Sonntag, 13. Februar 2011
Swan Lake
diegolego, 15:40h
Finally, a couple of days ago I saw the film “Black Swan” and I want to express some thoughts about it.
Natalie Portman indeed acted well as Nina, the main character, and did a great job with her ballet performance. Currently she can be seen in at least another two films. The first big role of the Jerusalem born actress was “Leon”, where she played a kid who's family was killed by the police. Actually, Gary Oldman played excellently in “Leon” the addicted and corrupted cop (he himself became famous acting in “Sid and Nancy”). In summary, despite her role in Star Wars, Natalie Portman is in the middle of a promising career.
As a small side remark, I would like to note that Winona Ryder in a sense played herself. While in “Back Swan” her character, Beth, looses the status as prima ballerina and basically retires. In real life she has not had any major successful role for years.
A detail I did not like, were the animated goose bumps. The spacing between the spots was too big and they looked like in a cheap science fiction television series. I guess the idea was to emphasize how frightened and excited she was but also to make the connection to the swan. A detail I liked, was the sound. The the ballerina steps sound was well placed and the sound of the wings was not too dominant.
I have not seen the other recent films by Darren Aronofsky, but I think it is in line with “Pi” or “Requiem of a dream” where the characters act in a dramatic storyline with a fatal result. The film is not short with some shocking and explicit scenes. Unfortunately story fragments and key scenes have been shown in the trailers. A nice point about the story was that Thomas, the director, was not entirely a cliché-like bad guy – although one never knows which deleted scenes are going to appear on the DVD. A bit unrealistic was that during the premiere she was bleeding and people did not see it although she was wearing a white dress.
In some aspects the film reminds me of “La pianiste” with Isabelle Huppert. I have not seen it for some time but it might be interesting after “Black Swan”.
Natalie Portman indeed acted well as Nina, the main character, and did a great job with her ballet performance. Currently she can be seen in at least another two films. The first big role of the Jerusalem born actress was “Leon”, where she played a kid who's family was killed by the police. Actually, Gary Oldman played excellently in “Leon” the addicted and corrupted cop (he himself became famous acting in “Sid and Nancy”). In summary, despite her role in Star Wars, Natalie Portman is in the middle of a promising career.
As a small side remark, I would like to note that Winona Ryder in a sense played herself. While in “Back Swan” her character, Beth, looses the status as prima ballerina and basically retires. In real life she has not had any major successful role for years.
A detail I did not like, were the animated goose bumps. The spacing between the spots was too big and they looked like in a cheap science fiction television series. I guess the idea was to emphasize how frightened and excited she was but also to make the connection to the swan. A detail I liked, was the sound. The the ballerina steps sound was well placed and the sound of the wings was not too dominant.
I have not seen the other recent films by Darren Aronofsky, but I think it is in line with “Pi” or “Requiem of a dream” where the characters act in a dramatic storyline with a fatal result. The film is not short with some shocking and explicit scenes. Unfortunately story fragments and key scenes have been shown in the trailers. A nice point about the story was that Thomas, the director, was not entirely a cliché-like bad guy – although one never knows which deleted scenes are going to appear on the DVD. A bit unrealistic was that during the premiere she was bleeding and people did not see it although she was wearing a white dress.
In some aspects the film reminds me of “La pianiste” with Isabelle Huppert. I have not seen it for some time but it might be interesting after “Black Swan”.
