Featuring Natalie Portman in an Oscar-winning performance, Black Swan certainly takes the traditional field of ballet and turns it into something radical and groundbreaking. Portman stars as an obsessive ballerina, whose mental state teeters perilously on the edge of sanity for much of the film. She's Nina, the stereotypical dancer with perfect technique yet no emotion, complete with an overbearing mother who pushes her too hard. While you've got all the usual staples that we tend to see in the ballet world, the jealousy and competitiveness and high drama, Black Swan goes so much further than that. It ventures into genuinely subversive territory, a place with odd sexual relationships, hallucinations, and a complete breakdown of reality. Black Swan takes the field of dance, which requires so much mental toughness for people to succeed, and creates a dark psychological horror film that borrows significantly from Dostoyevsky's The Double.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
