Black Swan

Here's the short version of my thoughts from seeing it yesterday:

"I will never take ballet, ever. No matter how beautiful it looks. I'm making sure Leradny never takes ballet again, either. Guys, I'll be in the bathroom—holy fuck, THERE ARE MIRRORS IN THE BATHROOM! DON'T LOOK IN THE MIRROR, DON'T LOOK IN THE MIRROR, DON'T LOOK IN THE MIRROR."

Outside: "When did the windows get so fucking reflective?! DON'T LOOK AT THE WINDOWS, DON'T LOOK AT THE WINDOWS, DON'T LOOK, DON'T LOOK, DON'T LOOK."

At home: "WHY DOES MY MIRROR HAVE TO BE RIGHT ACROSS FROM MY BED?! I'm going to die..." *curls up under the covers, too terrified even to cry*

Also, it's got a wonderful soundtrack and the acting/dancing was really good. Natalie Portman did a fabulous job in portraying a mental breakdown, which I expected from someone with a PHD in psychology, and the effects during the Black Swan pas de deux were mindblowing. Seriously, the winged-silhouette at the end? FUCK YEAH, THAT WAS AWESOME. But the feathers growing from her back, her legs SNAPPING into swan legs, and that freaky part with her neck when Nina supposedly kills Lily, I COULD BARELY LOOK AT THE SCREEN AHHHHHHH.

And then I found out that black swans (the birds) really are known to be rather aggressive. ...Because they're native to Australia, the Land of Everything Trying to Kill You.

So literally AND figuratively, the Wibbly-Little-White-Swan!Nina turns into Crazy-Homicidal or Suicidal?-Black-Swan!Nina.

edited 14th Jan '11 7:47:43 PM by Sharysa

This really makes me want to see it. I'm glad they are showing it in my hometown in GA (I really don't feel like driving to the rich side of town to see it).

Does my post make you want to see it, or the thread in general? I'm assuming it's the latter, but just in case. XD

edited 15th Jan '11 4:07:06 PM by Sharysa

This movie was stunningly awesome, I love movies full of ambiguous and creeping madness. Can anyone recommend similar ones?

Jacobs Ladder has a lot of ambiguity, horror, and general awesomeness. Very differnet movie than Black Swan, but it can have a similar effect. And of course Mulholland Drive is David Lynch, so you know it's going to be crazy.

There may never be an Eternal Darkness film series or miniseries that does the game's atmosphere justice. For this reason, I'm just going to refer to Black Swan as "Eternal Darkness: The Movie" from now on. Outstanding.

The whole movie built up to its conclusion brilliantly, even after "Nina kills herself" became my primary guess at the ending. (considered "Swan Lake" as an Allegory Adventure) Despite the intensity, my favorite scene on reflection is when Nina first enters her mother's room/studio. Just one painting moves its eyes for that one instant, and it did in a surreal way, not like someone hiding behind a painting using eyeholes but like a painting moving its eyes. That, plus how she was constantly hearing whispers and people laughing at her, was very evocative of Eternal Darkness's feel, but with beautiful cinematography and excellent acting.

Well, Mila Kunis has come a long way since That '70s Show. Speaking of, why is it most people are assuming she's just a hallucination and nothing else? I assumed from what Lily said the next day that Nina brought home a guy, and he left before she woke up.

edited 18th Jan '11 8:16:22 AM by Zephid

I really liked this movie. It was thrilling, it was intense, Portman & Kunis were phomenal, and it all was a intresting look into ballet.

After Requiem For A Dream, this is my 2nd favorite Arosofnky flick, but I loved The Wrestler.

This is kind of creepy, but I remember hearing Erica talking about Nina's scratching problems and I couldn't help but think of me and my mom. She never cut my nails forcefully (and never with scissors thank heavens) but she often gets after me for it. Occasionally I've scatched myself hard enough to draw blood.

Combined with the old man on the subway, I realized that behind all the Body Horror and Mind Screw, it was also tapping into some of my greater fears, and fears that are shared by a lot of people. Not just Fingore and subway pervs, but just small stuff that makes you think "oh shit I'm kind of like that."

