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Black Swan (film)

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Black Swan
Natalie Portman with white facial makeup, black-winged eye liner around bloodshot red eyes, and a jagged crystal tiara.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDarren Aronofsky
Screenplay byMark Heyman
Andres Heinz
John McLaughlin
Story byAndres Heinz
Produced byJon Avnet
Mike Medavoy
Scott Franklin
Arnold Messer
Brian Oliver
Brad Fischer
Rick Schwartz
StarringNatalie Portman
Mila Kunis
Vincent Cassel
Barbara Hershey
Winona Ryder
CinematographyMatthew Libatique
Edited byAndrew Weisblum
Music byClint Mansell
Production
companies
Cross Creek Pictures
Phoenix Pictures
Distributed byFox Searchlight Pictures
Release date
  • December 3, 2010 (2010-12-03)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13,000,000[1]
Box office$15,708,000[2]

Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel. Thomas Leroy (Cassel) is the director of a New York City ballet production of Swan Lake, in which he has cast Nina Sayers (Portman) as the Swan Queen and Lily (Kunis) as her alternate. The role 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, while Lily is the ideal personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina grows more in touch with her dark side, with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

Aronofsky conceived the premise by connecting his viewings of an actual production of Swan Lake with an unrealized screenplay about understudies and the notion of being haunted by a double, similar to the folklore surrounding doppelgängers. The director also considered Black Swan a companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler, with both films involving demanding performances for different kinds of art. He and Portman first discussed the project in 2000, and after a brief attachment to Universal Pictures, Black Swan was produced in New York City in 2009 by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Portman and Kunis trained in ballet for several months prior to filming and notable figures from the ballet world helped with film production to shape the ballet presentation. The film premiered as the opening film for the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2010. It had a limited release starting December 3, 2010 and a nationwide release on December 17.[2]

Plot

The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young 20-something ballerina, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a young woman is turned into a swan and can only be turned back by the kiss of her true love. As Nina dances (in what turns out to be a dream), a sorcerer appears and places a curse on Nina, and she wakes up in her apartment. She begins her daily ballet stretching telling her mother about her dream. Nina mentions that the director of her ballet company promised to feature her more this season and her mother agrees that she's been there long enough.

Nina goes to the ballet studio only to learn that Beth (Winona Ryder), the head of the ballet, is being put out to pasture because of her age. As a result, the director, Tomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) is looking for a new face to feature the company. Tomas announces to the company that the first performance of the season will be a reworking of Swan Lake. He casually walks among the dancers as they're practicing nonchalantly tapping several girls on the shoulder. He then tells those he tapped to be certain they're at the next rehearsel -- those he didn't are to meet with him later for, unknowingly, a private audition for the next Swan Queen.

As she's transcends into the Black Swan, Nina's audition is interrupted by the late arrival of new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) . Already fearing imperfection and disappointing Tomas, she loses focuses when she makes eye contact with Lily. Despite her flawless performance as the White Swan, Tomas is not impressed by Nina's performance as she failed to capture the sexuality of the Black Swan. Nina goes home in tears and practices until she cracks her big toe nail.

The next day, Nina visits Tomas in his office telling him she finished the Black Swan at home and wants the role. He tells her that he's decided to give it to another dancer. He then grabs her face and kisses her passionately. Angered by this unwanted advance, Nina bites him on the lip and runs out of his office -- which both shocks and impresses him.

