Dec 27, 2010

The Black Swan and Her Smother Mother

Someone please give Natalie Portman an Oscar now. She was amazing in Black Swan, just as the movie itself was fantastic. So maybe the script bordered on implausible and it portrays the cliche of another loopy ballerina. Nevermind, because director Darren Aronofsky just made magic out of the whole thing. I have never felt a movie like this in a long time. It was so visceral. The cinematographer is Filipino by the way. Matthew Labatique is genius and shot some dance scenes using a DSLR for heaven's sake. He also worked with Aronofsky in Requiem for a Dream, which I Ioved, but now I love Black Swan more.

A very interesting part of the movie was the relationship between Nina the ballerina (Natalie Portman's character) and her mother who is played really well by Barbara Hershey. Talk about Smother Mother. The movie still over there belies the extent of her creepiness. She is a reminder that control freak moms who expect their children to be perfect all the time can really contribute to messed up psyches. No matter how "loving" mom is, smothering is not good mothering.


And so.

Black Swan is not only brilliantly directed and beautifully shot, it has a killer score that combines techno with Tchaichovsky, scenes that make you jump as if you were watching a Japanese horror flick, and because I am such a girl… the most beautiful ballet costumes by Rodarte. If you hear someone say Black Swan is good, believe the hype.

6 comments:

miri said...

You know, we should really have like a film/book club - just devoted to awesome work like this. I could go on and on about how Amazing and ( visceral perfect term!) bold this film was. It was also painful to watch- seeing her silently go on downward spiral . She really embodies the tortured artist and you can see her suffering for her craft. Her mom issues are a whole other discussion... great score, great cinematography, awesome acting !

MZMackay said...

I loved Black Swan! It stayed with me for days. One of the things I really liked was the fluttering sound while she danced. It was so clever.

Thanks for enlightening us about the Filipino cinematographer. I had no idea, and I always love hearing about successful Filipino artists (not just the ones that appear on camera).

I hope you ladies had a great Christmas!

Nona said...

Merry Christmas Swans! I named our book club The Hedgehogs inspired by the wonderful book The Elegant Hedgehog. We can have a film club and call ourselves... guess what??? Yup, you keep thinking about it, no? Days and days after it's still in your head and your dreams...

miri said...

I like it! So very apt. The Black Swans :-)

You know, i finally downloaded "Requiem " and watched it ( only now) i must say, Grabe! Nona- i felt so badly damaged after watching that movie. Gosh, this guy really has a penchant for the obsessive/addictive personality types. But i really felt for the mother Ellen Burnstyn)...

Nona said...

Miri, now I want to watch The Wrestler.

Miri said...

the Wrestler- the one with Mickey Rourke was just sad. better yet, check out " Somewhere" by Sofia Coppola. Im also waiting for "True Grit".