IR: Black Swan

Black Swan is a damn good film, marred though it was by an audience who giggled and chatted though it like the scum I suspect all general public to be. A disturbing scene in which Natalie Portman's character, Nina, braves some experimental masturbation to further her career, is apparently lost on all the mindless f*cks whose brains just went “Ooooh sex! That's naaauuuuuggghty!” The fact that this is done tastefully and points to a dark change in her character apparently counts for nothing.

NOT AMUSED.

We watched Black Swan from digital and right up against the screen (it was packed), so unfortunately the image quality was grainy. However, the shots were still beautiful (as far as I can tell) and the subject matter being what it was helped too I'm sure. The dancing is amazingly professional, being done as it is by an actress, not a ballerina who has trained since birth like real ones have to. Either they are very swish with the body doubles or Natalie P and girl from That 70s Show actually managed to get on point (on their tippy toes) which is a pretty advanced thing and usually takes years to achieve. Unless you're a basilik.

Pictured: A digitally enhanced Natalie Portman.

The story itself is pretty cool and things get very trippy and confused (and, unfortunately, gruesome) as the plot progresses, and we become increasingly unsure of what is real. Nina is opened to a new world in her task to learn to dance the Black Swan, a role she has hitherto been too innocent for. This is a chilling coming-of-age tale, and I highly recommend seeing it!

5 stars.

Black Swan is a film into which a lot of thought has been poured.
I could analyse it for pages and not plumb the depths.
Naturally I was aware of it since it was talked about for months, tipped at the Oscars and directed by Darren Aronofsky, whose film The Fountain holds to this day the singular honour of having a sex scene I actually find sexy.

Despite not being able to move without seeing some kind of behind the scenes press about Black Swan, it did surprise me. I was expecting a straight forward arthouse melodrama. And indeed Black Swan is an arthouse melodrama, but it is in no way straight forward.

The kindest way to put it is that it is a film with a rich heritage. The cruelest would be that it is unoriginal. However the reality is somewhere in between. The closest I could get to give you a real impression of what its like is Jacob's Ladder with ballet instead of Vietnam. Or a feature long episode of the Twilight Zone produced by Merchant Ivory. If that sounds crazy, its just crazy enough to work.

Miss Kenton...it can never be. Please pass me another muffin.

It borrows from a dozen other works as well...I noticed a strong resemblance to Perfect Blue (the Satoshi Kon animation), Cat People, Roman Polanski's Repulsion, a whole bunch of body horrors and the raft of identity crisis films of the 90s of which Fight Club is the most well known.
I am not bashing this. I think it great to have so many reference, and I even noticed a few nods to Pi, Aronofsky's first feature, but anyone who calls this film original doesn't know an awful lot about cinema.


However maybe I should stop being a snob and remember that for some people cinema is entertainment, not life. It was certainly entertainment for the sack-headed goons we were forced to share a packed cinema with, who giggled along merrily at parts which would have made a more sensitive audience draw in breath. Seriously if you are reading this and you laughed, I would happily punch you in the throat.
Anyway...

To set the record straight about the hype, its mostly true...the performances are really great from every corner...the actors ham it up a bit but that is right for the piece and the setting. And if nothing else it proves once and for all how terribly, criminally badly Ms Natalie of the Portman Clan was misused in the Star Wars prequals. The lighting is great and creepy, the camera gives a real sense, perhaps one of the best I've seen, of being on stage. The dancing is completely real and not for a second did I doubt how much effort every one of the cast had put into it.
There are problems...some of the metaphors are a bit heavy handed (oh look, Natalie Portman's house is filled with soft toys. And one of them is...A BLACK SWAN!

Pictured: A digitially enhanced Natalie Portman.

And look, the tempestuous bullet-eyed Director (Vincent Cassel) loves BLACK and WHITE to the extent that he actually has a Rorschach blot test on his wall...perhaps a reference to the bleak philosophy of nihilistic vigilante Rorschach from Alan Moores seminal graphic novel Watchmen?), there are body horror/identity cliches everywhere you look and you can pretty much see some of the twists coming as if they were steam trains...but I'm nitpicking.

