Black Swan

An unexciting attempt at psychologically sophisticated art. Slightly irritating in places, unconventional thanks the interesting ballet setting, but an attempt nevertheless. Someone should tell Aronofsky that he is not the Kubrick of the 21st century. I admire the difficulty of ballet as an art, as well as Tchaikovsky's magical music, but this film is so empty and uses so many horror tropes that it's maddening. Hype of the year. PS: If it wasn't for Natalie Portman, who put so much effort into her role, I'd go even lower with the rating. (12/25/2010)

After the solid but not entirely satisfactory Wrestler, Aronofsky consolidates his position among my most favourite directors. The first hour of Black Swan is pretty similar to Wrestler – we follow very closely (almost intimately) one person at a turning point of their lives, we feel their emotions and every one of their injuries. This is not always very pleasant, Aronofsky knows how to transmit pain from the screen to the viewer like few others. This “introduction” would already be enough for four stars, but the last half hour shattered, disarmed and decimated me; utterly so. I felt a constant chill on my back and I shivered like an aspen tree; my eyes an ears were unable to perceive anything but the film. No other film this year has made me feel like this. 100 % (12/22/2010)

You can stone me, but Aronofsky is repeating himself for the third time and it's getting old. Although he once again emphasizes the physicality and the decay of the soul and body, the film lacks any sort of more prominent moment that I haven't seen from him before. The lacerated fingers do hurt, but what I saw here was more so pseudo-art, where he gracefully tiptoes around but doesn't get to the core even once. The metamorphoses at the end amused me unintentionally rather than making me feel any kind of gradation or even catharsis. However, I can understand the standing ovation the film receives. (12/26/2010)

Although Black Swan appears to be made from the same dough as The Wrestler, it is only half true. Yes, it fits quite well superficially - the concept is actually similar, intimate body camera, ruthless details, long tracking shots, scenes of mutilation in the name of foolish desire (again, it is a desire expressed by roaring crowds). But it cannot be overlooked that in one important respect, Black Swan is antithetical to The Wrestler. While The Wrestler was a film where the inside of the hero remained hidden and it was a documentary record of gradual doom, in Black Swan everything is outward, the pain is written into horror expressive scenes, the heroine's psychoses are "Freudian" amplified and accentuated by various dreamlike chimeras. Everything inside happens on the outside at the same time, and the viewer is trapped in the snares of an unreliable storyteller. Where reality ends and Nina's fantastical projection begins is sometimes difficult to decipher. Some of the scenes are suspiciously conventional (you can see it well in all the horror jump scares and phantoms) and I couldn't shake the impression that for the mutating surface, Aronofsky missed what was not visible in The Wrestler, yet was physically felt - an intimate plane of pain "out of desire" leading to the final grand gesture of self-destruction. Black Swan is essentially ancient during the ending, but it didn't affect me nearly as much as Randy's last “ram-jam". Everything is in place here (a famous camera, a devastating Natalie and a magnificent musical accompaniment), yet ecstasy did not come. I think Aronofsky was able to go deeper in the past without theatrical props. (01/17/2011)

Aronofsky's declaration of love for The Red Shoes. A psycho (not psychological!) update of Swan Lake for the 21st century in art-mainstream trappings with the now traditionally weeping Natalie who also happens to play her own self wonderfully. I expected more of a balletic backstage full of sharp elbows, intrigue, and obsession, and fewer would-be horror elements that Aronofsky didn't quite master yet (um, mirrors… like seriously Darren?). Still, it works, and it escalates magnificently. (02/18/2011)

An unsettling journey through the ballet stage with an atmosphere that takes your breath away in every shot. Aronofsky came up with his version of mental darkness and I can't stop staring. Mainly thanks to the mesmerizing camera and brilliant Natalie, it is one of those experiences that must be removed from your head almost forcibly due to their suggestiveness. It is difficult to say in one sentence why Black Swan is so amazing. I just know and feel that it truly is. (12/21/2010)

