Black Swan: The Beauty of Aronofsky's Reminiscence of Gothic Fiction and Dario Argento's Suspiria

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2010)

Tonight I attended the opening night of the Virginia Film Festival and got the chance to see a premiere showing of the highly anticipated film by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan. The film tells the tale of Nina a professional ballerina, played by Natalie Portman, who is extremely hard working in order to attain the lead role of her ballet company's production of Swan Lake. The director of the production, played by Guy Pierce, is looking to create a new provocative form of the classic ballet by having the same dancer, performing as the Swan Queen, portray both the White Swan and her evil and seductive twin sister, the Black Swan. Nina, who is nothing but perfect for the White Swan, cannot produce the correct form of sensuality and eroticism that her director can accept for the Black Swan. However, with Nina's lacking comes a new comer named Lily, played by Mila Kunis. Lily is a rival character to Nina's goal in that she possesses the sexuality and eroticism that Nina lacks. Throughout the film, tension builds as Nina begins to see unnatural and disturbing visions that make the audience wonder if Lily is out to get her or another jealous character.
This film is all about tension and beauty paired with extremely disturbing images of sex and violence, including self mutilation. Furthermore, the film makes it very difficult to tell whether certain visions are real or simply illusions. What impressed me the most, was the film's subtlety in terms of showing blood. Like John Carpenter's masterpiece, Halloween, Aronofsky plays a similar hand in that Black Swan shows very little to no blood at all. However, even without the gore and bloodshed, this film still had the capability to make the entire audience cringe in pain. For example, one particular scene involved Nina pulling at what looked to be a piece of dangling flesh on her middle finger's cuticle. She pulls and tugs at it, all while we hear the tearing and ripping of flesh. Then for a quick second we see her pull a long piece of torn flesh off of her finger. At moments like these, the audience, myself included, reacted by cringing and hissing in pain. While having mostly subtle images of blood, there are some rather grisly scenes in the film as well. I must say that Darren Aronofsky presented the violence beautifully in a way that seemed very reflexive of Dario Argento's Suspiria.
Meanwhile, along with the violence and disturbing masochism, we also are given extremely sexual scenes and images. This film is extremely sexual in terms of body language, derogatory slurs, and even scenes of sex and masturbation. These scenes were intense, but revealed Nina as becoming more experienced. In the beginning, Portman portrays Nina as a very sweet and innocent character who develops herself into a much darker individual by the end. The story is of Nina's metamorphosis into the one role she has obsessed over for years. Meanwhile, Lily seems to represent one of the sources of Nina's corruption in how they are both complete opposites, and it seems to be Lily's sexuality and attitude that attract Nina. Furthermore, we are given combinations of disturbing imagery with sex in specific scenes of the film. One scene, for example, involved Nina walking in on Lily having sex with what appears to be the director who is suddenly seen as a demonic visage with black wings. This ultimately provides the audience with a fusion of sex along with dark and disturbing imagery.
Overall, I must say, I was extremely impressed with the film. Having seen The Fountain, I have already been a fan of Aronofsky's work, but Black Swan was absolutely the most beautiful, psychological, and disturbing film I have seen since Shutter Island. I feel it is one of the best films of the year, and I couldn't be happier that I got the chance to see it. Natalie Portman was truly exquisite, and this was her best performance ever. I definitely believe that she deserves the Oscar Nomination for Best Actress. She does a beautiful job in presenting a character that the audience can't help but pity and, at times, even fear. Meanwhile, Mila Kunis, whom many know as the voice of Meg on Fox's Family Guy, was also fantastic and also deserves an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Kunis presents Lily as the character the audience can love and hate simultaneously. Furthermore, Winona Ryder also makes a few appearances in the film as a jealous dancer, named Beth, who is forced to retire. She makes a very frightening and stunning return back to the screen in a very impressive way.
I must say, this movie is definitely Aronofsky's masterpiece in that it produces the right amount of chills, thrills, and laughs. The camera work is phenomenal, and the art and set designs are gorgeous. Meanwhile, the artistry of the imagery of the film seems to beautifully reflect moments of Gothic literature. One could almost interpret it as a modern retelling of Swan Lake amalgamated with Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tell-Tale Heart." The plot is told at a very smooth pace, and by the ending the whole film flows together beautifully. I strongly recommend seeing this film. It's dark, violent, disturbing, sexual, and absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing. It ultimately reveals Aronofsky's artistry at its absolute finest.