THE BLACK SWAN

As I watched this film, and subsequently weighed it up in my mind later on, I figured out what it is about Aronofsky’s films that doesn’t quite scan with me. I don’t quite know how to express the sentiment but there’s just… Too much of it. I mean, in a film, you obviously have various strati of emotion, sidelines and characters, it’s what prevents the film from becoming one sided, shallow and boring. But with Aronofsky, there is just too much of everything. Ok, this makes the film complicated, some may say even closer to life. His films are usually original – inimitable even – and packed with emotion that just simply knocks you out at the end, leaving you feeling as if you have been hit by a freight train… However, when you get to thinking about it – or rather when I get to thinking about it – I find that a lot of very interesting points just feel “not properly developed”. There is a lot of different stuff just packed in willy nilly. I mean, ok, one might argue that he is leaving some work to the viewer. I’m all for that, I do not want to be spoon fed. But you can have too many hints and mysteries in one film and wonderful as the result may be when you chase them down, I do not want to be Sherlock Holmes or have to have a degree in clinical psychology to actually “get” a film. I mean, you can have a few deep and mysterious allusions in a film, use them as a theme without completely explaining it throughout like Jarmusch for instance, I’m fine with that. It’s when you cram 20 such allusions into one film that I start to “tire” of the whole thing.
So, stripping all allusions aside, what is Black Swan about? Nina (Nathalie Portman one of our newest Oscar ®winners. Now hand on heart, I truly believe that hers was one of the best performances of the year.)is a ballerina. Now, ballet may look all floaty and beautiful to you and me, but in reality, it is cut-throat, like all art forms behind the scenes. Nina is among the best of the best, working for a Thomas Leroy, a very VERY tough taskmaster and head of company. To add to all that, her mother, who is her biggest supporter also used to be a ballerina. She was not nearly as successful as her daughter but because of this, she is determined to live out her dreams through her daughter, adding to the pressure. Now, ballet, as you know, like the opera, is one of those art forms that is sadly reduced to “clinging on for dear life” as far as popularity is concerned. So as the new season begins, there is no room for error and the competition among the soloists as to who is going to be the new leading lady / face of the company in Swan Lake, their new production is deadly. Against all the odds, Nina is chosen, but Leroy has a serious problem with her. She is perfect, he says, as the White Swan, but her Black Swan is very far from being convincing. She is “pure and good” and that’s very well, but when it comes to being “feminine and seductive” shy Nina is considered frigid and underdeveloped. Nina must change herself into the Black Swan for real and for the audience if she wants her life’s ambition to be a success but will her efforts and the pressure mounting up on all sides take a heavier toll than she can handle?
Looked at very simply, The Black Swan is the story of a woman discovering sex, sensuality and reaching “maturity” sexually. It is an important theme, I’ll give you that, but on its own, it would have done a lot better. It is possibly the aim of the director to make the film chaotic, mirroring Nina’s crumbling inner world, but really, I can’t help asking whether it was absolutely necessary to “crumble” the audience as well. There is a lot left “up in the air”, Nina’s relationship with her mother, her actual relationship with sex as a concept and the reasons for this point of view, her process of self discovery, feelings of jealousy, discovery and betrayal are all glossed over, started on but lead nowhere. I find it rather amusing to see that because of the profusion of women and sex in it, the film seems very popular with men yet not so popular with women. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the emotional climax is absolutely superb, why at the very end I had goose bumps (swan bumps even?) all over my body. My point is you are left unsatisfied. You’re left with hints and impressions of things, deep, important and striking things but… I don’t know it’s obviously a film to be watched more than once. I’ll watch it again and let you know if my opinion has changed but I definitely think it could have been done a lot better. Now don’t jump down my throat, I’m not saying I could do better. Maybe just that I would like to see a different director’s point of view of this script…