Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Black Swan


Like its mercurial heroine it’s hard to pin down just what Black Swan is as a film.

That rare erotic movie that is actually erotic? One of the greatest “Body Horrror” films ever made (There are more loving lingering shots to the aftermath of grievous bodily harm than in any movie this side of Cronenberg’s Crash)? A shameless appropriation of Michael Powell? The greatest Head film of the last decade? Yes, yes, yes, yes and more.

It’s as if Roman Polanski and Dario Argento teamed up to remake The Red Shoes. It’s as if Eyes Wide Shut era Stanley Kubrick went completely mental. Yet for all the influences it wears, for all the masters it brings to mind, for all the things it embodies, there is something in Black Swan that makes it unquestionably Aronofsky’s and unquestionably itself. Maybe it’s something as simple as the fact that it’s impossible to imagine any of the aforementioned directors would be loose enough to insert an out and out gag into their film right before the big climax.

Black Swan is of course, the story of a young ballet dancer played by Natalie Portman. Things begin to unravel for her when she wins the lead role in "Swan Lake". A part that forces her to tap into some seriously repressed id. Things are exacerbated by the appearance of a rival played by Mila Kunis, who has a direct line to said id. Much madness/sexiness ensues.

Natalie Portman is a revelation here. Up until this point I always considered her an actress who would never rise past “Good”. She has her bag of tricks, and her performances are always just as good as how well the director knows how to showcase those tricks. The film plays as a very knowing take on her “good girl” persona. To the point were I find it kind of impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. She’s tried to play against that persona before. But that work always felt very calculated. Her work in films like Closer was all very White Swan. This role is pure Black. There are shots in the film were she looks twelve and shots were she looks fifty. And when she finally dances The Black Swan she genuinely seems like someone who I’ve never seen before.



Mila Kunis as the other half of the duo, does some shockingly credible work here. I’ve always thought of her as a very undervalued actress. She’s been in some stinkers (Max Payne anyone?) but anyone who watches Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Extract and does not see one seriously sharp comedienne is not looking hard enough. Even in straight roles, like The Book Of Eli, she’s been charming. Still it’d hardly be an insult to point out that she’s never had a role that pushes her this far out of her comfort zone before. She’s playing with the big boys here and I for one think she performs admirably. She’s all anime eyes and salaciousness, who promises to be an obscene amount of fun. Only she could offer the line “Was I good?” and have it suggest about five distinct levels of mischief, each more malignant then the last.

Rounding out the cast is Vincent Cassell, who yields his experience like a weapon, and Winnoa Ryder in a small but crucial role. One which seems almost a bit of a waste until she absolutely detonates in her last scene (And can I just point out how strange it is that someone who was a sex symbol in my lifetime is now playing “Mom” roles almost exclusively)

At the end of the day the star is Aronofsky. As always with Aronofsky it’s a cinema of obsession. Perhaps no other director in recent memory has devoted so much screen time to the fetishtic preparation of things. The shots of the ballet dancers fiercely ripping out their seams, battering their equipment, and wrapping their bruised flesh, is shot with the same unrelenting detail as The Fighters building their gags in The Wrestler, the junkies preparing their fixes in Requiem, Hugh Jackman placing his tattoos in The Fountain, and Max’s preparing his equations in Pi. That same fervent quasi religious single minded sense of ritual. Things made sacred through obsession. Also like all of Aronofksy’s films that obsession eventually destroys the one who obsesses and whether that is a release or a final damnation is left entirely to the viewer.


Aronofsky uses both the performances and his unrivaled visual imagination he keeps the entire film perched on the edge of hysteria. A tone that can so easily fall into camp that it almost seems preordained that any movie that tries to skate it will fail. I saw the film at a full house and during one particular go for broke sequence. A good fourth of the audience started laughing. But the odd thing was it did nothing to dissipate the mood the film had created. The laughter didn’t sound merely nervous, but sick. Far from sounding as if the audience were rejecting Aronofsky’s lunacy, it seemed as though he had done nothing so much as pull them right into the thick of it.

Earlier in the review I mentioned Kubrick. Dropping the K word is no less an invitation to duel then a glove slap. It’s the superlative of superlatives and it’s practically begging for someone to come in an accuse you of hyperbole.

And with good reason. Kubrick made movies that were truly singular to film works of art that were genuinely nothing but cinema. Good or bad Kubrick films are separate, truly only of the seventh art.

Which is why he makes such an inviting branch to clutch to when the viewer is dragged by the currents of something that is truly unfamiliar. Something that for all the influence it owes is profoundly itself and owes almost nothing to what we’re “used to.” Those are as I said the type of film that Kubrick made and that is the kind of film Aronofsky has made here.

11 comments:

Andrew said...

Fantastic review....
I desperately want to see this movie.

Simon said...

Mila Kunis is pretty undervalued, yeah. I mean, I'm already predisposed to like her, having watched her on That 70s Show for, like, three years, but still.

Polanski and Argento team up to remake The Red Shoes. Best description I've heard all day.

Lyz said...

Got to say, great review! Love the comparisons. I totally see where you are coming with the comparison to Kubrick. He's my favorite director, but his individual style though not technically similar to Aronofsky set the two apart. You can tell when you watch an Aronofsky film you are watching a film of his, just as the first few frames of Kubrick's work give him away as the director.

Neil Fulwood said...

I'm with Simon - you had me at "it’s as if Roman Polanski and Dario Argento teamed up to remake The Red Shoes"!

Anonymous said...

Wow. I was ambivalent about this film after seeing the preview once a few weeks ago, but now you've intrigued me to the point that I'm convinced to make it the next movie I see in the theatre. Great review. I now have the feeling that, even if I hate it, I'll love it- and regret missing it if I don't go. Thanks! :D

Bryce Wilson said...

@ Andrew: Many thanks, and don't worry I have a feeling this is one that anticipation won't ruin.

@ Simon: Yeah it's funny, I'm not sure why I just find her likable. She seems twice as spunky as most of her contemparies.

@ Lyz: Very Well put. It's really interesting to see how Aronofsky tweaks his style. Here he uses sixteen mm film (from what I've heard anyway) that makes it look like a sequel to The Wrestler, and then fills it with images as crazy as those in The Fountain. But like you said, it's always him.

@Neil: Many thanks. The more I think about it this really does seem to be totally a piece with Repulsion/Knife In The Water/Rosemary's Baby Polanski.

@ Jess: Aw thanks Jess, so nice of you to say.

Whether you'll love it or hate it I can guarentee it'll make an impact. So many films are just teflon, this one really gets under your skin.

Chris David Richards said...

Aronofsky's films really hit me. Sometimes they're so distressing I don't actually want to watch them, which is a strange compliment.

Bryce Wilson said...

I can definitely understand the impulse. Both Pi and Requiem For A Dream have gotten exactly one watch a piece from me, despite the fact that I own them.

I may take down Requiem any day now for an entry in Scenes.

It's like it's taunting me.

Biba Pickles said...

I really liked the movie. I got interviewed after I saw it in front of The Palm. I posted it on my blog. I'm in a dress made out of tinsel. I feel like the movie had the same feel as Requiem For A Dream, but without Jared Leto (which is a plus if you've seen him now). I find it funny how everyone wanted to touch Natalie Portman's vag, but then again it isn't too different from real life.

Daniel Silberberg said...

What part did people laugh at?

Bryce Wilson said...

It was the part where Portman's legs bend back into bird's legs.

It just cracked the audience.