Black Swan (2010) Is A Captivating Psychological Thriller

An atmospheric sound track composed by Clint Mansell accompanies this exquisitely shot film. It is however, a film that really only works if you let yourself be carried away, like its main character, in a storm of hysteria, paranoia, emotion and delirium. For me, it wasn’t difficult to suspend disbelief as I found the story line, visual experience and characterisation mesmerising. In my view, Aronofsky has proved himself to be as much as master of the genre as Hitchcock, Polanski or Argento.

Natalie Portman plays psychologically vulnerable , overly mothered ballerina Nina, who is obsessed with proving to her manipulative choreographer (Vincent Cassel) that she can let herself go to play the not only the virginal white swan, but also the psychological opposite of the black swan in the ballet Swan Lake.

The keystone is the relationship between Natalie and her over protective and apparently equally unbalanced mother (impressively portrayed byBarbara Hershey), who abandoned her own stagnant ballet career on becoming pregnant with Natalie and has channelled her rage and disappointment into coaching her daughter. The mother has therefore tried to infantilise Natalie, by amongst other things, giving her no privacy does get off to a rather slow start, however, the patient are | but patience is] rewarded as the movie builds through an emotional, at times funny and erotic portrayal of Natalie’s paranoia, self-harming and sexual awakenings, coming to a climax that weaves a tapestry of reality and fantasy until the final scene.

In summary, five stars for a top quality movie that is well worth seeing, but the faint hearted should perhaps take someone to cling on to!

It’s a visually excellent film like this that makes me wish I made films myself. When choosing a new digital camera recently, having a high definition video facility was one of my criteria. That was the deciding factor that gave the Nikon D 7000 the edge over the also impressive Nikon D 3100. To find out more about this camera check out a Nikon D 7000 review .