Black Swan (DVD + Digital Copy) (2010)

Loved this film

In this 2010 psychological drama, insecure Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) auditions for principal dancer in Swan Lake after the forced retirement of Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder). Performing flawlessly as the White Swan she lacks the ferocity to play the Black Swan and when she asks the director to rethink, he forcibly kisses her and she uncharacteristically bites him. Gaining the part she returns home as her hallucinationsintensify and finds scratches on her back, but what does it all mean? I found the acting, photography and audio to be above the norm with some good special effects thrown in, but the script held no surprises as it was obvious Nina is a schizophrenic self harmer on the verge of a breakdown from the start, all we see in the first half is her gradual decline under pressure [lose a *]. The reality is, this documents a breakdown under stress and insecurity in the workplace, which many people can identify with, which explains its success, but the start is too drawn out although the last quarter is action packed and intense [regain a *]. The story simply reflects the ballet itself, so holds no real surprises. The disc goes to a main menu offering play, set-up [English, English audio descriptive, subtitles; English Hoh, Portugues, Suomi, off, more= Scandinavian and east European], scenes and extras [black swan metamorphosis; chapters 1, 2 & 3]. Rated 15 this uses the F word, contains ‘adult’ sexual conversation, has temperamental violence, self harm, masturbation, partial nudity, graphic groping, oral sex, drug taking and some intense scenes, it’s not really family viewing. A phenomenal box office success and strangely voted number 1 in Cosmopolitans most erotic film scenes list, its really the final quarter that lifts this above the dross gaining a grudging *****.and I believe if the cast had been unknown, this would have been an 18 rating and much derided.

Seen a couple of times and each viewing I tend to think there is something inherantly unplerasant about the treatment Aronovsky puts Natalie Portman through. She is brilliant as is the rest of the cast, and it is quite illuminating (I think) of the ballet scene backstage, The ballet sequences are well staged and filmed, but in all honesty I can't say I enjoyed the film much. Excellent quality, good acting and good subtitles. Extras not seen by me.

Good quality’s

I started to watch this with some trepidation, having read loads of negative reviews. Within a few minutes, I was smitten. The movie takes you on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride - boring, it ain't! I'm not a fan of horror movies as such but I do enjoy sophisticated chillers. I rank this film up there with "The Others","Rosemary's Baby","Repulsion" and "Dead of Night". Totally unforgettable! Also, I've never seen a movie so seeped with images of menstruation since "Company of Wolves" (a film I do regard as slow and pretentious). I felt that the images of blood compounded the true unspoken fears being experienced by the child-woman, Nina. I had my suspicions that her physical (and hence, emotional) development was being retarded just as had happened to countless Eastern European gymnasts in Cold War times. As to Nina, I felt that Natalie Portman was beautiful to look at in the role but did not give (for me) an Oscar-winning performance. Like Keira Knightley, she is only capable of managing a few facial expressions, though that might be the reason why she was cast in this particular role. The frozen child-woman again. Still, I'm awarding the movie 5 stars, and heck, I might even attend a ballet soon!

I must admit, I bought this movie because of the hype about it when it came out last year. Just before I went to write this review, I noticed the across-the-spectrum opinions represented in the Amazon ratings, and that sums up the "quality" of this film better than anything else. To be fair, it is well done in many aspects: well acted (Natlie Portman is wonderful), well filmed, etc. It is a psychological drama, and very well done as far as that goes. There are moments of increasing horror along the way, and the premiere performance of Swan Lake at the end of the film is very exciting and beautiful and well worth watching. What this film needs is a plot. A very little one will suffice. Think "Psycho" or "Vanilla Sky" or even "Flashdance". That much plot will do, but alas it is lacking. The only story is her preparation for the "big night", and her only character development is the slow abandonment to her disease so that she can dance the perfect performance. As she herself does not fully understand this development, the movie lacks structure. I myself am employed in the classical performing arts, and the total sacrifice of self for the sake of art is not, even for me, a satisfying theme when unaccompanied by any other. The end of the movie is (in the classical tradition) very predicable, and there are no lessons learned. This film is worth a rent if you have sympathy for the way ballerinas suffer for the sake of beauty. It is not, however, in my opinion, worth a Best Picture nomination. "Flashdance" really is the better movie.

