Top 10 films of 2011: Black Swan

Over the past few weeks, Den Of Geek writers have been voting for the films of the year. It's a democratic vote, which inevitably means that things end up in a slightly funny order that not one individual writer is likely to fully agree with. But it's still a fine list. Here’s the movie in second place…

2nd place:
Black Swan

I imagine a good many of you will see the inclusion of Black Swan (a 2011 cinema release in the UK) on the list and be a bit outraged. “Surely it shouldn’t be on this list – it’s just a load of soft-porn nonsense”.

I also imagine an equal number of you will agree with our five-star review and hail it as not only one of the films of the year, but also the film of the year. And for me, that makes its inclusion not only worthy, but also necessary. These lists need to include films that provoke debate, spark conversation, and make you take notice. For all its merits and flaws, Black Swan most certainly did that, whatever your opinion on the finished product. 

For me, it blasted out the blocks in January and made everything else play catch-up for the rest of the year. Building on the critical success of The Wrestler, here was the killer knock-out punch which firmly established director Darren Aronofsky as a major talent, finally realising his potential from Pi, Requiem For A Dream, and yes, The Fountain (it’s a great film). Taking key thematic components of his work to date, he weaved this into the dramatic tale of Swan Lake to create a terrifying body horror about obsession, compulsion, and madness.

Its atmosphere is seductive and oppressive, as well as brooding and suffocating. It is a film which grabs you and sucks you in, whether it’s through the power of the performances, the tension of the action, or simply the locations – the bareness of the dance studio, or the constant cold weather. Black Swan attempts to assault all your senses, in a way few films manage, and it succeeds. In fact, it succeeds enough that you are drawn into the ultra-heightened melodrama of the piece, and like all good storytellers, Aronofksy is then able to take you down flights of fantasy that you won’t even question.

I refer, of course, to the tour-de-force ending, in which everything goes a bit crazy and the boundaries between reality and nightmare finally come tumbling down. It’s the perfect crescendo to one of the most dazzling films of not just this year, but the last several years.  All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the magnet for many of the film’s plaudits.

This of course, is the Oscar winning Natalie Portman. Unlike many of my peers, I’ve never really been a big Portman fan. For my money, she has disappointed in far too many roles, and coasted on her aura of cool to get by. Now I have completely re-assessed my opinion of her. This is one of those performances where the actor and their star persona are totally subsumed by the role. I didn’t think I was watching Natalie Portman act once in this performance, instead it was Nina’s pain I felt, Nina’s torment I witnessed, and ultimately Nina’s collapse we went through.

The burying of one person into another was reminiscent of Pacino in his prime, and as everyone knew, there was only one real candidate for the gold statue this year. Portman brought such a raw sensitivity to the role that it completely floored me, but she then was able to demonstrate the psychotic nature of her alter ego, the black swan, to a perfect degree. For once, the hype surrounding a role was completely justified. 

One role does not make a movie, however, and here Portman was backed by an incredible array of grotesques. Barbara Hershey as her shrill, even more obsessed mother was a particular delight, highlighting the path to destruction that Nina was clearly on, while Vincent Cassel provided a muscular, predatory and cunning edge to his role as the ballet’s creative director. He is the puppet master of the piece, and the one ultimately responsible for the unleashed nightmare of the final act.

Finally, there’s Mila Kunis in a career-best performance as Lily, the possibly imaginary rival dancer on whom the crux of the drama revolves. Forgotten amongst the praise for Portman, I think Kunis proved herself an actor of real potential, and one who deserves many more roles of this calibre. 

Black Swan has many detractors – those who claim it was nothing more than a pseudo lesbian porno, or who say they laughed through it. Of course, everyone is welcome to their opinion, and I hope that by reading this and our review, you may reconsider, but what cannot be in doubt is that this was the film everyone was talking about in 2011.

Love it or hate it, you knew about it – and that, surely, is one definition of a film of the year.

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