Nina sees Beth having a emotional meltdown in her private dressing room throwing things and breaking the full length mirrors. After Beth leaves, Nina decides to take a peek inside. She sits down in Beth's chair and stares at herself in the mirror which is surrounded by globe lights. She begins to go through Beth's things and stashes several items in her purse, specifically, nail polish, diamond earrings, a nail file and tube of lipstick. She sneaks out of Beth's dressing room just as the girls begin running down the hall to find out who has been chosen as the new Swan Queen. Feeling certain she didn't get the role, Nina congratulates another dancer for getting it. The girl runs to see the posting and darts back to Nina, who is not aware that SHE is actually the new Swan Queen, shouting how could she be so cruel like that? Stunned, Nina decides to go see who received the role. Several girls gather around her congratulating her. Overjoyed -- and nauseous -- she calls her mother from the bathroom and tells her that she won the part. When she leaves the bathroom stall she sees the word "WHORE" written on the mirror in red lipstick and frantically struggles to clean it off. Meanwhile, Nina's mother quickly orders her a beautiful pink and white frosted cake -- strawberries and cream, their favorite -- and presents it to her and she walks in the door of their home. Her mother cuts her a slice but Nina refuses telling her that her stomach is still in knots. Becoming angry her mother begins to throw the cake out leaving Nina feeling guilty. She accepts a slice and takes a few small bites, then runs to the bathroom and trys to vomit it back up.

Over the next several days, the stress of the role and her inability to perform get to Nina. She begins having visions of herself in black walking around, often filling in for Lily.

Tomas holds a gala to officially announce Beth's "retirement" and Nina's rise as the Swan Queen. Nina goes to the bathroom and on her way out encounters Lily coming in. In front of Nina, Lily takes off her panties putting them in her purse then sits down on the toilet to urinate. Lily congratulates Nina on her role, but Nina is uncomfortable and attempts to excuse herself. Lily playfully asks her to stay, but Nina leaves.

As Nina and Tomas leave the party, Tomas is momentarily called back inside. Intoxicated with dripping black mascara from crying, Beth confronts Nina asking if her if she had to suck Tomas' cock to get the role. Nina is offended, and tells Beth that she didn't have to. Tomas appears and diffuses soothing Beth by calling her "My little princess" and then takes Nina back to his place. He brusquely asks her if she likes making love and gives her a homework assignment: she must touch herself and get in touch with her sexuality so that she may better inhabit the role.

The next day, at the company the dances huddle to grieve over Beth. Curious as to what happened, they tell Nina that she was in an accident and is in the hospital. Later, Tomas pulls her to the side and tells her he believes that Beth threw herself into oncoming traffic. She visits Beth in the hospital where she finds her room filled with beautiful flowers and cards wishing her a quick recovery. As Beth lays comatose in the bed, she lifts up the sheet draped over Beth and sees metal bars sticking out of her leg. Horrified, she quickly turns to leave and bumps into Beth's nurse who asks what she is doing there.

Later, Nina's mother sees scratches on Nina's back, and asks what they are from. Nina brushes her off.

Nina wakes up the next morning and begins masturbating. As she becomes aroused, she is startled to realize her mother is asleep in the chair next to her bed. She goes to practice and still cannot get the passion of the Black Swan into the performance. Disappointed, Tomas sends the other dancers home and steps in to dance as Nina's partner. As they dance together, he slowly moves his hands over her thighs arousing her. After a deep kiss, he lets go of her and walks away calling over his shoulder that he seduced her and that it should be the other way around with her performance.

Nina is left behind to practice. Nina feeling as though she has disappointed Tomas, sits alone and cries. Lily arrives and sees her seated, drying her tears. Lily chats casually, implying that Tomas has a tendency of sleeping with the troop and Nina tries to defend him. Lily realizes that Nina has a crush on Tomas and jokes about it. Infuriated by such a thought, Nina gets upset and leaves.

The next day, Tomas angrily asks Nina if she needs time off, after Lily's comment to him that he should cut Nina some slack. Angered Nina tracks Lily down in the general dressing room where she is greeted with banter the other dancers that "the queen" is gracing their presence on their turf. She takes Lily aside yelling at her for talking about her to Tomas.

That night, Nina's mother sees more scratches on Nina's back and assumes that Nina has been hurting herself as she used to when she was younger. However, before she can confirm it there is a knock at the door. She answers the door and talks quickly before closing the door. Nina demands to know who it is, then goes to the door and sees Lily. She asks how Lily knew where she lived and Lily tells her she asked Tomas' secretary. Lily invites her out and Nina leaves with her, despite her mothers protests that it's the night before a long day of work and she should stay home.

