"I just want to be perfect." Nina
☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece
Black Swan (2010) is a melodramatic horror film with performances that are disturbing and haunting.
Directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey.
Darren Aronofsky does a magnificent artistic directorial creation with Black Swan with an ending that is mystifying. Darrens ending reminds me of Andrei Trakovsky's final scene in Solaris (1972). We go see movies to escape and have fun and learn something about ourselves through a film characters life story. The most important part of a movie is it's ending. A movie can be horrible in the beginning and middle, but if the ending is magnificent, we walk away thinking the movie was good. Film makers know this and that is why good movies end the way they do. Now, that does not mean that every good movie has to have a happy ending to be consider by audience members as great. On the contrary, to an audience, a great ending means that the film has a surprises the viewer. Darren does have a whopper of a surprise ending and it is a great ending that will have people thinking about it for years to come.
The scene below is one of several favorites of mine, because both Natalie and Mila have incredible chemistry in this moment. Natalie is working internally which balances Mila's physicality. Watch how Mila just throws off the line, "was I good" with brilliant comedic timing and irony.
Vincent has some great moments after Natalie kisses him back stage during her performance. His look is real and he looks like he was caught off guard by Natalie's amazing kiss.
Throughout the film I kept thinking Natalie would have an onscreen nervous breakdown. Portman is reviting from beginning to end. Natalie brought out the nuances in her characters inner life even while ballet dancing.
Barbara Hershey is her usual wickedly fun, ironic self. Barbara has such expressive eyes. Hershey brings out this dark, distributing relationship with Natalie.
Trivia - Natalie Portman lost twenty pounds for the role of Nina.
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