Black Swan

During Black Swan, Nina the demented ballerina is informed: "you could be great, but you’re a coward". Fortunately, Natalie Portman’s performance as Nina, like the design and execution of the entire film, is incredibly brave and bold. Director Darren Aronofsky does what he does best, creating a fearless and utterly ferocious artwork in which the central performance is merely the tip of the iceberg in theatrical daring.

Black Swan is partly a melodramatic backstage drama about artistic obsession that is also heavily horror-inflected. The result seems like the illegitimate child of films such as The Red Shoes, Persona and Repulsion amongst others. Indeed, there is a certain satisfaction attempting to recognise these influences whilst watching, particularly towards the end where, amongst the Dario Argento inspired madness, a clear ode to Eraserhead appears. Other noticeable features include the effects used for the transformation of Nina into the swan that seem to stem from David Cronenberg’s earlier works, although here they’re nowhere near as repulsive, done with better special effects that quite understandably have received BAFTA recognition. The actual ballet is presented with a real sense of pain and suffering, giving it the necessary physicality enabling you to see the stress and anguish of the characters and legitimising the madness that follows.

Just because it feels like some surreal hybrid, however, certainly does not mean the finished product is anything less than extraordinary, merely that Aronofsky is playing to form by creating something unique and overwrought. As per normal, he successfully uses emotion as a sledgehammer to disarm the audience, one of the main reasons he is such a contentious director. The other main reason is also on display, namely that Aronofsky is never satisfied to remain within the established rules of cinema, casting away the rulebook and challenging the very boundaries of the medium. The result is arguably what makes his work such a joy to watch.

Yet most of the attention surrounding the film has focused on Natalie Portman, whose performance has already furnished her mantelpiece with a Golden Globe, with a BAFTA and Oscar hopefully following shortly. Unlike most years’ big awards frontrunners, she actually deserves to win, as here she is nothing short of heroic. She provides with utter conviction a metamorphosis both physical and metaphorical from ‘sweet girl’ to the eponymous 'black swan', something that is strangely reminiscent of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s tour de force performance in Antichrist. The rest of the cast is equally committed; Vincent Cassell is suitably sinister and Barbara Hershey is perhaps the most disturbing movie mother since The Brood, whilst Mila Kunis is terrific enough for me to finally to bury the hatchet for American Psycho 2. All of this is further enhanced by superb lighting, choreography and set design, not to mention Clint Mansell’s sublime score, which all combine to create a spellbinding atmosphere that seems at times both vibrant and dark simultaneously.

Black Swan is unique; a dark psychological thriller with significant horror elements, but do not let this deter you if not a genre fan. There is more than enough in the phenomenal power and brilliance of this production for anyone interested in audacious and innovative filmmaking; a creation so densely packed with brilliant ideas and emotional depth that you want to see it again to discover just what you missed the first time around. This is a truly sumptuous work firmly establishing Darren Aronofsky as a truly great auteur and demonstrating its cast's and crew's true talents and dedication to their art.

See Black Swan at City Screen York.

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.