Peter and I watched Black Swan the other night and about half-way through it I turned to him and said, “well isn’t this just a nasty little movie”. Meaning it was getting darker and darker as Nina slip-slided into the black abyss of madness. But as we know Aronofsky likes dark movies; after all he has directed such onyx gems as Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler.
His movies are also intensely personal, hinging on the performance of its lead. Fortunately for all of us, as in the recent movie, The Wrestler and Natalie Portman in Black Swan, we’re not disappointed. Portman took on an extremely difficult role. She dropped 20 lbs to attain the bone-protruding physique of a ballerina, learned to move her body with the grace of a dancer and portrayed a mad young woman.
Her mental illness was apparent right from the beginning of the movie. She was driven to perfection,obsessive AND had a crazy mother. The two of them lived in a strange and reclusive symbiotic world. Barbara Hershey was clearly living in a distorted reality and her dashed ambitions as a former ballerina found fertile ground in her daughter’s vulnerability.
So in the end, it was not a movie about Swan Lake, it was not a movie about the life of a ballerina, it wasn’t a movie about a stage mother and an aspiring daughter – No! It was a movie about madness and the disintegration of a person. A theme not unknown to movie-goers; think The Shining, Taxi Driver, The Aviator and A Beautiful Mind.
Here’s a question/thought; It was extremely difficult at times to discern what was real and what was not in the movie similar to Inception and is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should the audience walk out of a film wondering what they actually saw? True, it makes for discussion post viewing but……? Would love comments on this!
I AM the Black Swan
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
Seductive and Sinister Sucks You In!
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Black Swan, Charles Manson, Elizabeth Olsen, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Marcy May, Patrick, Sarah Paulson on November 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Seamlessly weaving his story with flashbacks and the present, director Sean Durkin presents a low-key thriller from the perspective of a young, unstable woman (think Black Swan). The opening scene transports us to a seemingly bucolic setting, a slightly rundown farmhouse, men hammering and women mending, a couple of kids, in a remote area which is tucked into the hills of the Catskills. We meet Martha who meets Patrick who quickly anoints her Marcy May, and by doing so, rebirths her into a new life in the cult commune. His eyes tell it all; they’re penetrating, his look sinister yet seductive , his voice sincere (think Charles Manson). This is a psychological thriller and within moments, apprehension and anxiety begin to mount.
From there, the story unfolds with Marcy May running away from the cult and going to live with her estranged sister. They are awkward with one another; Guilt weighing on Lucy, frustration consuming Ted (Lucy’s husband) and increasing paranoia in Martha. Flashbacks fill in the blanks and introduce the viewers to the life Marcy May led under the strange manipulative influence of Patrick.
The present deals with Martha who is tortured by her twisted desire to go back to the commune and her revulsion of what went on there. Her mind wanders back and forth between the past and the present, and she slips in and out of reality. Martha resists telling her clueless sister where she was and with who, but wouldn’t you think that after the third totally inappropriate episode with Martha, Lucy would persist in discovering the what and where of Martha’s last two years? Instead we hear “What’s wrong with you”? Plenty!
By the time the movie ended, I was as paranoid as Marcy May; she got under my skin and I couldn’t shake her off. The baffling and somewhat infuriating ending only added to my distress.
Spoiler Alert: “All the children are boys”. “He only has boys”. Who’s buried in the backyard? We see two or three white crosses in the backyard in the first scene.
Elizabeth Olsen(sister of the twins) makes her debut and leaves no doubt that she is on her way to a career in film. John Hawkes is compelling, scary and yes sexy. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy co-star in this Sundance favorite.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
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