Distasteful. Unenjoyable.

Rating: 3/10 (5 March 2017)

Ballet isn't my cup of tea, and never has been. It shapes an unnatural world populated by inhabitants who are aware of little else, and craves their souls as well as their bodies. The ballerinas I have known have been unbelievably ignorant of everything other than dance. It is arguable that the events in this film take place in Nina's mind, and not in reality, a plot resembling Vertigo, or Point Blank. Point Blank was OK, but I didn't go for Vertigo. In Black Swan all the people in the story (other than Nina) --- the ugly cloying mother, the other dancers, the twisted artistic director, are nasty and merciless bullies, mockers, users or exploiters. Nina, as her name suggests, is a challenged nonentity, a sad and innocent ninny, living in stressed and tortured misery.
There is a sense in which all that takes place on the screen is a projection of its director's and star's personal anguish and trauma. Those who consider this film to be a masterpiece, or ballet to be the acme of aestheticism, must be reminding themselves that suffering is the price of beauty. The frequency of the scenes with mirrors perhaps indicates the self-reflexive nature of this script.
Viewing this film was a distinctly unpleasant experience. The cumulative effect of masturbation, lesbian sex, self-harm, hallucinations, casting couch innuendo, and vomiting down toilet pans made me also want to throw up. It reminded me of the most unpleasant film I've ever seen, namely Irreversible. Picture my surprise when I discovered that Vincent Cassel had been cast as the male lead in both films. Only three stars, because I do not recommend it.