Review of Black Swan (2010) by Headrush — 05 Feb 2011

I had been wary going to see this film after reviewers who I would generally trust had been greatly unimpressed by it, but as a big fan of Requiem for a dream I still had hopes. I had read that as a description of the ballet world it was full of clichés, but this did not concern me, as it was not intended to be one.

What did, was that as a portrayal of anything faintly human, there was nothing but ridiculous pastiches of human beings. The premise of the film is the extreme suffering and destructive forces a person must endure to achieve their artistic goals.

While there is truth in the idea that one must suffer for their art, or to excel in anything, this idea is explored in a crude and superficial way. Black Swan trades on a romanticized view of the 'high art' ballet world, and on the idea of the mysterious and mad artist perusing perfection at the expensive of their sanity.

This is itself just another cliché, and an approach that makes the most of the cultural myth of the tortured and illusory artist engrossed in an exotic and unhinged life. While this idea may be seductive to some judging from the many favourable reviews, if you are not sucked in by the shallow illusion, all that is left is affected banality.

In time I think this film will come to be seen in a less favourable light.