Nina and Lily go out and Lily offers Nina a pill to relax, saying it would only last a few hours. Nina turns it down. Nina goes to the bathroom and returns to see Lily slip the content of the pill into a drink, as she flirts with two guys named Tom and Jerry. Nina is reassured by Lily that the pills will only last a few hours and downs her glass. The two have a crazy, drugged night of clubbing with two guys. When Nina is next lucid, she finds herself hooking up with a man in a bathroom. She leaves to find a cab and Lily runs to catch up with her. They take a taxi back to Nina's apartment. Nina's mother is waiting for them and asks Nina what she was doing out late and Nina says, "I was with two guys named Tom and Jerry and I fucked them both," and laughs. Nina's mother is horrified and slaps her. Nina grabs Lily and runs into her room, barricading the door with a piece of wood. As a distraught Nina looks on, Lily walks up and suddenly kisses her on the lips. Momentarily stunned by this sudden display, Nina passionately kisses Lily back. Lily begins to orally pleasure Nina, and as Nina reaches orgasm, she sees Lily morph into herself, which scares her. But the two continue to have sex before Lily (as Nina) says, "innocent girl" and puts raises a pillow to smother Nina.

Nina wakes up the next morning with a headache to find Lily gone and realizes she is late for work. As her mother sits quietly in the living room, Nina yells at her as she's rushing out the door for not waking her and tells her that she plans to move out.

When Nina arrives at the ballet studio, she finds Lily in her costume, practicing her routine. She asks Lily when she left her house and Lily claims she was never there and had last saw her at the club. She is flattered that Nina had a wet dream about her and asks playfully if she was any good. Nina leaves uncomfortable and frustrated, wondering if her lovemaking with Lily had really happened or not.

Tomas informs Nina that her alternate for the performance is now Lily, which enrages Nina. Nina begs Tomas to not make Lily the alternate, convinced that Lily is trying to steal the role from her. Tomas calls her paranoid and that the only person trying to sabotage Nina is "Nina".

That night, Nina is practicing alone in the studio and the lights shut off. She calls out for someone to turn the lights back on, and sees a cloaked figure darting around in the shadows (the Sorcerer from the dream). She then finds Tomas having sex with Lily behind a curtain. Lily smiles at her and Nina runs away. In a fit of hysteria, Nina goes to the hospital to find Beth sitting motionlessly in a wheelchair, now a decrepit shadow of the woman she used to be. Nina quietly places the items she stole on the table next to Beth, when Beth suddenly grabs her arm. Beth is angry that Nina stole from her and then notices the nail file and picks it up. She then takes the nail file and stabs herself in the face with it repeatedly. Nina grabs the nail file from Beth's hand and runs fearfully from the room to the elevator. As she gets in the elevator, she drops the bloody nail file. Nina returns home dashing hysterically into the bathroom to wash her hands which are covered in Beth's blood. She then calls down the hall for her mother walking towards her mother's art studio. As she peers in, she imagines her mother's paintings moving and talking to her. Nina runs to her bedroom, followed by her mother. As she tries to reach Nina, Nina slams the door on her hand, breaking it. Inside Nina's room her skin begins to shift, her eyes reddening and changing, her skin taking on a birdlike texture and her knee joints violently changing to those of a bird. Nina falls and hits her head on a bed post, collapsing.

Nina wakes up the next day, normal, but with gloves on her hands to prevent scratching. She realizes it is only hours prior to the premiere of Swan Lake, but her mother has locked them room and tells Nina that she called Tomas and told him that Nina was sick. Nina frantically tries to get out, but the door nob has been removed. Nina hits her mother and her broken hand, and steals the door knob to leave.