This movie is a huge gem!!! Natalie Portman shows incredible talent and I believed her every second. The film is not demanding, and yet it is nerve wracking. I like ballet even less after this one. Because I feel a lot of pain and toil from ballet. So does this film. Mila Kunis absolutely amazed me with her courageous acting. A very good drama and experience... just the icky feeling bothers me. (02/09/2011)

Perfection, obsession, paranoia, beauty. The faltering mind of a young ballerina is a very unreliable guide through this non-traditional drama. Ballet in itself seems like something so entrancing, so perfect that violating the privacy of preparations for something so sacred, could well be called blasphemy. But that is just how Aronofsky shows the reality, the rivalry, the carefully prepared choreography and especially the devotion to the story depicted in the piece. Natalie Portman gives one of her best performances and her Nina is just as delicate as the spinning ballerina in her music box. Their devotion, their thirst for perfection and absolute commitment to their character go hand in hand. If this does not get that supreme award this year, it will be a disgrace for the whole Academy. On the other side of the spectrum, Mila Kunis is the exact opposite of the White Swan, playful, passionate, fallible, yet so much more beautiful with her dark self, showing through her every smile. Music-wise, it’s a masterpiece. The combination of classic variations on Tchaikovsky and Mansell’s dark electronic minimalism form a surprisingly compact unit. The close-ups, even during most of the ballet scenes, add to the intimacy of the piece, creating an emotional rollercoaster that’s hard for the viewer to recover from. Amazing and, especially, original. It was perfect. (02/15/2011)

Yeah, it’s alright. In the end, I hope it helps real ballet because the over-hyped fans will go see what the girls who are mutilating themselves actually like about it. Otherwise, it's a solo Portman film, no question about it, and it’s more disappointingly inconsistent genre-wise. A few of the special effects are very bad. The mom seems to be right out of Carrie, which didn't have to be the case. Winona, on the other hand, was a delight, but she always is. Cassel is nothing special. In the end, it’s a well-aimed advertisement for ballet, which names like Aronofsky and Portman helped bring to the people. (02/12/2011)

The same (un)attractive Aronofsky, a director who masterfully handles details and always, with the reliability of a Swiss watch, and excels in taking an overall view of the matter. The same goes for Black Swan, a film with incredible potential, offering an unconventional look into the world of ballet and its backstage. The director skillfully utilized this (Libatique and his camera escapades), while Natalie Portman's performance is captivating. Unfortunately, when it comes to the plot, it is lacking. The transformation is unengaging and essentially the same song – meaning Darren relies on certainty and follows the same psychological pattern (plus a few striking inserts). After several times, however, the effect is somewhat muted, and one tends to search for more and more flaws in each subsequent film of his. (05/29/2011)

"It was perfect." From my point of view, it wasn't. The audiovisual aspect was perfect, hats off to Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder for taking on the roles... But other than that, nothing. How's the story, dear gentlemen who wrote the script? A bunch of unsurprising clichés, self-serving "horror" scenes that don't even seem to belong in Black Swan, and especially the basic plot skeleton of "from nobody to somebody, but at what cost?", which wouldn't stand up even in a teen movie today, with a lesson at the end about how terribly well-worn it is. No, it's not. Two. (07/28/2011)

Impressive. A perfect evocation of the bleak and painful atmosphere in the story of a ...... ballerina. On the surface, everything works brilliantly in a straightforward and absurd way, and the film almost sucks us out of our own seats, with much credit going to all the actors, the music and the perfectly exploited setting. But despite all the efforts, the script doesn't exactly come off as overly sophisticated, Aronofsky evokes emotional reactions in an occasionally overly pretentious way for such a simple tale of personality transformation, and the not-so-inventive horror elements are well past their best by the end. Despite all this, however, Black Swan is a great film that entertains by interweaving various thematic lines (career, personal, horror, sexual...), keeping the audience, despite the falsely subversive development, from the beginning to the end in anticipation of what the next actors’ gesture or audiovisual essence will be. Mila Kunis' part is officially the hottest movie role in history :) (02/08/2013)

