The Dark Side of the Barre

This is an expanded edition of the review of Black Swan I wrote for The Technique, though the original never got published on account of school being cancelled for the first week due to 8 inches of snow and ice. I'm actually glad I get to post it here, because I have more to say about this movie than most. Actually, it did get published on the Technique's website, which you should totally visit so I don't get in trouble for posting this extended edition here. Have mercy editorial powers that be!

A simple enough poster, but it does a good job of balancing between pretty and scary.

Black Swan is modern day re-telling of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, Swan Lake.  Rather than a tragically beautiful, tale of lost true love however, the film offers a frightening and at times hideous look at the obsessive, self-destructive side of ballet.

For those who don’t know the fairy tale, a princess named Odette is cursed by the evil magician Von Rothbart to spend her days as a swan and regain her human form at night. The enchantment can only be undone by true love, and while she successfully wins the heart of the handsome Prince Siegfried, he is seduced away by Rothbart’s daughter, a black swan princess named Odile. Deprived of the true love that gave Odette her life back, she kills herself.  When the ballet is performed, it is traditional for the same ballerina to dance both the roles of Odette and Odile. Thus, the dancer must be able to convey both a demure, pure-hearted maiden and an aggressive, lusty temptress.

The film translates the tail to the modern day, following a young ballerina named Nina, played by Portman, who is a dancer in New York City Ballet (NYCB). After spending years in the corpse de ballet, she is given the opportunity to dance the swan princess, though the director of NYCB feels that Nina is only capable of dancing the vulnerable and innocent White Swan. She is a technical perfectionist, but her movements are repressed and inexpressive. Vincent Cassell does an admirably creepy performance as Thomas, the creative director of NYCB who tries to draw out Nina’s inner-Black-Swan and serves as the film’s Von Rothbart. While there is no obvious equivalent to Siegfried, there is a another ballerina named Lily, played by Mila Kunis, who is both a bitter rival and an object of desire to Nina. As Nina struggles to get in touch with her dark side, she begins to suffer from strange rashes and dreams, and things take a turn for the surreal. 

As a former ballet dancer I loved the movie, mainly because it is does a brilliant job of showing off the ugly, and downright scary side of an otherwise beautiful art-form in a compelling fashion. All the major psychoses of classical dance are touched upon, if only superficially, from bulimia, to nervous itches and nail-biting, to the terror that is a “stage mom.” Barbara Hershey gives a strong performance as Nina’s possessive, domineering mother, who was once a ballerina herself and now lives vicariously through her daughter. This is a real, and all-too-common phenomena in the world of dance that lay audiences may not appreciate. Indeed, deprived of the context of experience, Nina's exaggerated mommy issues can seem ham-handed and excessive.

Nina's turbulent relationship with Lily may seem equally absurd, though it is again very accurate when taken as a broad symbol of relationships in the ballet world.  Lily offers care and concern for Nina in a way that deliberately damages her. She presents herself as a friend who Nina can confide in, when really she is only trying to draw out and exacerbate the stresses Nina is trying to fight. She tells the director that she is worried about Nina's health under the pretense of concern, only to erode the director's faith in Nina's ability to handle the role. Nina is intimidated by her strong personality and enraged by her machinations, but as evidenced by her attraction to the director, she is also drawn to people that try to control her, and as a result, Lily becomes an object of lust as well as scorn.

The film touches on the horrible fickleness and ephemerality of success in ballet by means of Beth McIntyre, played by Winona Ryder. Beth is the former prima ballerina whose pointe shoes Nina is stepping into. Nina idolizes Beth to the point of obsession manifested through kleptomania. Admittedly, this is the most tenuously developed thread of the film, but the horrible accident that Beth suffers parallels the catastrophic career ending injuries that are a constant danger in ballet. The fact that Beth's career ends before her accident, which may or may not have been self-inflicted, drives home the message of the movie: ballerinas live and die by their opportunities to dance.

For the most part, the film is paced quite well and keeps the tension high by jumping between Nina’s interactions with this damaged cast of characters. Black Swan is not flawless however, and there are a few moments toward the end where the film goes off the rails and scenes that should be horrifying come across as silly instead, like Nina's final confrontation with Beth. A few clichés abound as well. Sex and drugs are invoked as obvious symbols of Nina’s descent into black-swandom. In fact, things don't really go to hell until Nina has an orgasm. Yes, it's an ancient, anachronistic trope, but seeing how this is the retelling of a cautionary fairy tale about innocence and sexuality, it is not merely appropriate but essential for the story.

