Okay, so yesterday I finally had the pleasure of seeing the movie BLACK SWAN, to say that I loved this movie might just be an understatement. And as soon as I watched it I really wanted to run home and write all about it, but I had to re frame. I needed to have time to let everything that I had just watched marinate over me, because the thing is this movie is extraordinary. Darren Arnosky has this way about him that he can make almost any story seem so surreal that it is just ridiculous. I mean really the way the movie is shot I have never wanted to watch ballet so bad in my entire life.
So I guess I should tell you who all is in it. The main players in this little picture are, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, and Winnona Ryder. This cast is just top notch to say the least. It really is a pleasure to be able to go out and just watch movies that are homeruns and that is exactly what this movie and this cast was. NATALIE PORTMAN plays the lead role of Nina Sayers and it's no secert that I love her but if she doesn't win an oscar for this performance then I just don't know. Her transformation into the Black Swan is something to be seen. Vincent Cassel is, wow. I don't know I feel like after seeing him I should have definitely danced and gotten to the point where I could direct a company of dancers because this guy does whatever he wants to these women just mind fucking them to get the best performance out of them.
MILA KUNIS continues to impress me, and believe me she really has been a hard sell for me, but she just keeps on doing it and in this movie it is no different. Her role is somewhat understated but she is great in it as the dancer that knows her own sexuality and just lets loose. and the scene with her and Portman leising out, all I can say is YIKESSSS!!!! WINNONA RYDER is great as the dancer that is over the hill and is finally getting pushed out of the starring role. And then there is the overly possessive mother played by BARBARA HERSHEY. I mean the way that her and Portman enter act is just crazy and quite disturbing.
So opens with a new season for this ballet company which Natalie Portman has been dancing for a while now. Vincent Cassel tells everyone that they are going a different direction and that Winnona Ryder's character will no longer be in the starring role and that they will be doing his version of Swan Lake. And it is at this point that the movie officially starts. It seems to me that the world of ballet may in fact be way more cutthroat than anything I might have ever experienced in my entire life. I mean these girls are seriously crazy. And the pressure to be the star seems to crush them.
Vincent Cassel's character ends up casting Natalie Portman as the swan queen even though he has some reservations over the fact of if she can play the black swan and in fact as the movie goes on he feels that Mila Kunis's character might just be better suited for it. At one point he even tells Portman's character to go home and touch herself so that she can translate that and maybe seduce the audience. And as the film goes on you can just see Portman literally transforming into the black swan until she gives the performance of a lifetime, but like all great things it comes with a fantastic price.
As someone put it to me this movie was perfectly crazy and disturbingly beautiful. And boy was she right. That is exactly what this film is. It shows what someone who has really mastered or is on the way to mastering a craft can do with the right people behind him. And for me it really shows the price that people pay for perfection. I don't think people really realize the price that some people pay. People like Micheal Jordan, or Tiger Woods, or Peyton Manning. They all didn't wake up one morning and just magically they were the best. It takes a lot of sacrifice to be on top. And sometimes you end up giving up more than you ever really knew. Please go see this movie as soon as possible.
Like always, Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'
Perfectly Crazy and Beautifully Disturbing :)
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