Black Swan - 2010
"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often" - Winston Churchill
Black Swan is a fantastically deranged psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky. After "Requiem for a dream", "The fountain" and "The wrestler", he came again with another masterpiece. Casting Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and one of my favorite actors Vincent Cassel, in one of the best female-breakdown's movies of all time. Everyone in this film fits perfectly in his role.
So the movie is about a ballerina named Nina (Natalie Portman), who's struggling to win a leading role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". And the one who gonna give her that role is Thomas (Vincent Cassel), the artistic director of the company. An autocratic man, who find Nina too perfect for the black swan. He want her to free herself from the techniques, and dance with her feelings. He told her once :"Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go". But in the other side, there's Lily (Mila Kunis), a serious rival for the role. She is loose and confident. She can easily get the role of the Black Queen if Thomas wanted to.
Before analysing each character, i want to thank Natalie for her tremendous performance. Which is the best of her career. She developed a darkly-absurd personality, by delving deep into her own dark side.
And we must also thank Darren Aronofsky for the good direction as usual. I like his clever use of the mirrors that helped to show the multiplied identity of Nina.
Trailer
Initial release: November 30, 2010 (New York City)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Box office: 329.4 million USD
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actress...
Screenplay: Andres Heinz, Mark Heyman, John J. McLaughlin
Nina was so quiet and closed to herself, she barely talk to the other ballerinas of the company. I can see also that she's sexually naïve. For that, Thomas and Lily seemed to be a real challenge for her. This combination of characteristics gave her the role of the "White queen", which is not enough. And Nina is going to pay a lot to realise her dream. Usually we find this kind of situations in a martial arts's movie. Where the main character sacrifice his time and his relationships to win the final fight against the one who killed his brother (a loved one), and go marry the woman he love. I don't like those movies anymore. They all tell the same stories. The "Black Swan", however, is something really special (at least for me). Showing how hard is the job of the young ballerinas: They're suffering a lot mentally and physically, to finally give us (the spectators) the most pure, fascinating and masterful show ever.
So the question is :"How far is she ready to go, to be able to play the character's evil twin ? The black swan". Most people have limits, they can't lose everything, just for this role. But not Nina. "I wanna be perfect", that's what she always say. And she mean it. Her life was changed forever when the "Ideal" took ascendancy over the "reality". She became struggling with visual hallucinations and anxiety attacks. She started losing her mind while trying to lose herself into this piece of art. She got this obsessive perfectionism which threatens to destroy her.
The chemistry between Vincent, Mila and Natalie took the movie to the its highest level. The film wouldn't be this good if Aronofsky have replaced one of the three actors by another one. And the chances of Natalie winning the oscar that year would be surely diminished. Because the way Thomas and Lily influenced Nina, pushed Natalie to her limits. All the quotes that you're gonna like in this movie are said by Thomas. He had a way of talking that remind me of J.K.Simmons in "Whiplash" and S.L.Jackson in "Pulp Fiction". None of the ballerinas could resist his charm. And Lily, somehow was the force that helped Nina to unlock the vitality and the strength with seductive ouvertures of friendship. She was independant and wild. Not like Nina. In fact, Lily is all Nina is not. And that's what makes her a good "Black Swan". Which make Thomas confused about who's best for the role. Because he knows that the Swan Lake require a dancer who can play both the white (innocent and grace) and the black swan (guile and sensual). And he knows that Nina is hiding some evilness inside. I don't know whether he was aware or not, but he gave Nina a mental training not a physical one. This kind of training that made her frighteningly perfect.