Nina arrives at the ballet to find Lily in her dressing room prepared to take the role. Nina confidently tells Tomas that she is ready to perform and if she doesn't take the stage, the troupe will be marred with controversy, after Beth's incident. Nina goes to the dressing room.

The first half of the performance is ruined when Nina is dropped by her partner, who appears to be sexually involved with Lily. Tomas is enraged, and during the intermission, Nina is attacked by Lily in her dressing room. Lily once again morphs into Nina, and Nina struggles against her. Nina pushes Lily into a full-length mirror and it shatters. Nina then uses a shard of glass to stab her. Unsure of what to do, Nina hides the bleeding body in her bathroom and takes the stage as the Black Swan. She dances fervently and as she dances, she begins to physically transform into a large Black Swan on stage. She dances the part better than ever and the crowd is amazed, giving her a standing ovation. After leaving the stage Nina seizes the moment to kiss Tomas passionately, after finally effectively seducing him with her movements. She then leaves the stage and goes to change for the next act, placing a towel over the growing pool of blood emerging from under the bathroom door. Suddenly, the real Lily arrives to congratulate Nina for her incredible performance. Nina is shocked, moving the towel to see no blood. She touches her chest and finds the shard of glass embedded in it. (In her unhinged and delusional mind, Nina has just stabbed herself imaging herself as Lily). Nina slowly removes the mirror shard and takes the stage as the White Swan despite her bleeding wound. She dances beautifully, and the audience does not notice the spot of blood forming under her white costume. In the final act, as the Swan Queen commits suicide and she calmly leaps from the constructed hill on the stunt mattress, the spot of blood growing and staining her white feathered dress. Tomas is overjoyed and newly infatuated with Nina and crouches down to congratulate her, a crowd of ballerinas gathering around the star. Lily suddenly gasps, the first to notice the huge stain of blood forming at Nina's chest. Someone calls for help, and Tomas frantically asks her what she did. Nina calmly and quietly utters that she was "perfect." The crowd roars as Nina dies

Cast

Mila Kunis poses in a white dress
Mila Kunis was first approached to perform in Black Swan in 2008. She and co-star Natalie Portman spent six months training and toning their bodies before filming began.

Aronofsky first discussed with Portman the possibility of a ballet film in 2000, and he found she was interested in playing a ballet dancer.[3] Portman explained being part of Black Swan, "I'm trying to find roles that demand more adulthood from me because you can get stuck in a very awful cute cycle as a woman in film, especially being such a small person."[4] Portman also introduced Aronofsky to Kunis, whom he knew from the 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.[3] Kunis contrasted Lily with Nina, "My character is very loose... She's not as technically good as Natalie's character, but she has more passion, naturally. That's what [Nina] lacks."[5] The female characters are directed in the Swan Lake production by Thomas Leroy, played by Cassel. He compared his character to George Balanchine, who co-founded New York City Ballet and was "a control freak, a true artist using sexuality to direct his dancers".[6]

Portman and Kunis started training six months before the start of filming in order to attain a body type and muscular tone more similar to those of professional dancers.[7] Portman worked out for five hours a day, doing ballet, cross-training, and swimming. A few months closer to filming, she began choreography training.[8] Kunis engaged in cardio and Pilates. Kunis said, "I did ballet as a kid like every other kid does ballet. You wear a tutu and you stand on stage and you look cute and twirl. But this is very different because you can't fake it. You can't just stay in there and like pretend you know what you're doing. Your whole body has to be structured differently."[9] Georgina Parkinson, a ballet mistress from the American Ballet Theatre, coached the actors in ballet.[10] For certain scenes, American Ballet Theatre soloists Sarah Lane and Maria Riccetto were "dance doubles" for Portman and Kunis respectively.[11] Aronofsky said during filming about Portman's ballet performance, "She was able to pull it off. Except for the wide shots when she has to be en pointe for a real long time, it's Natalie on screen. I haven't used her double a lot."[7]

