Black Swan, the latest effort from Darren Aronofsky, is a complicated tale of obsession, madness and ballet. Natalie Portman plays Nina, an up-and-coming ballerina who gets her shot at prima under the stewardship of Vince Cassel’s demanding director Thomas. Along the way she encounters fellow performer Lily (Mila Kunis), embodiment the chaotic, darker elements which Nina needs to discover in order to dance as the Black Swan in the production of Swan Lake.

Despite spending all of the film up close with Portman, she always seems closed off. Indeed, Nina appears in literally every scene of the film, creating a claustrophobic effect for the viewer, adding to the general feeling of constriction that pervades throughout. I found myself longing for some time with other characters, to see events unfolded that weren’t filtered through the ballerina’s skewed viewpoint. The single -character focus achieves an unsettling effect which lingers, but also pushes the viewer away.

Nina is cold and unsympathetic, often coming across as a sulking child. I found myself heartily agreeing with Vince Cassel’s character, Thomas, who repeatedly urges her to ‘lose yourself’, but I wasn’t sure whether I was aiming it at the character or the actress.

The theme of obsession with perfection – and the lengths that Nina will go to achieve it – suggest that she is intended to display this closedness to other characters, but the fact that she fails to reveal anything to the audience even in the depths of apparent psychosis, critically undermines any relationship with the viewer. Fear, yes; anger, yes; emotion, not really.

While the film gives the impression of accelerating and building to its climax, it -again – felt like things were on too short a leash. The energy of the production (within a production) felt very controlled, orchestrated and deliberate, and even the actual manifestation of the titular black swan didn’t unleash enough chaos. It felt like a portrayal of dark energy and insanity, but in a perversely restrained manner.

At the heart of it, sharing in the fear and madness of the character isn’t enough to build a sympathetic bond with the viewer. It’s a staggering and accomplished portrayal of an intensely disturbed individual, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it in the same way that I enjoyed the – equally traumatic but infinitely more relatable – Requiem, which retains its crown as Aronofsky’s masterpiece.

Black Swan is a film that gets under your skin and makes you want to scratch, but the whole experience is troublesome and doesn’t quite gel.

Hello all. After a political hiatus I am now back to grab your brain hole with links and nonsense. Rejoice.

• Heard of the Kuleshov effect? No? Well read the Wikipedia article. And then let’s have Alfred Hitchcock explain it to us with a gratuitous shot of some totty.
• Unreality magazine discusses the most disappointing films of the last decade. The low hanging Matrix fruit are pretty obvious, but Watchmen? Really? It wasn’t that bad.
• Jake Mcmillan asks ‘where have all the Bond Villains gone’? Pretty much agree with it all, except Trevelyan. He was a shit baddy.
• Here’s one of them new-fangled podcasts of an interview with Chris Morris about Four Lions. Bad intro music warning.
• And if you’re no good with computers, here’s a normal word-based interview with the same man on the same subject.
• I want to see Four Lions.

• Roger Ebert claims that video games will never be art. I’m not sure I agree. EDIT: I’ve thought about it now and I do agree. Sorry y’all. However, as he asks, why are gamers so adamant that they be recognised as such?
• You may or may not be aware of the excellent faux-trailer Hobo With a Shotgun, which was created as a result of a contest to be included as part of the Grindhouse cinema release. If you’re not, go and watch it now. Back? Brilliant, right? Well hold onto your socks, because it’s being made into a feature. With Rutger Hauer! Sweet Jesus!
• When will depressio-Scandinavian-maestro Lars Von Trier’s relentless misogyny be satiated? Perhaps after he tortures Kirsten Dunst to the point of breakdown? First Johnny Borrell, now this? What cosmic wrong did the poor lass commit?
• JB’s already packing his suitcase. Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School is open for business.

• Happy (belated) Easter.
• Five of the best nuclear apocalypse movies from Geeks are Sexy. This is a good list, but I’m buggered if I’ll ever sit through Threads again.
• “A retired surgeon who has a unique fantasy: to construct the world’s first human caterpillar by taking captives and surgically connecting them mouth-to-anus.” Has to be worth a punt, right? A crisp tenner to the first screencap of the inevitable money shot.
• An article by Jeremy Bernstein about playing chess with Kubrick. Actually fascinating.
• I was going to post the follow up to that 70 minute review of the Phantom Menace, but it looks like RedLetterMedia is having some dramas with copyright claims. Keep an eye on the profile and be sure to watch the Attack of the Clones review when it comes back up. It’s inspired stuff.

• Dr. Mark Kermode provides us with an even-handed, scientific appraisal of the latest 3D revival. Incidentally, I’m reading his book at the moment and in it he makes the point that studios are pushing 3D so forcefully because it’s more difficult to pirate. This honestly never occurred to me before, but it seems to be pretty much on the money. Interesting.
• J.D. Shapiro, the man responsible for notorious scientologist stinker Battlefield Earth, has apologised for his crimes against cinema while collecting the Razzie for worst movie of the decade.
• Talking of flops, did you hear that Uma Thurman’s latest flick Motherhood took £88 on its opening weekend? No, I didn’t omit an ‘m’ after that figure. Literally 11 people went to watch this movie. Ouch.
• Here’s an interesting piece of history: a letter from James Cameron to H. R. Giger explaining why he didn’t contact the artist about collaborating on Aliens. By the by, I totally didn’t know that Cameron’s middle initial was F when I called him James ‘fucking’ Cameron last week, but I’m totally pretending that I did.
• On a serious note: Dennis Hopper is terminally ill. He’s one of my favourite actors and I was really upset to hear the news. At least he has been given the honour of a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star before he passes, but it’s likely to be the last time he’s ever seen in public. This is how I’ll remember him:

(This is part two in a series of insights into some of our personal favourite films. You can read Thom’s recent entry on Wayne’s World here.)

