[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Black Swan (2010)


Darren Aronofsky's quite brilliant study of innocence, fragility and psychological breakdown. Disturbing and occasionally creepy, breathtaking and brutal. Brilliantly held together with a tremendous performance from Natalie Portman with excellent support from the ever reliable Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis.

The film features sumptuous cinematography which energize's the dance footage with breathless urgency, practically forcing the viewer to feel Portman's exhaustion and pain. Added to this Black Swan features a beautiful score which wraps itself around you with care and attention before overwhelming you during Portman's swansong performance. The screenplay is also quite superb and it may well become one of those classic quotable films in years to come with many memorable lines, much of which is darkly comical.

Aronofsky's greatest achievement is in creating a strong psychological horror / thriller which is easy to follow, it's not a complicated storyline nor is it predictable, even though it seemed obvious how the Portman / Kunis relationship would turn out. It's this strength which makes it ever more watchable and should elevate Black Swan to a higher plane making it one of the 21st centuries classic films.

Finally a word of warning for those who don't like to see unnecessary scenes. This film contains several sequences of strong ballet.

Bored the f#ck out of me and I've got a lot of fuc...