This is an over-rated and 'fake art house' film

Rating: 2/10 (26 February 2011)

It's amazing how many times this film has been reviewed on this site.
The answer is simple.
It's one of those films that gratifies the limited intellectual and aesthetic awareness of the masses, who, let's face it, don't really understand cinema.
Usually what US cinema does, is survey European cinema, steal any successful film they think can be translated culturally into an American idiom, and create a US version. The leading US filmmakers will even steal British stories such as Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton) and Gullivers Travels (Rob Letterman) to make a fast buck out of other cultures indigenous creativity. Now they are doing it with the Stieg Larsson films!!!
Here, with Black Swan we have a film that has taken the process a stage further. It is a film that looks like it might be a European art house film. The male lead sounds like he is French, the majority of actors hold back displaying overt American accents. New York is not paraded like a shiny medal, like it is in most US films. There's a crazy woman in a really small apartment, two actually,.. no three. It's dark and gloomy the whole time, we can't work out what is real and what is not, it taps into the unconscious rather than follow a neat story, it really confronts the truth of life. Not !
Vomit !
Also, if I remember correctly, no-one gets killed. How can a film be classed as American if no-one gets killed or murdered?? OK, we are led to believe these things happen, but they are clearly deranged projections of the leading character. ..A bit of a case of having your cake and eating it, i.e. in US films, sorry, 'MOVIES,' people get killed, but here people can get killed, and then we are told, 'it was only a dream.' How nice !
It's shot in low light, with fast film. This is a technique used originally by documentary filmmakers to bludgeon their audience into believing that what they are viewing is real, honest and truthful. Please !
In the best European cinema, we are left asking questions. An ultimate and traditional resolution is not that important. Here in black swan, there aren't any questions buzzing around in our mind at the end of the film, only soporific and banal ones, such as, 'is success really that important? Profound !
American cultural production does not ask questions. Their culture demands certainty so the audience won't feel undermined or belittled by things. How insecure is that????
Underneath the stylistic deceptions of this film, it's just a very traditional reactionary story, protagonist struggles against all the odds, antagonist tries to stop her, turning point one, turning point two, resolution, blah blah blah.
Black Swan seems to display a freer attitude to sexuality than most American films, but at no point are we allowed to see a female breast. I don't go to the cinema to see such things, I'm just making the point that showing female breasts is anathema in US culture and cinema. So even the depiction of sex is a bit fake in this film.
This just leaves the question, why are US filmmakers making fake European art house films? The answer? - $$$..Dollars ! The quickest way to make money is to gratify the fragile egos of the people with money in their wallets.
PS As I submitted this review, I was not allowed to submit it because my spelling mistakes were highlighted so I had to go back and correct them. These spelling 'mistakes' were intentional, and used for creative effect. Very ironic that it did not let me use them !