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Posts Tagged ‘Natalie Portman’

SWEEEeeeet! 5 Romance Movies You Probably Shouldn’t Watch TODAY

Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2011| 2 Comments »

Liz Taylor, trailer screenshot, cropped from h...

Elizabeth Taylor

If you been with me for a while then you know, last Thursday I listed TEN TOP Romantic movies of all times.  And there are 20 more to come before we’re out of this American Heart Month filled with red hearts, chocolate and love.

However, there is a dark side to some love affairs and these 5 movies are some of the BEST in that category:

  1. Who’ Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? (1966) Starring Richard Burton and Liz Taylor whose off-screen romance had as many pitfalls as their portrayals of George and Martha.   Boozy and bickering, George and Martha needle and humiliate each other in front of their guests, clearly seen as a sick yet symbiotic couple.  Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the needy but castrating Martha.
  2. Closer (2004)Also directed Mike Nichols and adapted from a London stage production, it is filled with raw emotion and intense performances.  Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts are all beautiful people who do ugly things to one another and ultimately themselves.  Not your romantic first date night flick.
  3. Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch (you’re not surprised are you?) creates a sordid underworld of sexual slavery, addiction, depravity, voyeurism and crime beneath a typically suburban setting.  Disturbing and twisted romance involves, Roy Orbison, Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan and beautiful Isabella Rossalini.   Lynch darkly explores hidden fears and desires and adds unexpected satire along the way.
  4. Natural Born Killers(1994) Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are lovers and killers who as they fall deeper in love, their thirst for killing intensifies.  Oliver Stone utilizes a variety of cinematic ploys as he unfolds this story of undeserved fame and all that comes with it;  frenetic camera angles, chopped up editing and the use of various film stocks.  Blood thirsty and scandalous, the public loves them.
  5. Fatal Attraction (1987) Michael Douglas and Glenn Close filled the big screen with steamy, sexual scenes and equally scary suspenseful moments.  Fatal Attraction quickly entered our lexicon as the universal term for a “crazy”  stalker or ex-lover who just couldn’t take no for an answer.  By the end of the movie, the one you are holding hands with will probably turn to you, shake their head and smile knowingly – clearly conveying the probable demise you can expect should you ever try…..

 

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BLACK SWAN is Very Very Dark Fowl

Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2011| 6 Comments »

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!

 

Natalie Portman, Swan Lake, Aronofsky

I AM the Black Swan

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