I'm glad i saw it...!

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2012)

I never thought I would enjoy so much a movie containing elements of ballet, opera etc. But I'm glad I watched it. There's an old quote saying that many people who are successful in their job, they end up losers concerning their private life. And that what this movie is about.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman)is an introverted ballerina who sacrifices every aspect of her life in order to play both the roles of white and black swan in Tchaikovsky's ballet, Swan Lake. Raised by a somewhat authoritarian mother who never managed to be a great ballerina herself, she projects her needs onto Nina. A great mistake frequently occurring in many families. Nina is disciplined but also extremely fragile so when her instructor Thomas (Vincent Cassel) wakes up her sexuality in order to help her play the Black Swan who is a sensual one, she becomes disoriented. Apart from her awakened desires, she also has to confront with a rival ballerina Lily (Mila Kunis), a potential substitute.
And this is where the nightmare escalates. Nina's suppressed sexuality, combined with her anxiety for playing both swans lead to a psychotic episode and the view of it makes us all feel anxious and uncomfortable. From now on the movie is frenzy. You can't tell what is real and what is not and the ambiguous finale does not really remove our pressure.
A movie that reminded me very much of Polanski's "Repulsion", a movie about handling the pressure in everyday life, something not always so easy... Portman's performance is excellent, an accurate depiction of fragility well supported by the rest of the cast..!
Thank you for reading this. See you...