Nina, Nina, ballerina discovers that the mirror has at least two faces in BLACK SWAN
RECENT ACQUISITIONS: BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, August 7, 7:00
Series runs through August 19
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan
A companion piece to 2008’s multilayered The Wrestler, in which a rejuvenated Mickey Rourke plays an aging athlete trying to regain control of his body and his life while attempting to reestablish a connection with his daughter, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is an even more complex psychological study of just how far the mind and body can go to get what it wants and needs. Natalie Portman stars as Nina Sayers, a member of a Manhattan-based ballet company who is vying for the lead role in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s classic 1877 ballet, Swan Lake, the tragic tale of a princess transformed into a white swan who must find true human love to be released, complicated by an evil magician, a black swan rival, and a handsome prince. Nina lives a sheltered existence dominated by her failed-ballerina mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), squeezed into a cramped New York City apartment and not allowed to have a social life. Womanizing choreographer Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) is convinced that Nina can dance the white swan but has severe doubts that she has it within her to dance the black swan, even after selecting her to replace former prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder). Desperate to bring out Nina’s dark side, Leroy creates a competition between her and free-spirited dancer Lily (Mila Kunis), a sexy, tattooed young dancer who lives life on the edge. As opening night approaches, Nina must reach deep inside herself if she is to attain her dream, leaving all her fears and insecurities behind.
Lily (Mila Kunis) helps Nina (Natalie Portman) explore her darker side in BLACK SWAN
A gripping thriller that works on multiple levels, Black Swan is a superbly crafted examination of innocence and experience, good and evil, loyalty and betrayal that goes far beyond the basic black and white. Aronofsky and co-screenwriters Mark Heyman and Andrés Heinz delve into the nature of duality and the very creation of art itself, as the story of Black Swan mimics that of Swan Lake, and Nina continually sees doppelgangers of herself in mirrors and other people, especially Lily and Beth. As Nina struggles to bring out the black swan within her, her body literally bleeds, evoking both birth and death, her hallucinations and fantasies walking the fine line between dream and nightmare. As serious and frightening as Black Swan can be, however, Aronofsky has also infused it with cheesy horror-movie scares, referencing such diverse films as Carrie and The Turning Point, All About Eve and Single White Female, Repulsion and The Red Shoes, The Fly and Rosemary’s Baby, a potent mix of Polanski and Cronenberg filtered through Balanchine and Baryshnikov. (The cheesiness factor also extends to character names; it takes both gumption and supreme confidence to name your star ballerina Nina.) Even the casting touches on the idea of the double; Nina is replacing Beth much the way Portman is now getting the kind of roles Ryder used to get. Once again Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has proved himself to be one of cinema’s most inventive directors, a master visual storyteller not afraid to take chances both with himself and with the audience. Nominated for four Oscars — Portman took home the picture’s only statuette, for Best Actress — Black Swan is screening August 7 at 7:00 at MoMA as part of the series “A View from the Vaults, 2012: Recent Acquisitions,” which continues through August 19 with such new films in MoMA’s collection as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky, Lynn Hershman-Leeson’s Conceiving Ada, and William A. Wellman’s Frisco Jenny.