Snapping Point
A.O. Scott‘s 1.2.11 N.Y. Times piece on Black Swan, “a leading candidate for the most misunderstood film of 2010,” and especially Natalie Portman‘s lead performance makes for very stirring reading. He seems to really get into the scheme of it, the duality and the conflict in Darren Aronfosky‘s melodrama of meltdown.
Add this to Manohla Dargis‘s 12.3 review and two of my own riffs — “Effing Brilliant,” my Toronto Film Festival review, and an early December piece called “Swans and Fables” — and there’s plenty to kick around.
Portman, says Scott, seems “to be participating in the invention of a new kind of screen performance. In its various iterations, the Method has been about using voice and gesture to express a character’s deep psychological truth. Ms. Portman, like other young actors working with filmmakers who emphasize the visceral and the immediate, seems almost to reverse this process. Nina’s psychological state is evidently part of the artifice of Black Swan, but her body, subject to unimaginable (and sometimes unreal) mutations and mutilations, is the film’s ground zero of authenticity.
Portman “succeeds in erasing the boundary between reality and fantasy…by hurling herself, with reckless conviction, into Nina’s world and becoming both the monster and the victim in this horror movie.
“Which is another way of saying that she is both the black swan and the white, both the perfectly controlled performer and the pure creature of instinct. We can assure ourselves that Nina does not really turn into a bird. We also know, being sane and disciplined moviegoers, that Ms. Portman — pregnant and engaged (to the movie’s choreographer) and happy in the wake of her latest professional triumph — is not Nina Sayers. But we also know, on the irrefutable evidence of our own eyes, and the prickly sensation of our skin, that she is.”
Talk to the yentas! They don’t feel they’re misunderstanding Black Swan at all. They feel on some gut level that they understand it all too well. Which they don’t or can’t. Not really, I mean. Which is too bad. Because I for one would be at peace if Black Swan beat out The Social Network for Best Picture. I know this can’t and won’t happen. But what a shame. Because Black Swan has the leaping emotion that The Social Network lacks — it’s a full emotional boat, the kind of thing that rises and crashes and washes over like great wave.
The Social Network has plenty of emotion. The ending made me reflect on my past and present in the tech industry. It made me desirous of something more. It’s the movie that affected me the most emotionally this year.
Black Swan is a beautiful movie. I’d fault it for the overbearing nature of the score, but my opinion was swayed on this point after discussing it with others and listening to a film podcast that I trust.
I agree 100% with your championing of “Black Swan’s” brillance and emotionality, but please curb your use of “yentas.” I know you face yourself a no-bull straight-shooter, but using that word that way is more-than-a-little culturally insensitive.
I don’t get the part about “reversing the method.” Many actors have transformed themselves physically to reach a level of authenticity, and many convey emotion through affect alone. Natalie didn’t do anything new.
I mean there isn’t anything to “get” in this film. It’s all laid out; Aronofsky has the subtlety of Paul Haggis. It’s whether people want to accept a campy melodramatic horror film, where a dancer loses her mind. The film itself is its biggest hurdle. It hasn’t stopped people from going to see it though.
“a new kind of performance”
Except it’s not new. It’s a remake of Perfect Blue.
Remember people, don’t feed the troll – stay away from Rashad/Armond White.
Anyway, literally just saw this movie a few hours ago for a second time, and while the first 2 acts were a bit more mundane this time around, the 3rd act was infinitely more intense. Maybe it was because this time I saw it in a better theater, but I loved it even more this time. As Scott says, I usually just call the characters by the actors name unless A) they’re an unknown guy/girl or B) they’re amazing in the role. Portman falls into the latter category. Her performance really makes the movie.
Portman’s performance annoyed me at first, but as the films plays out her work is subtle and clever. Her dance work in this film is so layered that, when she finally dances the black swan triumphantly at the end, you actually see the difference from her earlier attempts. It’s masterful, and Portman deserves the B.A. award for her work.
