Trailer Tuesday: Black Swan

-

You can think of psychological thriller Black Swan as director Darren (Requiem for a Dream) Aronofsky's sister film to his highly acclaimed The Wrestler. It's not so much that the films are thematically similar - the guys in The Wrestler share a supportive brotherly bond; in Black Swan it's all about vicious female rivalry - but if The Wrestler explored the macho, muscled world of pro-wrestling, Black Swan immerses itself in the grace and femininity associated with ballet and ballet companies. For the record, Aronofsky has himself also outlined some similarities between his two films, both of which are about performers who entertain, and express themselves, by pushing their bodies to their physical limits.


Black Swan is gearing up to be one of the must-sees of the American Autumn and Winter movie season - a period typically associated with quality, highbrow cinema after the mindless blockbusters released March through August.

Black Swan stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey. As the trailer establishes, the film centres on Nina (Portman), a New York City ballerina, who lives and breathes her art. Years of dedication and sacrifice seem to finally be paying off when Nina is chosen to replace her company's prima ballerina (Ryder). However, almost immediately Nina faces tough competition from new dancer Lily (Kunis), who lacks Nina's effortless grace and perfectionism, but makes up for it in terms of her intuitiveness and blatant sensuality. Suddenly Nina isn't necessarily first choice for the season opening production of Swan Lake, which requires a female lead who can convincingly dance both the "good" white swan and "bad" black swan. Despite the rivalry, a twisted friendship develops between Lily and Nina - while at the same time Nina starts to unravel due to stress, paranoia and the exploration of her dark side.


Black Swan had its world premiere at the 2010 Venice Film Festival last week on 1 September, where it received a standing ovation and heaps of praise. Right now Portman - who, along with Kunis, underwent extensive ballet training for months prior to filming - looks like a forerunner for the Best Actress Oscar at next year's Academy Awards.

I don't watch nearly as many "arty," pedigreed films at the cinema as I should - normally because they're in limited release in South Africa, and only screening at cinemas painfully remote for me. However, I can say now that without doubt I'll be making an effort to see Black Swan, regardless of where it's showing. Some of my favourite movies have been about professional rivalries - Amadeus, The Prestige - and Black Swan seems to be definitely in that cinematic vein.

Also, judging by the trailer, Nina's descent into psychosis will be pretty damn unsettling, if beautifully shot. And I'm always drawn to uncomfortable, unnerving movies! Out of interest, Black Swan has already been compared to Polanski's Repulsion and David Cronenberg's early work. And personally I'm getting a strong The Piano Teacher vibe from it as well.

Black Swan enjoys a limited release in the United States from 1 December. It's unclear when the film will open in South Africa but I'd estimate it to be sometime between February and April 2011, given that's normally the time when awards season heavyweights reach our shores.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding
Read more