I never felt Darren Aronofsky received appropriate acclaim for his direction in the 2008 film “The Wrestler.” To a lesser extent, I also felt Bruce Springsteen got cheated. Unfortunately, Aronofsky is getting more directorial praise for this year’s “Black Swan”—a film whose style, while not inherently poor, doesn’t mesh with the subjects or themes.
In the film, dancer Nina (played by Natalie Portman) ascends to starring heights after middle age claimed the professional life of the former queen ballerina. Immediately after, and arguably even before this point, Nina begins to feel her new opportunity is in danger of being usurped by the even younger, and more extrovert, Lily (played by Mila Kunis). Nina and Lily form an uneven and unstable rivalry and friendship, intertwining professional hierarchy and sexuality in a barrage of flash cutting, handheld camera work and hallucinations. In this angle, “Black Swan” is one-part “All About Eve” and two-parts “Mulholland Dr.”—both more focused movies.
Stylistically, “Black Swan” notably drifts into Nina’s hallucinations via her surreal life so slowly that the audience doesn’t grasp the impossibility of it all until Nina snaps back into the real world. Repeatedly, the audience is intended to be made the fool—so willing are we to let Aronofsky craft an absurd story. But no, this is never an exceptionally strange story, it is the mental collapse of a strange protagonist. Fortunately, having the proverbial rug pulled out from under the audience time and time again does not inspire frustration at the film, as Portman always leads the frustration. In “The Wrestler,” Mickey Rouke, stole the scenes away from Aronofsky, but in “Black Swan” Portman stops the audience from crying for the director’s head on a pike.
This is why few films were made in the Middle Ages.
The strong individuality of “Black Swan,” reveals its own weakness. Unlike films with similar plots or styles, “Black Swan” is very much about the sacrifice necessary for artistic perfection. Nina is not competing against peers ala “All about Eve,” but rather fighting against the plateau of human physicality and mentality. She is emotionally balancing the “whore” image and “Virgin Mary” image—the two categories female characters, and perhaps all women, are relegated to. This separation and labeling is abhorrent in society but articulated and demonstrated in the film. While Nina is trying to be the physically best dancer possible, she is more comfortable with that challenge—and, indeed closer to success—than the emotional challenge of being a seductress and a nun.
The desire for artistic perfection and conflicting ambitions fail to be manifested in the style of the film—which borders between quasi-documentary, over-the-shoulder shooting and low-end horror film. Ideally, a film’s style is a reflection of the film’s content. For example, Stanley Kubrick often employed symmetrical shots of long corridors in scenes about dangerous enclosure. Scenes aside, the images where viscerally threatening—not unlike how Neanderthals might have viewed a cave or pit. Aronofsky is certainly a talented director, as his styles worked wonders for the mathematical and isolated “Pi,” the hyperactive/nightmarish “Requiem for Dream” and low-budget, simple handheld style of “The Wrestler.” Regarding perfection or cognitive dissonance in “Black Swan,” Aronofsky seems completely absent. There is no desire to even attempt a perfect film, scene or shot. Nor is there any conflict between relationship styles--distant and familiar; romance and rivalry.
The film’s flaws are those of complexities and subtitles, so this movie can be commendable in getting past the first barrier: invention. The scenes with Nina’s mirror reflections acting differently than her actual self were delightfully horrifying and repeatedly my favorite moments. Mila Kunis sizzles with sensuality with every coy smile and Portman has earned any praise she receives for essentially playing a 12-year old Girl Scout unaware that she has become a 29-year-old woman still living at home. In the end, though, the film’s style is difficult to innately enjoy and makes discussing the themes an exercise in over-reaching.
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