Black Swan takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.
Nina, (Portman) a ballerina in a New York City ballet company is completely consumed by dance.
Living with her obsessive former ballerina mother, who exerts a suffocating control over her, she struggles to find her own niche within the company.
When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace their prima ballerina for the opening production of the new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice.
But she has competition: a new dancer, Lily, who also impresses. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the 2 young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side – a recklessness that threatens to destroy her…
Acutely observed and detailed, Black Swan offers an intimate look into the life of a dancer-charting the dedication needed to overcome the physical and emotional rigours of dance and performance. Speaking at the film’s UK premiere, director Darren Aronofsky commented that he initially found it hard researching the project and was only ‘welcomed’ within the ballet fraternity after having secured help from the film’s choreographer Benjamin Millepied. He continued “Usually when you make a movie doors open up. You say, ‘I want to make a movie’ and everyone’s like ‘okay’.
The ballet world just couldn’t care. They’re just very, very insular and self-involved. They’re very focused, so it took a very long time.” Aronofsky’s fable about Nina’s quest to transform herself from the White Swan into the Black Swan captures so much about the physical and emotional reality of ballet – the blood and bruises, the paranoia and back-biting that, that it feels intimate and sympathetic .
Beautifully-shot and featuring some breathtaking dance sequences, Black Swan will surely feature in this year’s Oscar nominations.
A worthy companion piece to the Powell-Pressburger 1948 classic, The Red Shoes, Black Swan sends us into a world where the real and the imagined collide with harrowing discord.
Black Swan Dir: Darren Aronofsky 2010/US/103mins
Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
Je sors du cinéma où j’ai enfin pu voir Black Swan…Wouahou, quel choc!! J’ai l’impression de sortir d’un manège de foire où tu passes par de si nombreuses émotions et parmi elle, celle du dégoût le plus profond.
Merci Rod pour cette critique qui reflète parfaitement l’atmosphère de ce film absolument unique.
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