Black Swan hits cinema tomorrow
I’m a sucker for ballet movies, well pretty much all dance movies. And musicals too. Center Stage, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, Bring It On, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (well technically not a dance movie but the epic dance they do at the end to Time After Time is such a classic). I’m well and truly addicted to Glee and Hairspray too. Dancing movie are fun and uplifting. They make you feel good and want to get up and dance.
But here comes a dance movie that’s thrilling, dark and disturbing…somehow I don’t think it’s going to make me want to get up and dance out of the cinema but I’m super intrigued! The new movie Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky (director of The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream), hits cinemas tomorrow and I can hardly wait. It’s set in the world of New York City Ballet with the stunning Natalie Portman starring as Nina, a featured dancer who wins the lead role in Swan Lake. Nina soon meets her match in rival Lily, played by Mila Kunis (from That 70’s Show). As Hollywood.com reveals…It captures the beauty and tragedy of the sacrifices performers must make for the sake of their craft. But where The Wrestler successfully towed the line between saccharine sentimentality and pathos, Black Swan is a much darker, more disturbing work that recalls the obsession and paranoia at the heart of the director’s first film, Pi. You can read the full review here.
Black Swan’s star-studded cast has the ubiquitous Ballet Mum in Barbara Hershey and retiring dancer, Winona Ryder. And if that wasn’t enough the costumes were done by the super cool Rodarte, making the movie almost too good to be true! There’s something seriously seductive about the contradictions that Ballet provides – ballerinas must be incredibly strong, yet incredibly thin and the lengths that they go to to achieve perfection are brutal, but fascinating to me. Swan Lake is pretty much the epitome of all Ballets so it’s apt that this movie focuses on arguably the most famous ballet of all time. Even the Swan Lake music conjures so many memories for me: the crackly tune of my ballerina music box, the dodgy piano in our ballet hall, it’s all very nostalgic. But I have a feeling after seeing Black Swan my ballet memories will never be the same again.
Yours in new movies,
Janet
