Cert: 15 cert
Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: Thomas asks Nina to "touch herself" as a homework assignment to get in touch with her darker, sexual side. Nina masturbates in two scenes. The first scene is longer and more explicit; she puts her hand in her underwear and writhes and moans sensually, but she stops before she orgasms, because her mother is sitting in chair by the bed, sleeping. The second scene is much shorter, and almost entirely off-screen. We see Nina, in a bath, moving her hand below the water and moaning slightly.
Nina and Lily sit on the backseat of a taxi. Lily slowly moves her hand to Nina's crotch and gently starts to rub it. Nina closes her eyes and lets the Lily rub her for a few seconds. She open her eyes again, and removes the other woman's hand from her crotch and holds it.
A sex scene takes place between Nina and Lily. They kiss very passionately and sensually and undress each other. They are both seen in their underwear as Nina lies down and Lily suggestively licks her body and rubs her breasts. Lily then removes Nina's underwear (no nudity seen) and performs oral sex on her. Lily's head can be seen graphically moving between the other woman's legs for a fairly long time, and the camera lingers Nina's face as she moans heavily and eventually climaxes, crying out. This scene is long and is most likely a dream Nina has, because of her corrupt sense of reality.
Nina (most likely imagines) Lily and Thomas having sex backstage. We see him on top of her on a table, thrusting forward. We see Lily's bra partially as she smiles at Nina.
Thomas seduces Nina whilst dancing. They kiss passionately as he rubs her breasts and crotch. He then walks away, leaving the woman somewhat distressed. Thomas forcibly kisses Nina, and she bites his lip in anger. He finds this to be good and helpful in getting in touch with her dark side.
Nina is briefly seen topless with her arms covering her breasts.
Ballet dancers wear tight clothing, and we see them in dressing rooms in underwear. Lily hides her panties in her purse in two scenes.
Sexual relationships are hinted at between Beth and Thomas, and Beth asks Nina if she had to perform oral sex on Thomas to win the lead role.
Lily is seen touching a man's groin area.
Violence & Gore: Nina's increasing neuroses are manifested in a bizarre, unconscious kind of self-mutilation. Repeatedly she picks at the skin around her fingernails and scratches her back viciously. She has awful hallucinations in which she sees herself tearing bloody strips of skin away from her fingers.
It's important to note that Nina's self-injury, conscious or not, is closely linked to her fears that her dance performance isn't perfect. And it culminates with her stabbing herself with a large shard of glass. In her mind, though, it plays out as her killing Lily. She throws the other woman into a mirror and then stabs her with the broken glass, dragging her body into a closet and using a towel to keep blood from seeping beneath the door. Nina bleeds to death just as her character, the White Swan, commits suicide at the end of the ballet.
Twice, Nina visits Beth in the hospital. The former ballerina has apparently tried to kill herself by throwing herself in front of a car (offscreen). During Nina's first visit, she looks under Beth's hospital covers and sees horrible stitched gashes, bruises and braces on her legs. The second visit has Beth savagely jamming a sharp nail file deep into her own cheeks and face. Horrified, Nina flees, only to find that she has the nail file in her hand.
Nina brutally slams a door on her mother's hand. And her hallucinations include watching herself metamorphosing into a swan: Her neck elongates, goose bumps on her arms erupt into actual feathers, she pulls bloody barbs from her back, etc. In one of these scenes, Nina begins to transform in her bedroom, and bangs her head on the bed, knocking herself unconscious.
Several camera shots focus on Nina's battered feet. We watch as she attends to black, broken and bleeding toenails. (The overall effect depicts ballet as an art form that requires something like self-torture and mutilation in order to perform it.)
Profanity: Fuck is used about 15 times, often sexually. There are about 20 uses of milder language.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Lily smokes cigarettes, and shares one with Nina in one scene.
Nina and Lily drink and take ecstasy in one scene. It shows the effects of the drug but in a very dark and unappealing light
Frightening/Intense Scenes: The film is frequently startling with disturbing and gruesome images coupled with a suspenseful feel.
The climax of this film could be harsh for many people because it involves disturbing psychological imagery of hallucinations and violence.
Story: Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.Thomas Leroy, the artistic director of a New York City ballet company, is mounting Swan Lake as the company's next production. Many of the ballerinas in the company aspire for the lead, which would have previously gone to the company's former principle dancer Beth Macintyre before her forced retirement. No one wants the the role more than Nina Sayers, who lives to dance, so much so that she wants to be exactly like Beth in every aspect. Nina lives with her overbearing mother, Erica Sayers, a former ballerina who now lives vicariously through her daughter as she never made it as a ballerina herself. Nina is a technically proficient and hard working dancer who can easily capture the essence of the innocent white swan, but Thomas doesn't believe she has the dark passion required to portray the black swan. An unexpected move by Nina convinces Thomas that Nina may have what it takes, and he gives her the lead. Thomas will do anything to get that passion out of her. Nina feels that her new place in the company is threatened by Lily, a ballerina newly arrived into the company from San Francisco. Lily, who is looser in every aspect of her life than Nina, encompasses the essence of the black swan more so than Nina. But as Nina believes Lily is to her what she herself was to Beth, Nina, in doing whatever it takes to be perfect as both the white swan and the black swan, descends into madness.
Likes : i've just watched this film, its got it good side but its got it bad side to, everyone know the story of swan lake where a beautiful girl is transformed into a beautiful swan fall in love with the prince but her evil twin sister make the prince fall in love with her, causing the beautiful girl to kill her self from heart break.
I liked it had a bit of horror romantic concept & i loved the lesbian scene call me a bloke but that was hot natalie portman is just getting hotter in my book.The rest is in the cast, and mostly in Natalie Portman. She is slow to get started, but she grows quickly and the result is arguably her best performance yet. I've never loved her that much.
She's always struck me as more of a girl than a woman, but I guess all she needs is to get a little blood on her hands, and you have an award worthy performance. Vincent Cassel, though he gets some questionable lines, is also at his best. I would have almost liked to see more of him, because you get the sense that his role has a bit more room to grow.
Black Swan does quite a bit, but it's not for everyone. Do not go into this expecting to be emotionally enriched. From the beginning, it is staged to be a mind-twirl, delighting in playing tricks on the audience. Some might call it cheating, but that would be the wrong way to look at Black Swan. It's quite epic, and with year coming to an end, I think it's fair to say that it is among the best of 2010.
Dislikes : i didn't like the fact it seriously make you wanted to off your self it was so dark & depressive, normal i like dark film but that was seriously dark.
Overall : If you want to watch this film be warned it is very dark & depressive, its not a bad film just a little too dark, but worth watching.
Rating : 4 out of 5 stars for horror content, 6 out of 10 for entertainment
No comments:
Post a Comment