11-16-2020, 03:33 PM
Black Swan (2010)
I think Natalie Portman is usually a bad actor, who seems to think crying hysterically is what it's all about, I never believe a word of it. It's probably what put me off watching this acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film for so long. Her role as Nina, a mentally and physically tortured ballet dancer requires a heck of a lot of crying, break downs and hysteria, so for once I thought she nailed it. There are definite parallel's with Powell and Pressburger's 'The Red Shoes', although this is more overtly a horror film. Injury to fingers, toes and especially nails really disturbs me and 'Black Swan' has a lot of it and a general theme of self-harming. That and the simmering sexual harassment threat from Vincent Cassel's creepy ballet impresario, had my stomach in knots all the way through. The black against white production design is dazzling, the subtle CGI body-horror looks totally real (and unreal at the same time) and the decision to shoot scope but on 16mm, gives the film a widescreen glamour, mixed with a documentary low-budget grit. Aronofsky resists confirming for the viewer what, if anything, is real, through the paranoid delusions of Nina. I think the film failed to convey why Nina actually wants to be a top ballet dancer so desperately, against all opposition and misery, it's just something you have to go with.
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Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
John Carpenter wrote and directed this horror TV movie for WB/NBC a couple of weeks before starting on 'Halloween'. The music and Saul Bass style opening credits announce this is going for an Alfred Hitchcock vibe, well before we get into the 'Rear Window' type plot. Lauren Hutton plays Leigh, an LA live-TV director living in a high-rise apartment, who becomes the subject of stalking, phone calls and surveillance by an unknown man in the building opposite. Carpenter cleverly establishes early on that Leigh is a quirky character who jokes to herself and talks out loud, so it feels natural as she narrates what is happening in the scenes where she is all alone. To mirror the theme of a voyeur observing her, Carpenter often shows random men around Leigh observing her when she's not looking and has her being subjected to tiresome low-level sexual harassment in the workplace. Carpenter kept me guessing right 'til the end who the antagonist was, plus who he wasn't. If it didn't have flat TV lighting and included an ominous Carpenter synth score, this could've been up there with his very best.
I think Natalie Portman is usually a bad actor, who seems to think crying hysterically is what it's all about, I never believe a word of it. It's probably what put me off watching this acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film for so long. Her role as Nina, a mentally and physically tortured ballet dancer requires a heck of a lot of crying, break downs and hysteria, so for once I thought she nailed it. There are definite parallel's with Powell and Pressburger's 'The Red Shoes', although this is more overtly a horror film. Injury to fingers, toes and especially nails really disturbs me and 'Black Swan' has a lot of it and a general theme of self-harming. That and the simmering sexual harassment threat from Vincent Cassel's creepy ballet impresario, had my stomach in knots all the way through. The black against white production design is dazzling, the subtle CGI body-horror looks totally real (and unreal at the same time) and the decision to shoot scope but on 16mm, gives the film a widescreen glamour, mixed with a documentary low-budget grit. Aronofsky resists confirming for the viewer what, if anything, is real, through the paranoid delusions of Nina. I think the film failed to convey why Nina actually wants to be a top ballet dancer so desperately, against all opposition and misery, it's just something you have to go with.
<hr style="border: 1px solid white;" />
Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
John Carpenter wrote and directed this horror TV movie for WB/NBC a couple of weeks before starting on 'Halloween'. The music and Saul Bass style opening credits announce this is going for an Alfred Hitchcock vibe, well before we get into the 'Rear Window' type plot. Lauren Hutton plays Leigh, an LA live-TV director living in a high-rise apartment, who becomes the subject of stalking, phone calls and surveillance by an unknown man in the building opposite. Carpenter cleverly establishes early on that Leigh is a quirky character who jokes to herself and talks out loud, so it feels natural as she narrates what is happening in the scenes where she is all alone. To mirror the theme of a voyeur observing her, Carpenter often shows random men around Leigh observing her when she's not looking and has her being subjected to tiresome low-level sexual harassment in the workplace. Carpenter kept me guessing right 'til the end who the antagonist was, plus who he wasn't. If it didn't have flat TV lighting and included an ominous Carpenter synth score, this could've been up there with his very best.
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