Only moments after the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan appeared online, internet wits had already dubbed it Single White Ballerina. Like Barbet Schroeder’s smash 1992 film Single White Female, Black Swan appears to be the story of a young woman (Natalie Portman) whose identity is usurped by an obsessed competitor. Here, the women are ballerinas, and their contest is for the affections of their choreographer as well as his leading roles.
The psycho-sexual relationship between the dancers hinted at in the trailer comes as no surprise; it’s almost a requirement of the genre. Equally, the overbearing mother – here seen painfully cropping her daughter’s fingernails – is a familiar role. (And one that will soon be played for black comedy, too. A just-announced independent comedy called Dance of the Mirlitons focuses on a ballet-mother who is determined to make her daughter famous, no matter what it takes.)
But it’s the final moments of Black Swan’s trailer that are fascinating, as Portman’s dancer appears to pluck a single feather from her back – and the film shifts from a psychological thriller to a more visceral sort of horror. It wouldn’t be the first time. 1977’s Suspiria, from Italian horror master Dario Argento, focused on an American dancer discovering an evil force lurking in her ballet academy – resulting in a series of bloody, hallucinogenic, and unforgettable murders.
Ballet and horror also share an interest in bodily transformations. The former tends to treat them as magic; the latter as mutation. But when Aronofsky’s last film, The Wrestler, was a blistering account of the true costs of masculinity, I wonder Black Swan will ask similar questions of femininity. Will the wings of Portman’s ballerina serve the same purpose as the distorted features of Mickey Rourke’s wrestler?
(I also wonder whether her transformation can possibly equal the greatest ballerina movie-monster of all. We’ll have to wait and see.)
Black Swan premieres tonight at the 67th Venice Film Festival and will be released in Australia early 2011
Scarey stuff. Will be popular I bet.
Working in a small cinema, lots of the time is spent sending film trailers around the office. When this popped onto our raiders a few weeks ago, I said it looks like they took a great dance film and made it horrible (it looks great, I just hate horror films!), while one of my work mates (who isn’t a ballet fan) thought this made it look like the best dance film ever!
One of my favourite novels is Mercedes Lackey’s The Black Swan, where she tells the story of Swan Lake from Odile’s point of view. Not a horror story at all!
I recently read a comment by the author stating that she’s a big fan of ballet, so it comes as no surprise that she’s also written a novelisation of The Fire Bird. Check them out!
I doubt that it will be that horrific. I think it will be just stuff going on in her mind mostly. With ballet movies, it is impossible to great the kind of gut wretching drama that you get with drug addicts or serial killers.
(Although I did see an episode of Angel (A Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff series) where an evil magician had a beautiful ballerina (Summer Glau) and a male ballerina trapped in a Swan Lake performance for all eternity. That was awesome.)
Ballet people are general completely good. The “Center Stage” type of plots have been all used up, so they have to throw a bit of bi-sexuality and some scary tricks with mirrors to make this one dramatic.
I also find it interesting that this movie is rated R, which means that a lot of children and younger teenage ballet students won’t be able to see it in the theater.
Not many glimpses of the Rodarte costumes online yet … Hoping some stills will appear soon.
I need to see this. Love Portman och Aronofsky.