...um, yeah, this was just...something I was thinking of.

edited 18th Jan '11 3:30:50 PM by Latia

Am I the only one who's noticing how everybody is trying to change the name of this movie?

^Huh? To what?

Look at the page of Black Swan. You've got Sanity Slippage: The movie, Or Is It: The Movie, Eternal Darknees: The movie. And I swear I saw some more on the trope page.

edited 23rd Jan '11 10:42:17 AM by juancarlos11

Wild Mass Guessing: Nina had scurvy. It was caused by her bullimia, and caused the rash, and added to her poor mental condition.

Saw this over the weekend....holy shit that was intense. One of my friends had his hands over his face the whole time.

Also, that Girl on Girl scene is the creepiest sex scene ever imo, throughout the scene I was just freaking out over what other freaky imagery would come up next (it was probably the tense background music that did it).

Guess I'd better go back and watch Aronofsky's other movies.

it reminded me of a horror version of the Red Shoes(which is a better movie in terms of presenting artistic struggle) but this is a good movie none the less

edited 9th Feb '11 1:03:42 AM by faradayangel

So... is there any fandom around for this, by any chance? C'mon, please tell me there is.

I think people are still trying to calm down from all the Paranoia Fuel. I haven't found any proper fandom yet.

Haven't watched the movie yet, but can someone give a (spoiler-free) report on how sezually explicit the movie is?

^It has one full sexual act that's fairly graphic, groping, making out (both female/female and male/female,) masturbation and talking about sexual activity.

It doesn't make up the whole movie, but it's fairly explicit and present.

There isn't nudity though (at least below the belt, can't remember if there's any braless scenes.) You see the reactions to said masturbation and sexual act ( cunninlingus) but not..you know, the after effects.

Odd. I just skimped through it. Of course Portman is a wonderful actress, and the supporting cast was great, too... and of course this'll be much more endearing to folks who are into that sort of music.

But to me, it felt ineffective. The Body Horror was so obviously a portrayal of schizophrenia, so when the killing set in, I didn't believe for a second that it was real. All of the time, I just thought, girl come on get some therapy! Well, of course, I've probably just seen far too many horror movies, so it's pretty hard to surprise me in that regard.

I loved the coldness of the world she lived in, though. The extreme greed and envy of those girls, and how they totally submit to the male leader. It's pretty archetypal (not to say a huge stereotype), and I am pretty convinced that that's how it works in real life.

All of which, coming to think of it, gives me yet another reason to dislike classical music. It's based on perfection, and perfection is inhumane.

edited 5th Apr '11 3:40:07 AM by vijeno

For me the utter mindfuck is that you literally can't tell which bits she hallucinates and which bits she doesn't. I don't mean the body horror/transformation stuff but instead actual maybe pivotal plot points.

Great movie.

I liked it, but it was a little hard to figure out what happened and what didn't. What I finally settled on is the night when she went home with Lily, she actually either brought a guy home or didn't bring anyone home (and was pleasuring herself), and at the end she did actually die, since the fight she had in the dressing room was actually with herself.

edited 24th Apr '11 10:44:39 AM by wuggles

I thought it was fairly obvious she was alone that night and her imagining Lily as a placeholder for her black swan self and finally breaking free of her sexual repression. During the ballet her black swan self finally broke free completely by killing her white swan self but the ending was utterly ambiguous. That "death" could've symbolised any number of things including rebirth incorporating both personalities.

Pic for thread originator, although we've long since moved from it.

http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=1084030 (NSFW site)

Black Swan meets Perfect Blue.

So is the film similar, and if you liked the latter, you'll like the former?

edited 24th Apr '11 9:01:02 PM by BigDaddyP

Black Swan is similar to Perfect Blue in many respects, although I liked Black Swan infinitely better because it was clear to me that menace and mindfuckery came from Nina herself, while in Perfect Blue that was not the case.