Benjamin Millepied, a principal dancer from New York City Ballet, debuted in Black Swan as both actor and choreographer.[7][12] In addition to the soloist performances, members of the Pennsylvania Ballet were cast as the corps de ballet, backdrop for the main actors' performances.[7] Also appearing in the film are Kristina Anapau,[13] Toby Hemingway,[14] Sebastian Stan,[15] and Janet Montgomery.[16]

Production

Conception

A photograph of a performance of Swan Lake during the third act, with the protagonist transformed into the Black Swan
The ballet Swan Lake's climax in the transition of the innocent white Swan Queen into the emotionally crippled black swan

Darren Aronofsky first became interested in ballet when his sister studied dance at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. The basic idea for the film started when he hired screenwriters to rework a screenplay called The Understudy, which was about off-Broadway actors and explored the notion of being haunted by a double. Aronofsky said the screenplay had elements of the film All About Eve, Roman Polanski's film The Tenant, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double. The director had also seen numerous productions of Swan Lake, and he connected the duality of the White Swan and the Black Swan to his script.[7] When researching for production of Black Swan, he found ballet to be "a very insular world" whose dancers were "not impressed by movies". Regardless, the director found active and inactive dancers to share their experiences with him. He also stood backstage to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.[3]

Aronofsky called Black Swan a companion piece to his previous film The Wrestler, recalling one of his early projects about a love affair between a wrestler and a stripper. He eventually separated the wrestling and the ballet worlds as "too much for one movie". He compared the two films: "Wrestling some consider the lowest art—if they would even call it art—and ballet some people consider the highest art. But what was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are. They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves."[3] About the psychological thriller nature of Black Swan, actress Natalie Portman compared the film's tone to Polanski's 1968 film Rosemary's Baby,[17] while Aronofsky said Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and The Tenant (1976) were "big influences" on the final film.[3] Actor Vincent Cassel also compared Black Swan to Polanski's early works and additionally compared it to David Cronenberg's early works.[18]

Development and filming

A three-quarters view of a large grey building—the State University of New York at Purchase Performing Arts Center
Filming took place at the State University of New York at Purchase Performing Arts Center

Aronofsky and Portman first discussed the ballet film in 2000, though the script was yet to be written.[3] He told her about the love scene between competing ballet dancers, and Portman recalled, "I thought that was very interesting because this movie is in so many ways an exploration of an artist's ego and that narcissistic sort of attraction to yourself and also repulsion with yourself."[19] On the decade's wait before production, she said, "The fact that I had spent so much time with the idea ... allowed it to marinate a little before we shot."[20] When Aronofsky proposed a detailed outline of Black Swan to Universal Pictures, the studio decided to fast-track development of the project in January 2007.[21] The project did not come together at the studio, and Aronofsky would go on to shoot The Wrestler instead. After finishing The Wrestler in 2008, he asked Mark Heyman, who had worked for him on the film, to write Black Swan.[3] By June 2009, Universal had placed the project in turnaround, generating attention from other studios and specialty divisions, particularly with actress Portman attached to star.[22] Black Swan began development under Protozoa Pictures and Overnight Productions, the latter financing the film. In July 2009, actor Kunis was cast.[23]

Fox Searchlight Pictures became the distributor for Black Swan. The film was given a production budget of $10–12 million, and principal photography began in New York City toward the end of 2009.[24] Aronofsky filmed Black Swan with a muted palette and a grainy style intended to be similar to The Wrestler.[25] Part of filming took place at the Performing Arts Center at State University of New York at Purchase.[7] Like The Wrestler, the majority of the film was shot on Super 16mm film.[26] The film's score was composed by Clint Mansell, a long-time collaborator of Aronofsky's, and Mansell built the score using elements from Swan Lake.[27] For the film Kunis "trained seven days a week, five hours, for five, six months total, and ... was put on a very strict diet of 1,200 calories a day." She lost 20 pounds from her normal weight of about 117 pounds, and reported that Portman "became smaller than I did."[28]

