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Black Swan

Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky

  • Country: USA
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: English
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  • Programmes:

A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company. Black Swan takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect. Black Swan also stars Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder.

Drama,  Horror,  Women,  Arts,  Sexuality

screening times

    • Monday September 13
    • 9:30:00 PM
    • ROY THOMSON HALL
    • Tuesday September 14
    • 11:00:00 AM
    • VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
    • Saturday September 18
    • 9:00:00 PM
    • RYERSON

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

From wrestling to classical ballet, director Darren Aronofsky has crafted another exquisite cinematic exploration of identity and performance. Black Swan is psychologically thrilling cinema at its finest. As the artistic director of a world-class ballet company (a stand-in for the New York City Ballet), Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), starts the new season by firing his vitriolic, aging prima ballerina (Winona Ryder). Lecherous and manipulative, Thomas decides to stage a new and cutting edge production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, a ballet that requires one dancer to portray the two sides of the Swan Queen: the innocent and naïve White Swan and the sensual and seductive Black Swan. Few dancers have the talent to master this stark duality.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is a timid but dedicated dancer in the company. Like most ballerinas, dancing is her life and her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey), a former ballerina, ensures that her life is comprised of nothing but ballet. In a state of continual childhood innocence, Nina dances by day and sleeps by night under the watchful eye of her suffocating mother. A technically flawless dancer, Nina is perfect for the role of the White Swan. But she lacks the passionate abandon that is needed for the other half of the role. When a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), joins the company, she has all the sensual energy that Nina lacks. Intimidated by this power, Nina becomes obsessed with her rival and the two form an uneasy relationship where Lily tries to help Nina reveal her repressed dark side through drugs, sex and wild debauchery.

But as the role begins to consume her, strange things happen to Nina. Her body changes, as does her mind, and the line between the production and reality begins to blur in a terrifying transformation.

With stunning visuals and masterful performances, Black Swan combines a rare mix of beauty and grotesquerie to shape a remarkable narrative. Potent and dazzling, Aronofsky’s latest feature is a testament to his visionary talent.

director bio

Darren Aronofsky was born in Brooklyn and studied live-action and animated film at Harvard University. His feature films include Pi (98), which won the dramatic directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, and Requiem for a Dream (00), which screened at the Festival and earned Ellen Burstyn an Academy Award® nomination for best actress. His previous film, The Fountain (06), also played at the Festival, as did The Wrestler (08), which won an Independent Spirit Award for best feature and was nominated for Academy Awards for best actor and best supporting actress. Black Swan (10) is his fifth feature film.

     
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