I bought a DVD double dose of director Darren Aronovsky, all new to me. I'd read how he was like Kubrick but better. I settled to watch with Drama student daughter Ariane. Good for her acting eddication, don't cha know.
First was Black Swan. Classified as a thriller/horror, yes it was. Bit of a downer, that girl was definitely a white swan. She couldn't do shades of grey, never mind 50 (I haven't read that book, maybe I should, at least for purposes of market research, but I've read the reviews and the prospect is too much of a yawn)
For the young prima donna, pushed by a loving but frustrated mother, intent on vicarious success and thus, a personal vindication, performing the black swan meant becoming the black swan.
The ballet's director, an actor with a very strange, Pan like face, challenged her sexually. The black swan was not afraid of anything, let alone her own sexuality. He was not evil, he was not good. he was ambivalent, he represented the force of Pan, and clearly, whilst without petty spite, was a power operator ie manager? plus had more than a whiff of goat about him.
But the poor girl was not sufficiently emotionally or imaginatively sinuous. The act of becoming liberated then killed her, I could see it coming, anyone could, as we watched her mind unravelling, saw her losing her way between realities. As a parent of two young women I twitched anxiously, then snivelled afterwards while thinking how the lass lacked all sense of humour, and that really is a massive problem, in life as well as in art.
How else does one maintain a sense of perspective?
Cinematically successful? This pleb would say so. A good film, I'd say, I'm not sure it's a great film. I cared for the heroine, was worried for her, whilst also getting a bit fed up with her. I'd like to know your thoughts.
I got the film's message, I think and I don't regret having watched it, I made a measure of emotional investment there, clearly, it horrified me, so it met its own brief, and to arouse a visceral response is perhaps the ultimate measure of artistic or literary achievement.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_swan_2010/
I'll come back with The Fountain later.
First was Black Swan. Classified as a thriller/horror, yes it was. Bit of a downer, that girl was definitely a white swan. She couldn't do shades of grey, never mind 50 (I haven't read that book, maybe I should, at least for purposes of market research, but I've read the reviews and the prospect is too much of a yawn)
For the young prima donna, pushed by a loving but frustrated mother, intent on vicarious success and thus, a personal vindication, performing the black swan meant becoming the black swan.
The ballet's director, an actor with a very strange, Pan like face, challenged her sexually. The black swan was not afraid of anything, let alone her own sexuality. He was not evil, he was not good. he was ambivalent, he represented the force of Pan, and clearly, whilst without petty spite, was a power operator ie manager? plus had more than a whiff of goat about him.
But the poor girl was not sufficiently emotionally or imaginatively sinuous. The act of becoming liberated then killed her, I could see it coming, anyone could, as we watched her mind unravelling, saw her losing her way between realities. As a parent of two young women I twitched anxiously, then snivelled afterwards while thinking how the lass lacked all sense of humour, and that really is a massive problem, in life as well as in art.
How else does one maintain a sense of perspective?
Cinematically successful? This pleb would say so. A good film, I'd say, I'm not sure it's a great film. I cared for the heroine, was worried for her, whilst also getting a bit fed up with her. I'd like to know your thoughts.
I got the film's message, I think and I don't regret having watched it, I made a measure of emotional investment there, clearly, it horrified me, so it met its own brief, and to arouse a visceral response is perhaps the ultimate measure of artistic or literary achievement.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_swan_2010/
I'll come back with The Fountain later.
