Black Swan

[pete]

what fucking brilliant camerawork.
I liked how stupid everything sounded on paper and how everything was pulled off.  I also liked how all the gory double takes and psychotic episodes masked a pretty simple fairytale type of story.  I also thought natalie portman was good enough to freak out without being hysterical.  or maybe she is hysterical in your book - but I can't stand it when an actor becomes unwatchable from screaming and overacting too much, however "Realistic" he was supposed to be.  natalie portman and her character never had the problem.  her motivation was always pretty strong and never alienated anyone.
those handheld tracking shots did good.

[RegularKarate]

I think it's a really good movie, but it still failed for me.

I wish I could pinpoint what went wrong (I don't necessarily disagree with Pic, but I don't really know if that's why it didn't work as well for me).

Acting, Camera-work, sound-design, editing, set-design... all were fantastic.
It just didn't make me feel anything.  The only feelings I got from this were awe at the above elements and disgust at the physical pain she goes though.  There was no hope, love, sympathy, or regret (all of which I felt during The Wrestler).

[SiliasRuby]

Saw this a couple of days ago. Understandably brilliant and had the feel of a horror film from the first frame. Sad and compelling. But like RK I didn't have an emotional cartharsis like I thought I would.

[modage]

Saw this a 2nd time tonight.  The last 20 minutes are just amazing. 

Q: Who is the woman that Natalie Portman keeps seeing in the film?  It's not her and it's not Mila Kunis.  She appears a handful of times incl. during the hookup scene.

[Stefen]

Visually it's a marvel. A technical masterpiece. It's like an A.S.C. wet dream. I can't wait to watch it on BD with my pants off. Some of the stuff Libatique does leaves you with your jaw on the floor. Vincent Cassell is total cheese in this. Seriously, WTF? He was a giant dumbass. I blame the script partially, but he shouldn't get out unscathed. Winona Ryder was pretty bad too. Barbara Hershey was pretty good. It's always good to see her. The real stars are Mila Kunis and Especially NatPo. I couldn't believe that was the annoying girl from That 70's Show. She was so good. Just perfect in her role as the polar opposite of Neena. I would have never picked her as the most talented one from that show (would have picked Topher Grace), but she nails it here. And NatPo -- it was almost distracting how pretty she is in this. Sharon Tate in The Fearless Vampire Killers pretty. Some of the scenes in this were, well, I can't wait to watch it on BD. As mod said, she will never get a role as good as this ever. When she makes her transformation, it was PERFECT.

It's kind of an empty film tho. You never really give a crap what happens. I wanted to be invested in the actual story and what happens next but found myself looking forward more to the gore and hawt secks. It picks up at the end, but by then, I didn't really care and just wanted to see what was going to happen on screen technically as oppose to what happens with the story. Overall, technically it's brilliant, but it will leave you wanting more. Still, out of all the films that seem to be getting clout this awards season, this is the one I hope does well.

Spoilers.

So she stabs herself while dressed as the white swan, gets dressed as the black swan, dances awesome, comes back to her dressing room, dresses back to the white swan, hears a knock on the door and sees Lilly alive, then realizes she stabbed herself. She didn't know this while switching from her white outfit that was blood infested, to her black outfit, and then back again?

End spoilers.

Here's some pictures of Aronofsky and his scarves.







haha look at this one.

[Gold Trumpet]

Philip Roth's The Human Stain has a hilarious take on writers' obsession with wearing hats. I think Arnofsky is creating the cultural niche for scarves and directors. I can only hope if it takes, it's as amusing as these images here.

[Pas]

Saw this a 2nd time tonight.  The last 20 minutes are just amazing. 

Q: Who is the woman that Natalie Portman keeps seeing in the film?  It's not her and it's not Mila Kunis.  She appears a handful of times incl. during the hookup scene.

it's some kind of look alike I reckon, it's supposed to be Nina I think (but it's not played by NatPo)

anyway that film was hot as fuck. Can't believe it's PG13 here in Quebec. I know I will buy that bluray asap. My friend had a phone call during the little homework scene, poor fool!

the blackswan transformation was masterful

[Pozer]

lol @ Aronscarfsky

[abuck1220]

i have no idea how this works, because if you sat there and described it to me i would think it was the stupidest piece of shit ever. i don't know that it really "means" anything in a larger sense, but it is quite the experience. 

[pete]

I think more than any movie, I'll compare this to the Sixth Sense in terms of style and tone.  I mean, the Sixth Sense is taking all the supernatural elements literally, but this film is so embedded in the character's head that in the end it kinda does the same.

[Gamblour.]

It's so nice to come here and read a variety of views and opinions on the film and agree with all of them.

I loved and was disappointed by this film. It's Aronofsky from start to finish, which is just a joy to watch, but the script is just not quite there. This film seems much more like PI than any of his other films. The camerawork, the paranoia, the wounds, the NY backgrounds, even the gritty film right down to the dude on the train. He has this thread of characters enduring physical trauma on their journeys (scar on head in Pi, arm wound in Requiem, Rourke's whole body in the Wrestler, and now this. I'm sure we'll see the sore wounds from Wolvie's claws in The Wolverine). The trauma creates a visceral connection to the characters, but not necessarily one that we, the audience, want to have.

I think Aronofsky would be the Kubrick of our day if he just had better material to work with. So much of Black Swan was innovative but, like someone said of NatPo's performance, so much brilliance wasted on a film that didn't deserve it. I laughed during the film from the pure joy of watching Aronofsky do ridiculous things, but I shook my head a lot as I wondered why he couldn't just change this dialogue or that piece of story. The melodrama takes over Aronofsky in the same way the swan takes over NatPo.

[Sleepless]

Didn't think this was a masterpiece, but would definitely buy the DVD and certainly put it up there as one of the best films of 2010. (Not that I've seen many yet, Inception still being tops). The acting was consistently the best thing about the film. I always resent myself afterwards for doing so, but here goes some bullshit awards talk: While NatPo is a likely contender for the Oscar win, I hope that Barbara Hershey gets some attention too. I agree with the sentiment of good performance, undeserving film too. I just found Nina's character to be really inaccessible. For all the Lynch-lite qualities of the film, I didn't feel like there was any descent into madness. To me, Nina was already wacko at the outset and although her crazies undeniably became more extreme as the film went on, the fact that was no real sense of normality at the beginning hurt the film for me. Another thing I really liked about the film was the recurring reflections throughout. By the time the pianist stormed out leaving her alone in the practice room I knew I should be afraid of mirrors. Also - and I'm not sure if this is just my poor facial recognition skills - but it seemed there was some moments where within a single scene it seemed Nina was played by NatPo/Kunis/Ryder/NatPo Celebrity Lookalike. That had to be intentional. Overall two thumbs up and it left me itching to rewatch The Red Shoes. Very cool film which could best be described as a tragedy about a sexually repressed woman's sexual awakening. I liked it.

P.S. Seeing the trailer for The Tree Of Life was an incredible experience in and of itself. Wow!!!

[Gold Trumpet]

I've criticized every Darren Aronofsky film. Definitely was never a real fan, but Black Swan is amazing and one of the best films I saw from last year. Wrote a review of the film to explain why Black Swan is different from his other works.

http://filmsplatter.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/black-swan/

[SiliasRuby]

Oh, GT always defying the masses.

[Gold Trumpet]

I didn't read any reviews here but I skimmed the thread and I thought most people liked the movie.