I agree with you. it was 'nice' and 'a bit scary'. I'd never buy the Dvd. Am sad, it could have been so much more.
And for fucks sake, next time use an actual dancer who can do her own pirouettes. I don't care how well NP trained, she still didn't have the raw soul and energy of an actual dancer.
Yes, all those dancing scenes that avoided her feet were distracting - especially in the final performance when it's so important to capture the whole body of the ballerina.
I must disagree with you about Lily. There's a distinction that needs to be made between the real Lily and the imagined Lily of Nina's hallucinations. The first is a carefree and fun-loving but friendly girl whilst the latter is a dangerous force of seduction. One is trying to sabotage Nina, whilst the other wants to help her.
I particularly liked the way Nina's transformation can be interpreted as her gradually descending into madness but also as her trying to be the perfect Swan Queen by living the role.
Finally, I always like the whole "play within a play" idea and it was executed quite well in this instance if you ask me, especially as we don't fully realise just how much it does until the very end. Thomas talks about stripping bare Swan Lake and making it more visceral at the beginning of the film and that's exactly what was achieved. Black Swan is a modern day interpretation of the story.
I agree with your take on Lily - my point was that the film failed exactly because there was that distinction. They should have pushed it harder and made Lily's character more ambiguous, her threat perhaps not a part of Nina's imagination. Because it was quite clear that she was sympathetic to Nina, it took away tension and suspense from the film. But, like I said, I did enjoy the film and thought a lot of it worked well. I genuinely thought Lily had been murdered towards the end and it was a nice touch to find out Nina had stabbed herself instead.
The "play within a play" and the descent into madness storyline played very predictably, but enjoyably.
Yeah, the film was undeniably predictable, particularly as the whole plot was basically revealed from the start, except for the stabbing. We were tricked into thinking that Nina stabbing Lily was the reveal. That was probably the cleverest bit of misdirection in the entire film.
I hope Natalie Portman gets the Oscar for this one because I can honestly say that I didn't know how good she could be until I saw that.
Natalie Portman definitely carried the film for me. Apparently she got engaged and pregnant to the dancer who plays the prince in the film [/Heat mag gossip]
I wanted to write about it, but I just hit a brick wall every time I try.
I found it an extremely painful film to watch, on all sorts of layers, but ultimately deeply unsatisfying and kind of hollow. I wish there'd been more to Nina than your standard issue uptight girl; I wish Lily had felt more like a real person (although in fairness she barely got any *real* screentime, I guess!). I wish they'd been less heavy-handed with their use of mirrors - I felt bludgeoned by the motif, rather than interested. I never felt like there was any ambiguity to anything - hey, look, Nina's in white again and Lily's in black! - and there was never any other possible ending to the story. Maybe that's partly because they stuck so closely to Swan Lake, but I never felt like there was anything at stake for Nina. What does she want at any point? What does she like? Does she enjoy anything? Is there ever any hope she might survive, or find any enjoyment in anything, or ... fuck, have a second of fun? She started off mentally unstable and ended up dead
( ... )
I never felt like there was any ambiguity to anything - hey, look, Nina's in white again and Lily's in black!
Exactly.
I didn't think she died in the end though! I thought the director calling her "little princess" (as Lily predicted) symbolised the "death" of goody two shoes Nina and the birth of the new "Beth". But this was unsatisfying to me because it was predictable quite early on.
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And for fucks sake, next time use an actual dancer who can do her own pirouettes. I don't care how well NP trained, she still didn't have the raw soul and energy of an actual dancer.
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I particularly liked the way Nina's transformation can be interpreted as her gradually descending into madness but also as her trying to be the perfect Swan Queen by living the role.
Finally, I always like the whole "play within a play" idea and it was executed quite well in this instance if you ask me, especially as we don't fully realise just how much it does until the very end. Thomas talks about stripping bare Swan Lake and making it more visceral at the beginning of the film and that's exactly what was achieved. Black Swan is a modern day interpretation of the story.
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The "play within a play" and the descent into madness storyline played very predictably, but enjoyably.
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I hope Natalie Portman gets the Oscar for this one because I can honestly say that I didn't know how good she could be until I saw that.
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I found it an extremely painful film to watch, on all sorts of layers, but ultimately deeply unsatisfying and kind of hollow. I wish there'd been more to Nina than your standard issue uptight girl; I wish Lily had felt more like a real person (although in fairness she barely got any *real* screentime, I guess!). I wish they'd been less heavy-handed with their use of mirrors - I felt bludgeoned by the motif, rather than interested. I never felt like there was any ambiguity to anything - hey, look, Nina's in white again and Lily's in black! - and there was never any other possible ending to the story. Maybe that's partly because they stuck so closely to Swan Lake, but I never felt like there was anything at stake for Nina. What does she want at any point? What does she like? Does she enjoy anything? Is there ever any hope she might survive, or find any enjoyment in anything, or ... fuck, have a second of fun? She started off mentally unstable and ended up dead ( ... )
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Exactly.
I didn't think she died in the end though! I thought the director calling her "little princess" (as Lily predicted) symbolised the "death" of goody two shoes Nina and the birth of the new "Beth". But this was unsatisfying to me because it was predictable quite early on.
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