BLACK SWAN (Fox, 2010) D: Darren Aronofsky, w/ Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis. Rating: NNNNN DVD package: NNNN Rating: NNNNN
Good-girl ballerina Nina gets the chance to star in Swan Lake, but the role demands that she get in touch with her dark side. Sexual experiments and bizarre behaviour ensue.
Director Darren Aronofsky embeds his backstage gothic in an aura of conventional realism that makes no distinction between fact and fantasy and draws us into Nina’s plight, which Natalie Portman makes both convincing and frightening. Mila Kunis, Nina’s friend and rival, her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey) and the demanding director (Vincent Cassel) all contribute to the terror.
To the literal-minded, Black Swan’s ending will be clear. But in a movie rich in unsettling visuals, omnipresent mirrors, subjective camera and a story within a story, things are not necessarily as they appear. Ambiguity and metaphor rule.
Interviews and on-set footage provide an informative look at production design, dance and effects.
Triple-bill this with The Red Shoes, still the best ballet movie ever made, and Suspiria, the strangest.
EXTRAS Three-part making-of doc. Widescreen. English, French, Spanish audio. English, Spanish subtitles.
