Monday, February 28, 2011

BLACK SWAN, PERFECTION & ITS LIMITS

To those who have not watched the movie Black Swan and are interested in actually watching it, I would like to suggest that you take a step back and view this site again once the 10th post has been composed. Should you like to view my first to eighth post, I would be most delighted! :)

To those who are not familiar with the movie and are not interested in viewing it, click on this link which will lead you to the plot summary of the film.

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Now let us begin with its main character:

Nina

Nina (played by Natalie Portman) portrays the role of a very passionate and dedicated ballet dancer who seeks for the highest role in their latest production. The specific name of the role, I cannot recall. 

She eventually nabbed the character and had difficulty playing both the White and Black Swan. Nina had always been more of a White, rather than a Black Swan so the lack of perfection to portray the latter pressured her like crazy. 

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The Story:

As the scenes of the movie presented itself to its viewers, it was quite confusing at first as to why Nina began having visions of a darker (in terms of aura) version of her, followed by the appearance of long wounds on her back. 



I initially thought the movie I was watching was more magical than real. Hmm..

More visions occurred and more scratches were seen on Nina's back. The pressure to be perfect soon caught up with her one by one. 



Nina was obviously hallucinating and developing a split personality as Mai, who watched with me, would often say. 

Nina kept veering away from her pure and youthful self as the movie went on. She went on a crazy night out with one of her co-ballet dancers, began hurting her mom verbally and physically, as well as by doing other things she would never have done if she were her usual self. ( To keep this blog closer to being PG-13, I cannot specify the latter).  Haha



 Towards the end of the story, after all the imagining and stress from it all, Nina was totally consumed by her character. She eventually transformed herself to be more like the Black Swan rather than the White Swan.

Nina  


Nina internalized her character as much as (or probably even more than) Heath Ledger had when he portrayed the role of Joker. 

And just like the story she was a part of where in the Swan had turned White again then killed herself after being Black, Nina seemed to love the story too well that she unknowingly applied the story's conclusion to her own life......

Yeah, you name it.

Pahwww!  Bullseye. Paw Paw Ping Ping Toot!

Haha. 

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It turns out that there have been several really old school renditions of posters made for the same title. Here are two of them as follows:



Also, a book with the same title:



....and several posters made solely for this 2010 (turned 2011 in the Philippines) film:




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Conclusion:


To conclude this sort of "review", I must say that I found Black Swan to be a very interesting film. I now appreciate all the time and effort that ballerina's consume and do in order to secure their aim of a perfect (or at least near-perfect) performance. 

Kids, wait 5 to 10 more years to watch. :) 


Also, to those who have already seen the film, didn't your skin feel like goosebumps appeared as Nina pranced away as the Black Swan? Mine did.


Til next time!

Toodles!

CATHY

Photo credit: goooooogle!

Sabbatical

Currently pledged myself to a sabbatical away from certain things, work none the less but that aspect will have to  experience some delay....