Darren Aronofsky's latest voyage into performative obsession is both grittily observational and nightmarishly surreal. It immerses you in the disintegrating psyche of ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) so convincingly that, like Nina, you're never sure whether what you're watching is real; Portman brilliantly balances naive fragility and increasingly deranged ambition. It's as masterful as the illusion that ballet is light and effortless.
Swan Lake's themes of sexual repression, delusion and self-annihilation have been contemporised by Matthew Bourne and Graeme Murphy; Aronofsky's self-reflexive version cannily employs melodramatic dance-movie clichés. Paranoid competition between dancers. Creepy, dominating stage moms. Kinetic sexuality. Vulnerable, injured bodies. Tchaikovsky's familiar motifs are everywhere in Clint Mansell's eerie score; the soundtrack is alive with pointe shoes scuffing like swans' wings, and fluttery, unseen breaths.
As manipulative artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) tells Nina, true ballet perfection means abandoning self-control, though this has already destroyed prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder). As Nina struggles free from a mother (Barbara Hershey) who's enthralled her as cruelly as an evil sorcerer, becomes fascinated by rebellious new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis), and actually mutates into a frickin' swan, Aronofsky never loses sight of her ultimate goal: the sublime glamour of perfect performance.
What:
Black Swan
When:
In cinemas from January 20
Watch Trailer:
Here
Win:
Thanks to Fox, we have 4 dbls to give away! To enter, email us with the subject line ‘I just want to be perfect‘
Email address:
brisbane.win@rightanglestudio.com.au
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