arrived on time. good quality

Been waiting to watch this film for years. Arrived really fast, great story,

Perfecto

Black Swan is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I just saw it a few days ago and I plan to see it a few more --or maybe a few more than "a few" times-- before it leaves the theaters. And I know I'll buy the DVD when that comes out and watch it more times with the luxury of being able to study why it worked so well by virtue of my DVD player's pause, rewind, and slow-motion buttons. In this review I will explain why the movie had such an impact on me and then in a section below the word "spoilers" I will make a few comments about the plot and particularly the ending. Why was it so compelling a film? Because it was a powerful story, brilliantly executed, and with incredible performances by four of the lead cast. The story line is quite gripping. We watch someone who is beautiful, talented, driven to perfection and incredibly fragile take on a performance that quite literally pushes her into a psychotic break. We cheer for Nina Sayers; we pity her; and we fear for her as the twisty plot unfolds springing surprises on the viewer along the way. The film is beautifully staged. It made ballet accessible for me and I imagine a lot of other people who were not into it. I found both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis's dancing to be very convincing and moving. The film deftly presents us with moments of beauty (especially Nina's ultimate performance as the Black Swan) and moments of horror when the film plays its little tricks to convince us she is losing her mind. The performances were what sold it in the end. Natalie Portman's portrayal of Nina was utterly convincing as someone teetering on the edge of madness. And I suspect I'm not alone among guys who would find themselves wishing they could rescue her from her plight. Mila Kunis, Vincent Kassel, and Barhara Hershey also did tremendous work. Mila made a wonderful foil to Nina as Lily, the embodiment of what the Black Swan should have been...a carefree, beautiful, sexy woman. Vincent Kassel in the role of Thomas Leroy gave a performance that ensured a character that could have amounted to a hateful cliche was believable and one could easily understand why Nina would find him so captivating and overwhelming. Finally, Barbara Hershey turned in a fine performance as Nina's damaged mother, someone who loved her daughter but in a way that was twisted and malign and profoundly unnerving. <SPOILERS> You'll notice I left out Winona Ryder from my list above. It's not that she did a bad job in the part she played of Beth, the former prima ballerina. It's just that the character was such a small part...it could have been done by anyone. I find myself wondering if there were scenes involving her that wound up on the cutting room floor since a draft of the shooting script I saw had more scenes with her in it. It's not a flaw to the movie but I do wonder why an actress of Ryder's caliber was willing to do such a small role. A lot has been made of "anger and ecstasy fueled lesbian hate sex" between the characters of Nina and Lily. I actually thought there were other scenes that were sexier (Nina "touching herself" and a scene where Thomas shows Nina what it's like to be seduced). It's also important to remember that Nina and Lily's encounter was just a figment of Nina's burgeoning psychosis and also an indicator of how repressed she was (it was pretty clear she was a virgin). I also think that critics who describe the relationship between Lily and Nina as a "twisted friendship" are missing the boat on that. The friendship is only twisted as seen through Nina's distorted view. I think that Nina's psychosis assigned Lily, the role of nemesis and rival that she really did not play in reality. Finally, here are my thoughts about the ending. It's been the subject of a lot of debate on the Internet Movie Database. Some people are convinced that Nina died in the end after giving a phenomenal performance as the Black Swan...that when she thought she killed her "rival" Lily, she only managed to wound herself with a shard from the mirror she broke. I think the movie is deliberately ambiguous about what really happened. My interpretation of what did was that Nina did manage to hurt herself but not all that badly...which would explain why she was able to to perform as the Black Swan and the White Swan instead of being found in a pool of her own blood in her dressing room. I flatly reject the idea that she could have danced the way she did if she was as badly hurt as she was. I think it's more believable to conclude that Nina may have been convinced she had mortally wounded herself but was simply overcome by her psychosis and the fact that in the end she really had pulled it off and become perfect.

アカデミー賞 主演女優賞 ナタリー・ポートマンの作品 宣伝どうり 美と狂気がせめぎあう衝撃的サスペンス

Nathalie Portman impressionnante.

Il mondo dellla Danza Classica trova un omaggio unico ed irripetibile in questo film, done Natalie supera se stessa, aggiungendo grandi doti di recitazione, alle quali ci ha da sempre abituato, ad un naturale talento come ballerina, all' interno di una sceneggiatura che , lasciandoci col fiato sospeso sino all' ultimo, ruota attorno ad un viaggio interiore che dimostra come qualsiasi Artista, per essere davvero cerdibile, debba prima vivere ciò che poi esprimerà con la sua Arte....