Soundtrack

Untitled

Black Swan: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack marks the fifth consecutive collaboration between Aronofsky and English composer Clint Mansell. Mansell attempted to score the film based on Tchaikovsky's ballet,[30] but with radical changes to the music.[31]

Track listing

  1. "Nina's Dream" – 2:48
  2. "Mother Me" – 1:06
  3. "The New Season" – 2:39
  4. "A Room of Her Own" – 1:56
  5. "A New Swan Queen" – 3:28
  6. "Lose Yourself" – 2:08
  7. "Cruel Mistress" – 3:29
  8. "Power, Seduction, Cries" – 1:42
  9. "The Double" – 2:20
  10. "Opposites Attract" – 3:45
  11. "Night of Terror" – 8:01
  12. "Stumbled Beginnings..." – 3:51
  13. "It's My Time" – 1:30
  14. "A Swan Is Born" – 1:38
  15. "Perfection" – 5:45
  16. "A Swan Song (For Nina)" – 6:23

Release

Black Swan had its world premiere as the opening film at the 67th Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2010. It received a standing ovation whose length Variety said made it "one of the strongest Venice openers in recent memory".[32] The festival's artistic director Marco Mueller had chosen Black Swan over The American (starring George Clooney) for opening film, saying, "[It] was just a better fit... Clooney is a wonderful actor, and he will always be welcome in Venice. But it was as simple as that."[33] Black Swan screened in competition and is the third consecutive film directed by Aronofsky to premiere at the festival, following The Fountain and The Wrestler.[34] In addition, Black Swan was one of seven films nominated for the Queer Lion prize, to be awarded to the best film with "homosexual themes or queer interests",[35] though En el futuro (In The Future) by Argentinian director Mauro Andrizzi won the prize.[36]

Natalie Portman looks to the camera's left, smiling
Portman at a premiere for the film at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Black Swan was presented in a sneak screening at the Telluride Film Festival on September 5, 2010.[37] It also had a Gala screening at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival later in the month.[38][39] In October 2010, Black Swan was screened at the New Orleans Film Festival,[40] the Austin Film Festival,[41] and the BFI London Film Festival.[42] In November 2010, the film was screened at American Film Institute's AFI Fest in Los Angeles and the Denver Film Festival.[43]

Black Swan will be released in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2011. According to The Independent, the film is one of "the most highly anticipated" of late 2010. The newspaper compared it to the 1948 ballet film The Red Shoes in having "a nightmarish quality ... of a dancer consumed by her desire to dance".[44]

Reception

Box office

The film had a limited release in select cities in North America on December 3, 2010 in 18 theaters. It took in $415,822—$23,101 per theater, its opening day.[45] By the end of its opening weekend it grossed $1,443,809—$80,212 per theater. The per location average was the second highest for the opening weekend of 2010 behind The King's Speech.[46] The film has Fox Searchlight Pictures highest per-theater average gross ever, and it ranks 21st on the all-time list.[47] On its second weekend the film expanded to 90 theaters, and grossed $3.3 million, ranking it as the sixth film at the box-office.[48]

Critical reception

Scott Franklin, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Darren Aronofsky, and a moderator stand on a stage with a golden curtain backdrop wearing formal attire and discussing Black Swan
Black Swan cast and crew (from left to right: producer Scott Franklin, actress Mila Kunis, actor Vincent Cassel, director Darren Aronofsky) discuss the film with a moderator at the BFI London Film Festival, where the movie was nominated for Best Film

Black Swan has received high praise from film critics.[49] Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of 183 critics have given the film a positive review, holding an average score of 8.2/10 with particular praise for Portman's performance.[49] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of notable critics from the media, the film holds an average rating of 87%, based on 38 reviews.[50] According to the website, the film's critical consensus is, "Bracingly intense, passionate, and wildly melodramatic, Black Swan glides on Darren Aronofsky's bold direction -- and a bravura performance from Natalie Portman."[49] Review aggregate Metacritic has given the film a weighted score of 78, based on 40 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[51]

