So my sister got me a new office chair. Its gotten pretty serious in here. Full back leather cushion, rolling wheels, adjustable height. Its pretty sweet. I just hate that new leather smell.
So I never really got to talk more about Black Swan. I watched it a few days ago and now that I've let it settle a bit in my mind I can really offer up my thoughts on what I really think is one of the best films that have come out this year. I've noticed a little trend with the style that Director Darren Aronofsky portrays in his films. With Pi, Requium, The Fountain, The Wrestler and now Black Swan under his belt, I've noticed a certain motif, intentional or not, about all his films. The characters in his films all eventually, whether blatantly or suggested, meet their demise in their respective films. In Pi, Max trepans himself after discovering a 216 digit number that could potentially unlock the secret to the stock market. In The Fountain, the three incarnations of Hugh Jackman's character go through some pretty heavy stuff. Drinking from the tree of life and becoming part of the tree, piloting a ship directly into a dying nebula, and competley breaking down and losing all hope after his wife dies from a cancer that he was so close to finding a cure for. In the Wrestler, Randy the Ram's future is unknown as the credits roll before he takes his final bow all the while struggling to keep his bearings together from an impending heart attack. And Requiem for a Dream.... Well if you've seen that move then you already know how fucked up that film is. Double sided dildos anyone?
As for Black Swan, where do I even begin? Between Clint Mansell's beautiful score and Matthew Libatique's stunning cinematography, this film in my eyes is near perfect. And along with Darren Aronosky's directorial vision and strict attention to detail of the ballet culture, the three have become a filmmaking trifecta. Having collaborated on many of Darren's films in the past these visionaries have created a serious work of art. There are instances in the movie theater where I just sat in amazement.
Some of the things that really impressed me with the cinematography is having to work around the art direction. In the ballet studio, and as with pretty much the entire film, Libatique had to get creative with all the mirrors. There are instances where the handheld cameras would pan around the room, and the filmmaker inside is it thinking "When am I going to see the camera in the shot?" Of course it never happened due to some really flawless cgi work to remove reflections. That was the entire feel of this film; reflections. The world portrayed was already uneasy and at times outright horrific, but the cinematography style forced viewers to go in a little more deeper. Viewing the scene through that nice hand held style, through reflections, almost gave the viewer a voyeuristic perspective, close enough to see Nina's character change from the sheltered and quiet white swan to the defiant, murderous, and tempted black swan. But the camera was still far enough to paint an amazing picture of sweeping tracking shots in classic cinematography style and still hand that slight camera shake that documentaries styles suggest.
Enough of the film jargon though, this movie was dope.
