Black Swan

We finally got around to watching Black Swan (2010, dir Darren Aronofsky) last night and whilst it was riveting in places, I feel that this film was overly hyped and misses it mark.

I will avoid recounting the details of the plot as the synopsis can be found easily elsewhere but my thoughts below do contain spoilers so please beware if you have not seen the movie….

What worked

• Use of the mirrors and the black and white (although these devices were used too much!)
• Portman - weirdly – looks different from certain angles so it was hard to recognize her imagined doppelganger. This added some intrigue but was possibly accidental
• Wasn’t sure at first if Hershey is Portman’s mother or lover – a good initial indication of the unnaturally intimate relationship they have
• I was starting to disbelieve that Portman could really act but when she changes towards the end of the film it was quite powerful.
• There is lots of suspense and mystery around what is real and what is not – wasn’t sure how everything would end (even though there were lots of predictable moments on the way)
• Portman did look like a ballet dancer. This movie is not for the squeamish. We are repeatedly shown how grueling this lifestyle is for the body of a dancer
• Mila Kunis is fab in it – very sexy and dripping with confidence. Very convincing and well cast for the role
• The claustrophobia of the apartment where Nina lives with her stifling mother and lots of good mise-en-scene generally
• I kind of liked the feathers growing out of the scratches on her back and this was well-filmed
• I also liked her growing full feathers at the end of the black swan performance - nicely delivered
• Good ending – open for the viewer’s own interpretation 

What didn’t work

• She was already unhinged at the beginning so our only journey with her was a further descent into madness – I found this to be unsatisfying
• I was utterly unconvinced that Nina (Portman) would have been offered the role as the prima (just because she bites Leroy’s lip when he kisses her against her will?)
• Far too many clichés for my taste – black/white; the prudish girl is tempted by lesbian sex; the overbearing mother who gave up her career to have a baby; the sexually predatory head of the ballet company; the washed-up star (Winona Ryder) gets drunk, has a meltdown and then tries to kill herself blah blah etc
• Portman was so simpering and pathetic for so much of the movie it became boring at times – her character could have been much more subtle
• I don’t think this film revealed anything about the world of professional ballet that we didn’t already know – it is brutally hard, there is lots of rivalry and back-stabbing and you get retired early.  Big deal.
• Surely the understudy (“alternate”) would not have been chosen so late on the process?
• The webbed feet was a step too far
• She doesn’t ever reveal an actual dark side - she just goes madder

Mise-en-scene analysis

• Pink bedroom with toys – shows childishness
• Mother dresses in black – mourning her lost career and being slightly evil?
• Creepy paintings in her mother’s studio
• Butterfly wallpaper – signifies an impending transformation?
• Extensive use of mirrors – self-reflection/obsession and seeing different sides of people
• Portman mostly in white
• Kunis in black – lends a black top to the protagonist when they are out at a bar being bad
• Breeze-block walls and long grey corridors to convey the harsh, unforgiving nature of the environment
• Canted and high angle shots to show vulnerability
• Lots of tracking shots and rapid cutting to create empathy and suspense

In conclusion: I definitely preferred The Wrestler!

Exercise: Composition & balance

This exercise is all about balance and continuity between shots. When this is broken it can work well to create a change of pace, atmosphere, add or remove tension or to communicate something about the state of mind of a character. I think I have a pretty good grasp on this from my still photography experience and also my recent experiments with the moving image but I have found a few examples of composition and balance from Breaking Bad (which I am missing badly).  There are many breaks in the continuity of this part of the episode to create the tension. There are also some long heavy parts where we are given time to contemplate the drama as it unfolds.

This is a point in the sequence where Walt realises something important which is pivotal to the plot. Although he has been centred, the sunflash adds some balance but still leaves the composition as quite uncomfortable to reflect Walt's discomfort.

Classic use of the rule of thirds with the figure in the foreground weighting down the empty space towards the bottom of the image and the centred character being the one moving across the set. This allows the viewer to take in a lot of information with any distractions.

A brave shot - like much of the cinematography in this show. We can barely see Walt as he is numbed with the reality of what has happened but he is centred because he is the pivot of everything.

A superb shot showing Walt twice - one reflection with the bullet hole in his head - to remind us that we still don't know how this will end. These dramatic and unusual changes in the composition and continuity keep us on edge and build the feeling of voyeurism. We almost feel like we are next to the car, hiding, looking everywhere as there is such danger.

In the preceding shots we have seen Walt walking in the desert and then the Native American watching the approach from his home and coming outside to interact. This shot is from a higher angle and has a much more symbolic feel to it. The fence and straggly tree between these two people accentuates Walt's remoteness, that somehow there is no going back to normality even though he is in 'civilisation' again. 

An incredibly tense scene between the two sisters. The set up feels very stagnant at first sight. The corporate or institutional feel of the office design; they are facing each other and we see then squarely in profile. Fairly muted colours apart from the purple orchid.  Commentators have said that purple in the series usually indicates someone is being misled or is delusional.  For a while nothing much happens - and then Marie confronts Skyler. 

Added tension is created in this already excruciating scene by the camera "jumping the line" across the safe 180 degree arc. This reverses the pre-established direction of the gaze between the two women which accentuates the battle of wills between them. We only see Skyler's purple sleeve from the other side.

Powerful use of the rule of thirds. Walt is down on the bottom left of the image, tiny, powerless and weighed down by events.  He is framed by two trees showing that he is hemmed in and, behind, the design on the embankment looks like gravestones.  The viewer is allowed to gaze at this still, quiet moment to contemplate Walter's fate.  

Taylor Wessing winner

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2306586/spencer-murphy-wins-2013-taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize

Emin, Murray procrastinations

This did entertain me (it is a few years old, I know) although I can't help liking some of Emin's work. She actually always strikes me as being a true artist to the core. I just wonder how much the money machine and the marketers add to the apparent tawdriness of it all. The art world is no country for old men anymore.

But now for some completely different:  a Bill Murray tribute!

I really should be studying.