A couple of nights ago, Grandpère and I went to see "Black Swan". GP pushed me to go, which surprised me, because I didn't think he'd care to see a ballet movie. The ratings were positive, for the most part, and I was happy to go.
What a wild emotional ride the movie turned out to be. We were both swept up in the experience and stayed with it until the end. "Black Swan" has been described as a psychosexual thriller, and that's about right. I'll try my best not to give away too much of the story, as I write about the movie. Wonder of wonders, Grandpère, who has never been to a ballet, now says that he would like to see a ballet. For him, the film was a conversion experience.
Across the board, the principal actors gave fine performances. Natalie Portman, as Nina Sayers, an aspiring ballerina, was amazing. I read that she did 90% of the dancing in the movie. She and Mila Kunis, who played Lily, Nina's rival/friend (in an impressive performance!), both spent several months practicing and getting into shape to play their roles as dancers.
The artistic director of the ballet company to which both Nina and Lily belong, Thomas Leroy (Victor Cassel), plucks Nina from the corps de ballet to dance, according to tradition, the dual starring roles of Odette/Odile, the good white swan and the evil black swan. Leroy is confidant of Nina's ability to dance the part of Odette, but he harbors doubts that Nina has what it takes to dance the evil Odile. Lily is chosen as the understudy.
Barbara Hershey (Erica Sayers) as the creepy, smothering, former ballet-dancer stage mother of Nina was outstanding, as were Winona Ryder (Beth Macintyre), in a cameo role as the aging ballerina, edged out of the limelight, and Vincent Cassel (Thomas Leroy) as the artistic director.
Benjamin Millepied plays David, Nina's dance partner in "Swan Lake". The real-life Natalie Portman is now engaged to Millepied. and the two are expecting a baby.
The cinematography, which was shot in cinema verité style, is terrific, as is the score for the film, with Tchaikovsky's wonderful music for the ballet woven in. All the excellence is pulled together by the director Darren Aronofsky from a screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz.
Make no mistake, the movie put us through an emotional wringer and won't be soon forgotten. The film is many-layered, and I know I missed out on a good many details in certain scenes. After GP and I left, and we questioned each other, "What really happened there and there?" We answered some, but not all of the questions that we posed one to the other, and, about certain scenes, we concluded that there may be no one answer.
I highly recommend the movie, although I expect it won't be everyone's cup of tea. But keep in mind that GP and I have fairly different tastes in movies, and we'd both like to see the film again.