When I was about 15, I got into the habit of staying up late watching dodgy movies on Channel Four.

These were films that weren’t shown until after the witching hour. Not because they were x-rated, but because they were usually pretty duff. Often they were arty. Often they were in another language. Sometimes they were all three. Yes, there was a lot of dross, but there were some real diamonds in the rough. And the best thing was that these flicks came with the thrill of genuine discovery, because you knew no-one else would be watching them.

“Did you watch Hard Boiled on Saturday?” I’d ask my schoolyard chums. “It was on at half two in the morning, but it had gunfights and trenchcoats and eyepatches and loads of really cool stuff.”

“No,” they’d reply, “we were too busy having sex with girls”.

Read more »

• Quick disclaimer on this one: I haven’t seen Avatar, let alone seen it in 3-D. However, this seems like a very good analysis of the issues with current 3-D filmmaking techniques. I like having the ability to notice and focus on little background details. No-one’s going to take that away from me. Especially not James ‘fucking’ Cameron.
• “I stared with glazed eyes at The Bounty Hunter. Here is a film with no need to exist.” I love Roger Ebert and would happily civil partnership him tomorrow. Gerard Butler, on the other hand, is turning into a bit of a bad smell. Yes, 300 was fun, but since then it’s as if he’s kicked his ability to say ‘no’ down a well.
• Looks like The Wicker Man is set for another remake. Or re-imagining, which seems to be the in vogue term these days. Anything’s got to be better than Nicolas Cage’s “OH GOD NOT THE BEES” antics, right? Christopher Lee is also supposed to be on board. We’ll see.
• I haven’t watched this yet because I’m at work, so it’s more of a reminder to me to watch it once I get internet access in my new flat. Here are the opening credits of Gaspar (Irréversible) Noé’s latest, Enter The Void. UPDATE: I’ve watched it now and it’s brilliant, but I feel a bit sick and suggestible.
• Got a predilection for threesomes and a few hours to kill? Consult The Trilogy Meter.

• I’ve only just seen In the Loop, and – like most of the rest of the civilised world – thought it was bloody brilliant. But what does real-life Tucker inspiration Alistair Campbell think?
• Pacific, the long-awaited follow-up to Band of Brothers, is now within sight and has been generating some remarkable buzz. Should be a very exciting event, when it comes.
• I wouldn’t mess with Quentin Tarantino. This woman did. She probably regrets it now. Like she regrets that hat! Boosh!
• This is pretty old now, but I’m sharing it anyway: a 70-minute review of The Phantom Menace. It’s worth it. Trust me.
• Cuarón! In space! With RDJ!

Tavs here. Thom’s on the other side of the pond this week, so I’m filling in for him on Links duty.

• I hated the idea of Disney’s Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland as soon as I heard about the bloody thing, so I’m delighted to see that CHUD has kicked the shit out of it.
• Instead of that dross, check out this brilliant work of electronica and video editing. Made by elusive YouTuber Pogo, his treatments of Hook and Up also come very highly recommended. Be aware that due to dodgy legal wranglings his remixes are subject to being yanked by the ‘tube without warning. But they’re so good that people keep uploading them again, so hah.
• Legendary critic Roger Ebert has launched a membership system for his rather excellent website. Five bucks for a year sounds eminently reasonable to me. Why didn’t we think of that?
• From Firstshowing.net via heyuguys: A first look at a new A Nightmare on Elm Street poster. Yeah, the poster’s cool, but I’m not holding out for anything earth-shattering from this franchise reboot. Happy, as always, to be proved wrong.
• With the Oscars looming over us like some kind of giant metal statue, I’m sure we’re all already quite tired of the constant twittering, bickering and twitter-bickering (twickering – it’s mine. No, you can’t use it).  In that vein, here’s a quick look at some of the worst – and therefore best – Academy gaffes over the years. Point and laugh and them. Hahaha!

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s MicMacs marks a return to cinemas after a five-year break following the release of 2004’s A Very Long Engagement. This hiatus was chiefly dedicated to an attempt to bring Yann Martel’s award-winning 2001 novel Life of Pi to the silver screen. However, ballooning costs resulted in the canning of the project, which was a real blow to all of us hoping for a life-affirming treatment from the same mind that brought us the joy-enforcing powerhouse of Amelie. If rumours are to be believed, however, Ang Lee is now on board (geddit?), so there may be hope for the project yet.

Anyway, instead of the story of a boy with a tiger in his boat, Jeunet has opted for the story of a man with a bullet in his head. While the film isn’t deliberately grittier than the rest of his back catalogue, it certainly has a foot more firmly planted in the real world (with the possible exception of …Engagement). The antagonists of MicMacs are a pair of profit-oriented arms manufacturers, who are jointly responsible for two major blows to the life of lead character Bazil; the loss of his parents (to a landmine and bereavement-induced grief) and the round permanently embedded in his skull. Following a chance meeting, he becomes part of a family of eccentrics living in a scrap yard and, with the help of his new friends, sets out to force some karma on the men that destroyed his life.

Read more »