This is by far one of the most intense movies I have ever watched! How did it lose out to Social Network during the Golden Globes I really cannot fathom! This is more of a psychological drama, where a ballerina who pushed herself too much, and started hallucinating about others trying to take on her role, and in the end she killed herself, thinking she killed the person who was "tormenting" her, before realising everything was in her mind, and her "tormentor" was in fact really herself.
But this show took on a new meaning for me. I have always loved the ballet "Swan Lake", and ever since I watched it two years back, I have always been awestruck by the gracefulness of the main character.
But this show brought out the essence of the ballet - Swan Lake itself is on the beauty and gracefulness of the white swan, and the jealousy, sensual, and backbiting of the black swan (the alter ego of the white swan). The white swan represents purity, sweetness and wholesomeness, whereas the black swan represents deceit, lies and lust.
I never really saw it that way, as all along, I thought the white swan is the good one and the black swan is the bad one, and the ballerina who took on the role just needed to ensure her dance steps are perfect, but after what the ballet master in the show remarked, "We have a perfect 'white swan', and a perfect 'black swan', but trouble is, who can play both?", I started to reflect on this point.
How true! Yes, even in staging a ballet, drama and expression are important. One can glide around gracefully and elegantly as the white swan, and one can piroutte sensually like the black swan, but who can actually do both and bring out both qualities at the same time? This kind of symbolises that humans have many faces, sometimes the good surfaces, and sometimes the ugly surfaces, and yet not many people can be both a Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde at the same time without repercussions to the mental well-being.
And that is the overall essence of the show. The main character could not do it. She could not surface both her white swan and black swan qualities, which was why she kept pushing herself and met her tragic end, even though she managed to achieve a breakthrough in the end and the show was overall a great success and received a standing ovation.
I give the movie a standing ovation too! It is one of the best movies I have watched! I sure hope this will win the Best Picture at the Academy Awards! Incidentally, seeing all the ballerinas piroutte and gliding so gracefully, makes me really yearn to want to dance again after so long! Maybe I can start to lose some weight too by doing that!
But this show took on a new meaning for me. I have always loved the ballet "Swan Lake", and ever since I watched it two years back, I have always been awestruck by the gracefulness of the main character.
But this show brought out the essence of the ballet - Swan Lake itself is on the beauty and gracefulness of the white swan, and the jealousy, sensual, and backbiting of the black swan (the alter ego of the white swan). The white swan represents purity, sweetness and wholesomeness, whereas the black swan represents deceit, lies and lust.
I never really saw it that way, as all along, I thought the white swan is the good one and the black swan is the bad one, and the ballerina who took on the role just needed to ensure her dance steps are perfect, but after what the ballet master in the show remarked, "We have a perfect 'white swan', and a perfect 'black swan', but trouble is, who can play both?", I started to reflect on this point.
How true! Yes, even in staging a ballet, drama and expression are important. One can glide around gracefully and elegantly as the white swan, and one can piroutte sensually like the black swan, but who can actually do both and bring out both qualities at the same time? This kind of symbolises that humans have many faces, sometimes the good surfaces, and sometimes the ugly surfaces, and yet not many people can be both a Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde at the same time without repercussions to the mental well-being.
And that is the overall essence of the show. The main character could not do it. She could not surface both her white swan and black swan qualities, which was why she kept pushing herself and met her tragic end, even though she managed to achieve a breakthrough in the end and the show was overall a great success and received a standing ovation.
I give the movie a standing ovation too! It is one of the best movies I have watched! I sure hope this will win the Best Picture at the Academy Awards! Incidentally, seeing all the ballerinas piroutte and gliding so gracefully, makes me really yearn to want to dance again after so long! Maybe I can start to lose some weight too by doing that!
2 comments:
Natalie Portman is truly deserving of the Best Actress Oscar. I think this is one of her best performance ever.
I concur! :-) She seems to be in a lot of shows lately too, like "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits", "No Strings Attached" and even "Thor"!
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