Just got back from a nearly packed showing of Black Swan and it’s fantastic! Like The Wrestler (currently my favorite movie), Black Swan explores the tragic destruction of a character doing the only thing they know how.
Knowing almost nothing about the movie before going in, I was surprised (and rather enjoyed) the horror-style in which it was presented (my girlfriend nearly cut-off the circulation in my arm during the latter half of the movie!) The movie constantly surprised me, and gave a lot to talk about afterward.
Certainly one of the best movies of the year, and is quickly making Darren Aronofsky one of my favorite directors.
La la la la la, haven’t seen it yet, skipped the posts in the thread, although I’m not really spoilerphobic.
Anyway, I wanted to ask someone who has also seen Princess Tutu what they thought of it. The trailer just screamed ‘even darker Princess Tutu!’ to me and Natalie Portman’s character reminded me of Rue.
Question: I thought “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream” were such laughable and/or pretentious pieces of shit that I never bothered to watch anything else Aronofsky has done. Do you think, given that, that I’d still enjoy it? Should I give “The Wrestler” a chance?
This was a *really *good fucking movie. There are still questions to be had after watching it, though, and one of them is usually my most hated question to have after watching a movie.
[spoiler]Basically Portman’s character (who probably isn’t the sanest person to begin with) gets the lead role in the ballet her company is performing and the stress drives her over the edge. Much hallucination ensues.
IIRC pretty much anything in the preview that looks otherworldly/ impossible is all in her head.
[/spoiler]
I saw it yesterday and was totally meh. My friend’s reaction was WTF? I knew the movie would have a psychological bend with an artist who immerses herself in her role, but I didn’t it expect it to be a Roman Pulanski homage/rip-off. Portman was good, the ballet scenes were good, but the movie for me fell flat.
Saw it yesterday - thought it incredibly creepy. My question is What happened at the end? Did she die? Was she “okay” once she “escaped” everything? Was she insane?
She was definitely insane. I interpreted the ending as her dieing because she actually stabbed herself when she thought she was stabbing Lily. But then I always take things to literally, but she was sure as hell insane.
Saw the movie Friday night, and loved it! As for the questions regarding the ending:
I think she died. I half expected the camera to pan out from the mattress and show her laying in a hospital bed, presumably in a psych unit. I’m glad that didn’t happen though, I thought it ended beautifully.
Here’s something I’m confused about:
We learned that Nina and Lily did not actually fool around in Nina’s bedroom from the conversation they had the next day. So…did the moment in the cab really happen? When Lily walked her fingers over to Nina’s crotch?
Probably not. Didn’t Lily say she went home with one of those guys?
Edit to add, I thought it was a very good movie and I’m sure I’ll see it again. It’ll probably get a bunch of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director. It’s an indie film, so it just got a slew of Independent Spirit Award nominations too.
I know it is tough to take it too literally, but I figured that if she had in fact stabbed herself, there is no way she would have been able to dance like she did. I don’t know why that bothered me.
Another thing - I think an editing flaw:Did we see her take anything other than a lipstick from the Winona Ryder character? Because I did not understand the significance when her mom asked about the earrings and she said “They’re fake.” But in the end we see she stole them from her predecessor…
I took that to mean she had been taking things from Winona Ryder’s character here and there over a period of time–the lipstick was the only one we actually saw her take.
