Written by Lily Rae for The Badger (http://www.thebadgeronline.co.uk)
Photo Credit: latestissue.blogspot.com
Only Darren Aronofsky could make ballet – pretty, demure, elegant ballet – so terrifying and painful to watch that the joints of your feet start to ache along with Nina’s (Natalie Portman) and you wonder if lessons for your little sister is such a good idea. The film opens on Nina, in the sparkling tiara and tutu dreamt of by little girls the world over, dancing the transformation scene in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Nina is a dedicated ballet dancer in a company full of young women all desperate to win the role of the Swan Queen. Nina is awarded the role, much to the contempt of her associates, and so she begins the gruelling rehearsals which will see her take on both the role of the White Swan and the Black Swan. Nina is a perfect White Swan, but the company director Thomas (Vincent Cassel with sleaze-dials on full) is concerned that she cannot dance both parts convincingly enough.
Several cracking bones, snapping muscles, violent dream-sequences and a lesbian sex-scene later and Nina is unhinged; her transformation from the pure, innocent ballerina to the psychotic, aggressive black swan is complete.