In September 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that based on reviews from the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival, "[Black Swan] is already set to be one of the year’s most love-it-or-hate-it movies."[52] Reuters described the early response to the film as "largely positive" with Portman's performance being highly praised.[53] The Sydney Morning Herald reported, "The film divided critics. Some found its theatricality maddening, but most declared themselves 'swept away'."[54]

A line outside the entrance to the 2010 Venice International Film Festival with flags of several countries waving above the door
Black Swan opened at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, making it the third consecutive Aronofsky film to be screened at the ceremony. It was nominated for the Golden Lion and Mila Kunis won the Marcello Mastroianni Award.

Mike Goodridge from Screen Daily called Black Swan "alternately disturbing and exhilarating" and described the film as a hybrid of The Turning Point and Polanski's films Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. Goodridge described Portman's performance, "[She] is captivating as Nina ... she captures the confusion of a repressed young woman thrown into a world of danger and temptation with frightening veracity." The critic also commended Cassel, Kunis, and Hershey in their supporting roles, particularly comparing Hershey to Ruth Gordon in the role of "the desperate, jealous mother". Goodridge praised Libatique's cinematography with the dance scenes and the psychologically "unnerving" scenes: "It's a mesmerising psychological ride that builds to a gloriously theatrical tragic finale as Nina attempts to deliver the perfect performance."[55]

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter had less praise for the film. He wrote, "[Black Swan] is an instant guilty pleasure, a gorgeously shot, visually complex film whose badness is what's so good about it. You might howl at the sheer audacity of mixing mental illness with the body-fatiguing, mind-numbing rigors of ballet, but its lurid imagery and a hellcat competition between two rival dancers is pretty irresistible." Honeycutt commended Millepied's "sumptuous" choreography and Libatique's "darting, weaving" camera work. The critic said of the thematic mashup, "Aronofsky ... never succeeds in wedding genre elements to the world of ballet ... White Swan/Black Swan dynamics almost work, but the horror-movie nonsense drags everything down the rabbit hole of preposterousness."[56]

Top ten lists

The film was featured on the American Film Institute's 10 Movies of the Year.[citation needed]

The film appears on many critics' top 10 lists of 2010.

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Black Swan

References

  1. ^ Zeitchik, Steven (September 17, 2010). "Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' a feature film of a different feather". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 30, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Black Swan (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Ditzian, Eric (August 30, 2010). "'Black Swan' Director Darren Aronofsky On Ballet, Natalie Portman And Lesbian Kisses". MTV Movies Blog. MTV. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  4. ^ Wigler, Josh (December 8, 2009). "Natalie Portman Joined Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' To Explore Her Adulthood". MTV Movies Blog. MTV. Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
  5. ^ Lesnick, Silas (December 13, 2009). "Mila Kunis Talks Black Swan". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
  6. ^ Douglas, Edward (August 7, 2010). "Exclusive: Vincent Cassel Back for Eastern Promises 2". ComingSoon.net. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Wloszczyna, Susan (July 22, 2010). "'Black Swan' stars step deftly into roles". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  8. ^ "Portman's 'hyper' ballet training". Press Association. September 1, 2010. Archived from the original on September 1, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  9. ^ Wolf, Jeanne (September 3, 2009). "Mila Kunis: 'Who Wants To Be Normal?'". Parade. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  10. ^ Kisselgoff, Anna (December 19, 2009). "Georgina Parkinson, Star At Royal Ballet, Dies at 71". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 28, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  11. ^ Fuhrer, Margaret (2010). "Ballet All Over: Big Names in Black Swan". Pointe Magazine. Macfadden Performing Arts Media. Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2010. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |archivedate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Kourlas, Gia (2009). "On The Rise". Vogue. OCLC 320236642. Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |archivedate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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