the film. From a cloyingly loving mother, who as it transpires is a frustrated ex-ballerina living vicariously

Unit Title: Anatomy (RCGA102) Film Review 7: Black Swan (2010 Darren Aronofsky)

through the career of her daughter. She hopes her skills as a dancer will be recognised by producer Vincent Cassel and so propel her to the heights of Prima Ballerina.

As the company auditions for roles in the newly announced production of Swan Lake the audience is introduced to Mila Kunis Lily. An energetic, seductive dancer who is completely different from Portmans straight laced, virginal character.

This meeting sets up the remainder of the film, with Portman having to embrace a darker side to properly portray the Swan Queen.

Portman, with the help of the much more modern-thinking Kunis starts a journey to unleash her Black Swan.

It is this turmoil between good and bad behaviour that leads Portman into madness. From imagining her Doppelgnger and a tryst with Kunis, Portmans insanity grows to greater heights.

The conclusion of the film sees Portman, blinded by her insecurities stabbing a jealous Kunis with a section of mirror. It is after this vicious attack that the transition from Angel to Demoness is complete and she can perform the Swan Queens darker half. Only to then realise that she stabbed herself, ending her life, as befitting the role. Fantastically deranged at all times, Darren Aronofskys ballet psycho-melodrama is a glittering, crackling, outrageously pickable scab of a film. Bradshaw P. (date unknown). French is overly condemning when he writes An exercise in the higher kitsch, a slick, pretentious film in which the polished surface is a distorting mirror. French P (date unknown).

Unit Title: Anatomy (RCGA102) Film Review 7: Black Swan (2010 Darren Aronofsky)

This film is beautifully shot, extremely well acted and, in places, very menacing. Aronofsky uses a very intimate cinematic style to show us, perhaps, that true perfection requires the Artist to push the boundaries of their art and their sanity. Manohla Dargis writes, Visceral and real even while its one delirious, phantasmagoric freakout. It is hard to disagree.

Critic Bibliography

Bradshaw P., (date unknown). Guardian, rottentomatoes.com

Dargis M., (date unknown). New York Times, rottentomatoes.com

French P., (date unknown). Guardian, rottentomatoes.com

Image List

Poster Image: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_swan_2010/