One final point. In all the reviews I have heard not once do people site the fact that the film highlights the problems with the culture of ballet itself; that masochistic obsession with beauty and perfection, the whispering lies, the back stabbing, the paranoia and cruelty. There may be some reviewers who have (give me links if you know of any) and I wish I could spread myself on the subject, but I should wrap up.
Its beautiful, its scary, its mad and dark. Go see it.

4/5

The King's Speech

The shy and stammering Prince Albert finds it impossible to speak publically; after seeing dozens of speech therapists, he is referred to the genial Australian Lionel Logue. However the progress he is making may be all too slow- his father in failing health and his older brother infatuated with a totally unsuitable American divorcee, it seems that the reluctant Prince may have to take the throne he dreads.

The Kings Speech was jolly good and comes confidently recommended. The film centres on the man who would become King George the 6th, at the beginning of the 2nd World War. The plot, however, deals little with the struggles of the country in this trying time, but focuses on the personal problem that ‘Bertie’ (as his family call him) faces with public speaking, suffering as he does from a stammer. His wife, played commendably by Helena Bonham-Carter, fixes him up with a last-resort speech therapist who has unconventional methods. (I say commendably, not because she was particularly good, which I suppose she was, but because she wasn’t terrible, as I feared she would be, having never seen her play anyone but her shrieking gothic self).

Jim has taken to calling her 'Helena Boned-Corset'.

The trust and friendship that is built, despite reservations from Bertie, between him and the therapist, is where the charm of this film lies. The best scenes are those in the therapist’s studio, where he has Bertie engaging in all manner of exercises, from dignified waltzing to swearing at the top of his lungs. All very amusing. Sombre at times, it has a solid story and a happy ending, and faithful lack of airbrushing.

4/5

Lauded everywhere already, and Oscar fodder it most definitely is, there is very little to say about the King's Speech you won't have heard a dozen times already. Its great, nuff said.
So I will instead lay a few random points down.

It is so refreshing to see Geoffery Rush cast off his pirate gear (though he was obviously having a good time) and do some proper acting. He is charming as Logue the speech therapist, although his accent does become more antipodean in the presence of his Aussie family...it could be the same accent-inhibiting allergy to tables that affected him in Pirates 3.

"Arrr, and ye know thys to be troo, oi...noo, sorrie, oi jost caant hold it, arrrrrr, where be me trailer? Oi'm off fer a coffee"

Look closely at a scene where King George 'Bertie' the Sixth and Lionel Logue walk through a fog bound park. Its almost all in one take, and it is gorgeous.

There are some surprisingly moving and profound insights into the King's upbringing. Although it never descends into Poor Little Rich Boy cliches it does tackle the paradox of power (the higher up you are, the more people will tell you what to do) and the harrowing real reasons behind speech impediments; bullying, persecution and abuse.

As a man who loves the sound of his own voice and positively welcomes public speaking, it took some very good tricks to put me in the shoes of the nervous, speech-hating King. But it was very well done, and not just by visuals; the subtle off-hand comments in the script about how many thousands will be listening, and how great he will probably be build up a real sense of apprehension and nerves that we know, as an audience, will only serve to worsen the King's worries.

I love the place they found to be Logue's 'office'. A big as a bunker, with a curved roof, all copper-oxide and bare stone. It was a truly unique and original set.

It pains me to say that among a cast of great actors, Timothy Spall, national treasure that he is, appeared to be slightly hamming it up. His portrayal of Churchill is rather too caricatured and he seems to be shoehorned in just because any World War 2 drama simply must have a Churchill.
Still, one could argue that Churchill himself was such a larger-than-life character it would be impossible to play him subtly. We shall never know.

Finally: Colin Firth. A speech impediment is a hard thing to act without making it ridiculous or comedic. And its hard to deliver lines when in fact, there is not line, just a terrible, confused pause from a character who just CANNOT get the words out. But Colin Firth proves once again just how awesome he is. He never slips into parody once, and it is hard to believe that it is in any way unnatural for him to stammer. Good on you, sir.

In conclusion, see the King's Speech. I recommend it every bit as much as I would recommend a hot bath, a cup of tea, a Joseph Wright painting or a favourite piece of music. It is just the tonic.

5/5