Wednesday, March 2, 2011

My review of Black Swan

Black Swan...
the dancer movie...the psycho drama...
the best actress award for Natalie Portman

Well, I guess that I have a little bit of insight into this movie. For those of you that haven't figured it out from my "name" or read about it from a previous post yet, I was a ballet dancer. I danced professionally until I was 4 months pregnant with my son.

I enjoyed this movie. There were parts that were so over the top that I was really laughing out loud at them, but overall, I thought they made a different type of psychodrama.
They gave us the Hollywood extreme of how obsessed a dancer can become with her role.

Though I have never known anyone to drug a fellow dancer, nor pull feathers out of their skin,
I did relate to the intensity of a dancer when depicting her role...especially as the infamous
white swan/black swan duel role.
I personally did not dance this role, but I watched my friends dance it and have to become the opposite personalities that it requires.
I also watched as fellow dancers portrayed a particular role in a ballet that they would cry when their character died...or would really laugh out loud on stage...
(or maybe that was me, laughing at some silly joke someone told me when the peasant girls, aka-me, were in the corner supposedly giggling about the cute Romeo or whatever character! hahaha...this actually happened and my director once told me that she could hear me laughing from the audience...oops!)

I also watched fellow dancers be...well, let's just say, not so nice to another dancer that got the role they wanted. I hated when the casting went up on the board...I would always wander over after people left so that they wouldn't see the possible disappointment in my face because I hadn't gotten a role.

I have heard of dancers getting involved with their directors...though never experienced it with my company.

So, in a general sense, I thought they did a good job...taking it to the Hollywood extreme, but the underlying theme and the way they portrayed it was good. I never go to a movie and watch it because of the Oscars. You expect too much and are usually disappointed, which is how many of the women that I watched it with here felt. They thought it was terrible and horrible story line and blah, blah, blah...
they never asked me for some insight though! Oh well, their loss!
I did speak afterwards to two of my closer friends about it...and they liked the insight that I gave them about the
"life of a dancer"

and now you have my thoughts too...
let me know what you thought!

11 comments:

mythopolis said...

I haven't seen it yet, but I like dance, and films about dance, and am a fan of Natalie Portman. To me, dancers have such a sense of devotion, discipline, and even sacrifice to an aesthetic ideal.

Anonymous said...

Sis, haven't seen it yet but want to & hopefully will soon...love your review...the ice pics are amazing! Talk soon to work out our details. Love ya!

Gutsy Living said...

I have been waiting to see it. You made it sound more positive than some I know who didn't like it. Surely the jealousy is accurate though.

Stickup Artist said...

Hi Ballerina Girl, Thanks for stopping by! Reading your insights into Black Swan, which I haven't seen yet, I'm sure many of the same emotions and scenarios play out for actors and singers as well. To me, it sounds metaphorical and feminine, and I can't wait to see it.

I see you live in Kazakhstan and to me that is a fascinating real life story that I'd love to hear more about. Love the ice pictures and the view of the mosque. My curiosity it peaked!

Stickup Artist said...

Oh, I forgot to answer your question about the "scratchy" effect. I added layers of a kind of scratched steel texture on top of the original photo.

Dee Newman said...

I have a very good friend who was a dancer in New York for nearly twenty years and she had the very same reactions to Black Swan as you did.

FancyHorse said...

I really enjoyed reading your insight. I am not familiar with the world of ballet. Thank you!

Stickup Artist said...

Hi there, I added myself as a follower on my blog and got the RSS feed not recognized too. I started trouble-shooting, found my feed is valid, went out for the day, and when I came home, it was working.

Where did you try to enter the feed? In Design View to your blog roll, as a Follower, or another reader? Any feedback you could give me would be extremely helpful.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!!

Jientje said...

I have always been fascinated by ballet and ballet dancers, and I loved reading your thoughts about this.

Gutsy Living said...

BG, I have to highlight the text in order to read it. Just thought I'd bring this up as it makes it difficult to read. Perhaps it's just me. Thanks, Sonia

Anonymous said...

Your latest blog is insightful and gutsy. i loved reading about your ballet days and how it relates to the movie.

You are absolutely right, its your friend's loss that they didn't take the time to hear out what you had to say about the movie.

Best of luck BG, hope you continue to find KZ enjoyable!!

Surfer Dude.