I’m a troll for stating the obvious I guess. It’s like people don’t want to accept there is plenty of camp in the film, otherwise it can’t “art.”
… be “art.”
I’d be okay with Black Swan winning best picture as well. It was utterly original in its execution and Portman’s performance was viscerally exciting – a breakthrough performance for her and the self assured direction of Aronofsky turned something that could have been a silly horror movie into something altogether different. Effing brilliant is right.
While I agree that Portman`s performance is award worthy and makes the movie, Black Swan I felt like was too much of a good thing. At some point artistry and subtlety of the visuals and acting turns into a soap operaish horror action and violence. It is original and the movie stays with you but I don`t feel it is in the same league of the Social Network.
DZ, you know Aronofsky bought the remake rights to Perfect Blue during Requiem for a Dream right?
Dan: Yeah, but he’s pretending he didn’t.
@Rashad (damn it, breaking my own rule)
If what you’re saying is obvious, then why is it being considered for best picture? Camp is either something mediocre or purposely bad to be funny. Black Swan is neither of these things in the eyes of most people who’ve seen it.
As far as I can tell, you’re either here to get those who like Black Swan riled up, or just really have something against this film. Honestly, you’ve gone beyond saying “I didn’t like it” into saying “it’s fucking trash”.
For your information, I like the film and saw it twice. It’s just unlike you and the rest of these people who act like ostriches, when I say B movie melodrama it isn’t a negative. That’s what it is. So if it’s a very good one, then so be it, but don’t try and elevate beyond that. The reason this works here, unlike Aronofsky’s other films, is the fact that on the nose symbolism and archetypal caricatures work in this sort of genre. However it comes off awkward and poor when tried to play straight so much. It’s why the first two acts are almost mediocre, and the third act is really good. Because it accepted all of its absurdities and went all out.
What’s weird to me is the fact that people don’t even acknowledge these caveats yet proceed to proclaim it as this masterpiece of cinema. Basically ignoring the obvious in order to maintain a pseudo-high-brow sense of taste. It’s also why great horror films get labeled as “thrillers.” Buncha nonsense.
Black Swan is an incredible pice of filmmaking. If Enter the Void isn’t gonna win, I want the Swan.
Hell, I’ll say it: BS is fucking trash. Simpleminded from the very start, misogynistic, obvious, pretentious, ponderous, sexless, and overall, really rather hateful. Oh, and poorly danced. Happy New Year all!
Wow, misogynistic and sexless, huh? That doesn’t sound very “obvious” to me at all!
As a matter of fact, someone ought to hand DA the Best Director Oscar right now if BS does indeed contain such multitudes as both of those conflicting adjectives!
I wouldn’t say it’s misogynistic, but I would say its understanding of women is pretty limited to male perceptions received from storybook cliche rather than observation and experience.
This isn’t a movie about understanding women. It’s about seeing a fragile, timid girl lose her mind.
I’d be happy as hell to see Portman, Aronofsky, and the movie win. I just don’t see the Academy recognizing such a bold movie with more than a few nominations.
My GOD DZ, could you possibly be more one-note and tiresome?
I would love to see Black Swan sweep everything just so that DZ’s head would fucking explode and I would never, ever again have to see him obsessively repeat his “Black Swan was stolen! Inception was stolen!” rants that no one gives a shit about.
And before you reply with “No one cares?” and some link to some other geek ranting, DZ, just stop. No one here cares. No one.
So Let. It. Go.
Actually, now that I think about it, the final dance scenes in Swan made me think of a bad SNL parody from the 90s.
Pigworker: Yes, but it’s Eurotrash, so it’s automatically better than our trash, don’t you know?
Bowen: Actually, when you think about the fact that Darren used his sis as a reference for this wank-fest, it might seem creepier in retrospect.
Wiggum: Why would I not say that, just cus they won? If anything, that would either force Darren or Chris to acknowledge PB or Paprika. And if they didn’t, then it’d circle their heads for the rest of their lives, because Kon would be the reason they won. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if they’re even allowed to release Swan in Japan, given that there was already a live-action adaptation of the PB anime/novel there.
