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“Black Swan” – Movie Review


I still remember the scene where the main protagonist approaches his brain lying on the railway platform; with a screw driver in his hand, he lowers it into the many furrowed brain. As the train approaches to a halt with its screeching tyres, protagonist squeezes his head tight with both hands, as though great exploding pain is emanating from somewhere within him. This scene indicated the protagonist's state of mind. It is from "Pi". My first introduction to Darren Aronofsky.
And the scene where another of Aronofsky's protagonists holds his arm high up and runs the jagged ends of an oiled saw into it - "Requiem for a Dream" haunts you like no horror movie does. And lately, he produced "The Wrestler"; in this, his take on character development approaches that of Fincher's in "Zodiac". Only, the tedium is kept at bay by the rhythmic shuffling of emotions.
Now, in "Black Swan", with Portman looking so downright emaciated in some of the scenes, I wondered if Christian Bale, looking back on his days of "The Machinist", would have felt patronised. We are shown Portman suffering, delusional, occasionally fragile, and mostly unpredictable. Her posture rigid in her performances, dedication at apotheosis, and emotions washed up to shore. Her discipline costs her liveliness, her uncompromising obsession overwhelms her, as we meet her at a time when she is experiencing paranoia. Aronofsky persistently forces his audience into the absolute frigidity behind the swaying splendour of charisma. Requiem, wrestler and black swan have been about the same underlying theme- one that selectively affects it's audiences. In wrestler, my first viewing led me to sympathise with tomei, but the second viewing had me sympathising with the main protagonsit.
Winona Ryder, who I had instantly fallen in love with, from "Edward Scissorhands", plays the aging swan who is utterly devastated. Shocked in grief, aggrieved and unable to see beyond the dusk of her career, is in a dispiriting mood to say the least. Although brief, I thought, she was excellent.
Senseless, irrevocable and irreconcilable solitude envelops the white swan. Portman, indistinguishable, is so utterly disturbing in her role. We see her descending down the stairs of depression to drink waters of bereavement
If Pi was vertiginous, Wrestler was tedious, Requiem was unforgivable, then Swan is merciless. It is merciless in its conduct of plot unravelling minute by minute. You get to see ups and downs, but never a progression, towards or away. Time seems to freeze around Portman's inseparable nerves. She finds herself sexually liberated, and the morning after, we are still unsure if the dizzy heights were all but feeble attempts of her mind weaving delusional memories. Movie does not leave you dizzy or dazed, what it does is, keeps you favourably tuned in.
"Black Swan" is like an interlude that runs ceaselessly between clever screenplay, an interlude that transcends at time into an operatic brilliance. Its like Mozart's symphony no.25, offensively erupts into perfection, leaving behind a pluming smoke of incongruity.
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