Why I thought ‘Black Swan’ wasn’t that great..

‘Black Swan‘. The film that everyone was waiting for, the one that they’re all taking about. The one that so many people have called masterpiece and that so many people keep on praising on Twitter and Facebook and blogs.

And I wonder… really?

I wanted to see ‘Black Swan’ very badly: it had a great trailer, greater posters, and the plot seemed fascinating. However, when I left the cinema last Saturday after finally seeing it, I felt disappointed.

Here are the reasons why…

*THE STORY*

I guess that the ‘Black Swan‘s target audience is not the same one that goes to the ballet, so the fact that what the movie tells about ‘Swan Lake’ is half invented is probably unknown to most of those who’ve seen it. Unfortunately for me (at least in this case) I’ve always been a ‘Swan Lake’ fan: I love the music, I love the story, I love the ballet. Which is why I know that the black swan is not the evil twin of the white swan as the film kind of suggests. Nor that the white swan is such a fragile character. It’s true that the white swan is a Princess (Odette) that’s been transformed into a swan by an evil wizard (Rothbart), but that’s about it. On the other side, the black swan (Odile) is the daughter of Rothbart who is transformed into a white swan lookalike to fool Siegfried (the Prince) so that Odette’s spell is not broken. Both parts are played by the same dancer, yes, but they’re different characters. And the black swan only appears on Act III of a four act ballet.

*THE LOGICS*

While watching the film, I found it very hard to engage with it. For some reason, I had a constant feeling that every single thing that happens in it happens for the sole reason that it’s cool, scary or shocking. I didn’t really see any logic behind it, just a collection of moments that suited Aronofky’s desires. For him, characters and emotions are disposable. One moment they’re here, the next they’ve gone. There are too many things in this film that could’ve been explored so much more but remain simple, flat and empty stereotypes (the character of the mother, for instance).

*THE OBVIOUSNESS*

I know that Aronofsky’s never really been into subtlety but… this was a little too much.

I don’ think we needed every single detail in the movie to be black or white (the clothes, the decoration in Vincent Cassel’s apartment and studio,…) to understand what this film is about. The same way that we don’t need the Swan Lake music everywhere (jewellery box? mobile phone tone?).

Aronofsky makes such an effort in turning everything ‘Swan Lake’ that it gets to a point where it seems that there was/won’t be any life in any of those characters before/after what the movie tells. And that takes a lot of humanity off them.

*VINCENT CASSELL*

Is it me or every time he opened his mouth it was to make a huge statement that, deep down, was pure cliche? His character’s so over the top that it’s almost a caricature…

*THE SOUNDTRACK (well, not the music itself)*

I find slightly embarrassing the fact that the credits of the film say ‘Original Score by Clint Mansell’. I do love Clint Mansell, but half of the tracks of this soundtrack are (beautiful, that’s for sure) arrangements of Swan Lake. Surely Tchaikovsky deserved a mention?

* * *

Still, I don’t think the movie is a complete disaster. It is true that Natalie Portman is amazing as Nina, that it’s visually stunning, that it’s shot beautifully and that the last 30 mins are quite breathtaking. But for me, it’s not the masterpiece everyone’s talking about…