Saw "The Black Swan". Wow!

[ProfessorGAC]

My wife and i went to an early evening showing last night.

If you like movies that make you pay attention the whole time to keep up with what's going on, you'll love this movie.

Portman and Kunis are both excellent, the camera work is fantastic, and the plot, with a twist and turn every 2 minutes, is awesome.

A must see if you like cerebral movies.
GAC

[MilesColtrane]

1. Well, this scene certainly has my attention.

http://www.joblo.com/video/player.php?video=natalieportman_milakunis_blackswan1

[dawg]

2. Why did you make me watch that?

That is what I did *not* need to do.

[MilesColtrane]

3. I'm sure that scene is integral to the story and necessary to show the...

characters' development.

That's what Aronofsky kept telling Mila and Natalie.

[rug]

5. Thank you.

[Orrex]

19. It just wouldn't feel right for me to see this film

Considering how Natalie's been totally obsessed with me for years, going to her movie so flippantly would seem disrespectful somehow.

[MilesColtrane]

20. I think you should go ahead and see it.

The restraining order doesn't apply to visual images.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Bring Mila Kunis as your date.

[Iggo]

21. Um...yay!

[elocs]

4. This is where you lost me: "If you like movies that make you pay attention the whole time".

I go to movies for escape, so I don't care for cerebral movies although I do like Natalie Portman since her first role in "The Professional".

[ProfessorGAC]

6. It's Both

GAC

[tigereye]

7. was thinking about seeing it tomorrow

It sounds very good.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Here's The Thing

My wife and i both had the same experience. We are thinking about it more the next day then we did when we were watching it. AND, we both liked it at the time we were watching it.

But, man the more we think about it, the more interesting it is. Hope you can see it. It's a special film.
GAC

[tigereye]

24. well, it was thought-provoking and her performance

was excellent, and those of the actress who played her mom and Mila Kunis, were very good. The camera work was pretty intriguing.


But the plot seemed a bit too Freudian and obvious to me, and Bergman did it better. :D I could swear that was an ink blot on the wall in the ballet director's apartment!

[Howler]

9. My Husband and I have been looking forward

too seeing this flick.
The trailers look great.
Thank you for the critique ProfessorGAC.:hi:

[sandwiche]

10. intense little thriller

"Black Swan" had a definite effect on me as I was tense, nervous throughout. Great performances abound. It's a bit campy but that up'ed the enjoyment, personally.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. I Don't See The "Campy"

But, to each his/her own.
GAC

[charlie and algernon]

11. just saw it tonight, Natalie Portman gives a true tour de force performance

There aren't too many actors or actresses who could handle literally being in front of the camera THE. ENTIRE. MOVIE. But Portman is incredible. This is one of the few movies that held my strict attention the whole time. There was no down time at all, you're riveted to Portman. Kunis is great too, I'm a huge Family Guy fan, so I thought it would be hard NOT to see her as Meg, but she really shines. I hope she branches out and does more movies outside of Family Guy.

I highly recommend this movie!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ProfessorGAC]

16. That's What My Wife and I Said Too

Despite the quality of the other acting, the WHOLE MOVIE IS ALL ABOUT THE PORTMAN CHARACTER! It's on her 100% of the movie to carry the film, and she does it.

Clearly, you saw the same things in the movie we did.
GAC

[applegrove]

12. How was the dancing? That is what I am worried about.

[charlie and algernon]

13. I don't exactly know ballet, but Portman and Kunis seemed pretty convincing

I read on wiki that both of them trained for 6 months, 7 days a week, 5 hours a day, to learn how to do ballet. Plus they had professional ballet dancers as doubles for some of the scenes.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. It's Quite Good

My wife actually did some ballet, as an adult too. So, she's got some skills and can recognize them in others.

She says it's good. Portman does more than 90% of her own dancing and trained for 7 months for the role. So, i can see why.

Remember though, the camera work involves a lot of moving, drifting camera positions during the dancing so there are angle changes and close-ups even during the dance. There aren't a whole lot of full length, head to toe shots of the dancing. There are some, but a minority of the shots.

From what i can see, and i'm no expert, it's pretty darned good. It's better than the dancing in the Turning Point, and Leslie Brown was a real dancer. Her horrible acting in that proved she was more a dancer than a actor. And, i thought the dancing was as good and more interesting in this movie than in that old chestnut.
GAC

[applegrove]

25. Oh great. I'll definitely see black swan then.

[XemaSab]

14. I saw it a few days ago and HOLY SHIT

What a disturbing film.

It was GOOD, but I felt like the entire audience was cringing through every scene. :o

[ProfessorGAC]

15. I Felt The Same Way

And it gets worse as the movie goes on. There is a palpable discomfort in the theatre as time goes by.
GAC

[Lindsey]

22. I'm seeing it tonight at a friend's for New Year's. She works w/

someone who's a member of The Academy and he loaned her a selection of movies that they send to Academy members ("For your Consideration"). I'm stoked because this movie is at the top of my list. Thanks for the review.

[Skittles]

26. I went to see it because ballet creeps me out as much as clowns do

I was thoroughly creeped out and entertained

[derby378]

27. I think "Black Swan" was also the name of a Processan rock band

God, I am being such a religion geek.

[mnhtnbb]

28. I liked the movie but the camera work in the dance scenes drove me nuts!

Lack of full body shots indicates Portman didn't have
the technique to be a believable dancer regardless
of how well conditioned she was for the role.
As for her acting...wow.

And yes, I danced for many years.

[RobinA]

29. I Hated

the camerawork throughout. I hate, hate, hate movies with an overabundance of close-up.

[kwassa]

30. Some critics have crucified this film

http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=780

How many ballet clichés can one film hold? Answer: Enough to make you puke. And that is what Natalie Portman spends a fair amount of time doing in “Black Swan,” the pulp ballet movie directed by Darren Aronofsky, which opened December 3. Portman, who plays Nina Sayers, a corps member of a ballet company, isn’t just a bulimic. Like her historic predecessor Victoria Page in the film “Red Shoes” (1948), La Danse makes her bonkers. Ballet, as the old cliché goes, demands a ballerina’s complete subjugation of pleasure. And so the normal desires of a young woman—a love life, some independence and autonomy—are as remote to Nina as a good meal.

http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/dancing-dark-ballet-reduced-campy-cliches-black-swan

What really matters is that Black Swan deploys and exaggerates all the clichés of earlier ballet movies, especially The Red Shoes, another tale of a ballerina driven mad and suicidal. The heroine of Michael Powell's classic suffers because she's torn between Life and Art. The heroine of Black Swan suffers because she has a destructive ballet mother (as if this were unique), because she has lesbian impulses (they emerge in one of her psycho-fantasies) and because she is frigid—a serious no-no to male screenwriters and directors, who seem to find frigidity personally offensive. Clearly, she has to die.

Before she does, however, the company's impresario-choreographer (Vincent Cassel) does his best to unfreeze her, and when that doesn't work, he sends her home to masturbate—no doubt a tactic he learned from Balanchine and Ashton. Still game, she follows orders, but no go.