To accuse a film that deals with the contrast of the polished and graceful beauty of ballet with the agonizing obsessions behind the curtain of calculatedly gluttonous imagery is a bit misguided, eh? That's like accusing ballet itself of assaulting the viewer with visuals at the expense of content. Aronofsky hasn't changed, proving once again with his directorial skill that he's one of the best mood-makers of our time. An Oscar for directing Black Swan would have been well deserved, but I think the Academy has understood that Aronofsky has such massive potential that one day he will make something so ultimate that everything else (including Black Swan) will be completely forgotten. The last ten minutes are incredible. (01/07/2011)

I've never been into ballet, so the storyline failed to fully engage me. The addition of a mental illness and visions to the plot didn't sit well with me either, and aside from Vincent Cassel, the cast didn't leave a lasting impression. All in all, the movie leaned towards the boring side. Ballet, to me, remains a peculiar spectacle where a crowd of latent sadists in the audience finds satisfaction in watching the suffering of a group of masochists on stage. / Lesson learned: Ballet or Spanish boot? What difference does it make? (07/15/2022)

If we ignore The Fountain (whose formal quality is undeniable, of course, but it still has "something" missing), the central theme that runs through Darren Aronofsky's entire oeuvre is human addiction, obsession, mania, which in all individual cases leads to the same end – total self-destruction and absolute absorption in a given obsession. It's terribly hard to start anywhere, because this film offers so much. I would describe Black Swan as a precise symphony of extremely well-coordinated and, on top of that, incredibly inventive direction, subtly polished cinematography, superbly composed music, and Natalie Portman's role of a lifetime. If I were to look at it all a little "from the inside" and ask myself the familiar question: "And what did Aronofsky actually mean by that?", the answer would be complicated as hell. :) First and foremost it’s a riveting yet quite devastating, shocking, and at times also quite naturalistic portrait of a man obsessed with his own perfection. Perhaps Aronofsky wanted to make a point about the Hollywood milieu, where there are certainly similar archetypes of desperate "strivers" who can't accept that there are things they just can't do. They go dangerously far in their endeavors and often have far more to lose than to gain. On the other hand, as far as the film itself is concerned, Natalie Portman is so lost in her role that, combined with the virtuoso directing style, her gradual disintegration and transformation into a paranoid schizophrenic is damn disarming. And it's not even a question of whether she does ballet really well (I'm not really in a position to judge that); more important is the fact that she comes across as a complex character onscreen who can switch countless expressions in a matter of minutes and capture the essence of her role quite accurately. Another inseparable part of the whole is the fact that the film is overwhelmingly set backstage at the ballet, so that instead of the glitzy, stunning, almost perfect "exterior" of an already finished performance in front of an audience, it gives a glimpse into an environment where brutal rivalries reign, where the blood is worked to the bone, and where the real ballet is done. Black Swan is a work of art, directed and acted with extraordinary grace and emotionally very rich. But whether it can be considered "a profound film with obvious applicability to our real lives" remains a question... (02/18/2011)

It took me a few years to commit to seeing this much-praised and much-maligned film. I was very interested in the theme of the difficult role of ballerinas, who often have to fight for a place in the limelight by any means possible. However, in the passages where the main character's psychological and especially physical destruction takes place, I thought in my mind that Darren Aronofsky was going a bit too far. I felt like I was watching a B-horror movie and I wanted to give it a good thrashing in the ratings. However, in the end, I won't do it because the last emotionally completely intense quarter-hour demolished me so much that I suddenly forgot about all the peculiar tricks the director used to get to it. It would also be unfair to the absolutely stunning Natalie Portman, who gave the performance of her life here. However, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and the still youthful-looking Winona Ryder certainly deserve attention. All of them took on their roles with honor and appropriate humility to prepare the fertile ground for Natalia's captivating performance. (75%) (06/16/2020)