Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Starring: Natalie Portman (Sarah Lane as dance double), Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
A tragic tale of a tortured ballet dancer was one of the best films of 2010. Along with 'Never Let Me Go' it was a film I had been looking forward to watching for months and it certainly didn't disappoint. There were a few scenes that were awkward to watch such as the masturbation and lesbian love scene mainly as they are such taboo subjects but I felt they were necessary, the first to demonstrate Nina's loss of innocence as a result of her obsession with dancing and the latter her being tipped completely into the deep end. All essential as part of her emotional journey towards the epic finale.
To complement this thriller is a muted palette that compliments the superb acting and really lends to the depressing feel of the movie. The recurring colors being black, white and pink. The grain also lends to the film's honesty.
A lot of controversy had arisen over whether Natalie Portman really did dance the entire movie or whether that was just part of a PR strategy to generate hype about the film. It's still uncertain how much she did actually dance but she did have a dance double, Sarah Lane from the American Ballet Company who refutes the claims that 90% of the dancing was by Portman. Some scenes where Lane was shot above the torso are impressive in the special effects field where they replaced her head with Portman's. This kind of technology has really taken off in recent years in films such as Captain America where Chris Evan's head was cged onto a skinny extra's body and surprisingly even The Social Network where Armie Hammer's head was cged onto Josh Pence's body so that he could play identical twins.