So basically Kakihara is just a remake of Rain Man?
I mean that nicely, since I don’t really enjoy anyone’s consistent dressing-downs of Deez, but man, dude… I know you’ve had a rough year and all, but you’re starting to sound borderline certifiable.
Actually, when people look the other way on an oil company which bailed out a guy who blew up a plane, I feel downright normal.
Anyway, when commenters on a Kunis fan page have seen PB, I think the jig is up for Darren, ‘cus those are the last types of people you’d imagine being familiar with any anime, let alone films from Satoshi Kon. So he can play coy all he wants about his influences, but no one’s buying it. Again, if you’re in NYC next week, you can ask him @ why he’s holding out when he’s at the Lincoln Center.
Never saw the Dennis Dugan BRAIN DONORS (aka LAME DUCKS), but was an audience extra on the ballet finale. In some ways, BLACK SWAN’s CGI-enhanced climax is sort of like the former without the cues for laughter.
I appreciated the heart-breaking sympathy that Aronofsky, the crew and the actors had for the female figures in this film. Seems Jeff doesn’t care to show it in this blog post! “Yentas” for post-adolescent women who find the evocation of the virgin/whore princess and the spinster/matron witch archetypes appealing? The Burqa Brigade might be a little less culturally on the nose. Or not.
As for myself, I am a woman in my 20s, and what I appreciate most of all about the film is what the actresses laid out. I don’t think any of them combined the tawdry reality of psychological cuts and mythical iconography of women and art/death/creation/identity/sanity as successfully as comparable depictions by Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert, Emily Watson, Gena Rowlands, Catherine Deneuve, Falconetti and even the much maligned Tippi Hedren. But I think Black Swan very deliberately avoided “camp” and sly subversiveness involved with that value. It wore its heart on its sleeve, which is, in a lot of ways, even more brave.
I appreciate, not resent, though I understand the wariness that (some “older) women have to the depiction of femininity, and I also completely understand the ecstatic response of teens going through their James Dean/pain-is-beauty phases who see it who fall in love with depiction of a dancer’s lifestyle and are asking their parents for ballet lessons.
Remember, young, cute waitresses didn’t prevent The Hurt Locker winning Best Picture and haggard old Hillary Clinton supporters didn’t prevent Obama becoming president.
Noir: Actually, I think the misogyny in Basterds and the bad male geek porn acting in Avatar is precisely why those films lost out on Best Picture to Hurt Locker. HL had the subtlety and nuance which those two films lacked. Swan seems to suffer from the flaws of both of those latter films. And just because it’s more honest about it does not make it a better movie, either. On the contrary, it comes off fairly lazy. And the only reason I could imagine it even winning BP is because then the Academy would make up for the Brokeback Mountain snub by arguing, “See, we’re not homophobic!” Yeah, they could do the same with ‘Kids, but let’s deal with facts: a lesbian sex scene’s an easier sell to Middle America than gay couples as parents. Though I know it’s probably gonna be a lock for Art Direction, Costume Design, and possibly Cinematography. A Best Actress win for Portman, however, will depend on whether or not they relate to her personally. I mean, when it comes down to it, Swan’s just an R-rated You Got Served with ballet dancers.
Kakihara, if I met you in real life, I would not hesitate to punch you in the face for being an insufferable prick. Nobody cares about your stupid theory, and the people here who have seen both films don’t give it any credence. You’re either a highly dedicated troll, an idiot, a miserable human being, or maybe all three at once!
Kakihara, if I met you in real life, I would not hesitate to punch you in the face for being an insufferable prick. Nobody cares about your stupid theory, and the people here who have seen both films don’t give it any credence. You’re either a highly dedicated troll, an idiot, a miserable human being, or maybe all three at once!
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somehow I didn’t like that movie, anyway.
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