Those seeking a romantic story with beautiful dancing would be better served by saving money to see a live ballet performance. Much has been made of the training Portman had to endure to prepare herself for her role, and while it’s clear she knows her way around a barre, the scenes she dances herself are not technically impressive or terribly difficult, which is amusing because Nina is supposed to have flawless technique.

Speaking from personal experience and the other dancers I have talked to, those who have a background in ballet seem to enjoy the film more than those who don’t; provided that they go in looking for a gripping story rather than impressive footwork. That having been said, the film is titillating, surreal and tense enough to entertain audiences with little interest in dance. I also have to stress that this movie is by no means a chick-flick. If anything, it is more akin to a supernatural horror film. To all guys who balk at the thought of watching a ballet movie, there is racy lesbian encounter between Portman and Kunis to consider.

All in all, Black Swan is a compelling film that explores the dualities that exist between dancers and the roles they suffer for, and the ramifications of pursuing perfection.

Darkness > Black

It's been a good long while since I wrote about anime, and I think it's high time to break the dry-spell. Enter Darker Than Black: Kuro No Keiyakusha; a series that is strange, stylish, and surprising, brought to you by Bones. Admittedly, this is old news for the torrent hunting, fan-subbing anime aficionados of today's youth; the series came out in Japan in 2007 which makes it positively ancient by internet reckoning, but I happened to encounter the series via Netflix instant viewing. So if you too enjoy the manifold benefits of Netflix, you could be watching  the entire series right now instead of reading this. But would you want to?

I would love to see a serious graphic designer's response to the show's title font.

Contrary to what the title implies, the show isn't terribly dark. I mean, yes, it is about emotionless, super-powered hitmen (hit people?), so there's lots of killing and blood, but there's a surprising amount of levity as well, and all of the main characters are presented sympathetically. If you are a general fan of anime, or of Studio Bones' work in particular, you'll find plenty to love here. If you're on the fence, maybe a more detailed synopsis is in order.

The series is set in the near future or an alternate present where the world is recovering from a strange catastrophe that occurred ten years ago. Two massive structures have appeared on the Earth's surface:  Heaven's Gate in South America, (which has subsequently vanished), and Hell's Gate just outside of Tokyo. During this time, the stars in the night sky have winked out, and been replaced by new, "false stars." Each of these stars corresponds to a person with a supernatural ability; though unlike your usual super heroes, these individuals have to pay a price to use their power. This price can range from consuming certain foods or drinks, to obsessive compulsive quirks like stacking stones or composing awful poetry, to raw self-mutilation. These individuals, dubbed Contractors, have completely rational and logical minds. So, free from the burdens of conscience, these individuals frequently turn to a life of crime, or sell their services as wet-work men for a number of shadowy organizations. And because these super-powered individuals would undoubtedly upset the natural order of things paranoid governmental types and scheming scientists strive to keep Contractors' existence a secret.

Admittedly, the premise is extremely complicated and convoluted, but the show does a good job of pacing its exposition and keeping you rooted in the present moment. Each of the four main characters have episodes that develop their individual histories and personalities which are interspersed with episodes developing the over-arching plot. There are even a few comic relief episodes starring an idiot detective and his otaku teenage secretary thrown in, that are genuinely and disarmingly funny. The closest referent I can think of is Cowboy Bebop, even though the narrative tone and visual style are completely different, and the soundtrack, save for the show's openings, are terribly forgettable.

I think the thing I like most about Darker than Black is that it manages to take many familiar manga tropes (people with super-powers, talking cats, a brooding hero wearing a clumsy facade) and make something original out of them. I'm also a sucker for shows that display intense, complex world-building. The contractors each correspond to number star in a messier catalog, and their activity is tracked by their contracts. Nothing ever really comes of this, short of giving the police a heads up as to when stuff is going down, but it's a neat concept. And the contracts themselves are a stroke of genius. They afford single episode villains personality, which is delightfully ironic considering Contractors are supposed to be unfeeling tools of war.

Another refreshing thing about Darker Than Black is that it doesn't preach at it's audience, or rely on endless "shipping" and churning to carry the plot. At first the characters are cold and without personality, but relationships do eventually arise in the series and their poignancy is pleasantly startling. There is a little bit of hackneyed philosophizing pertaining to the nature of rational thought versus emotional attachment and sentimentality, but for the most part the show just gives you interesting fights, conspiratorial intrigue and amusing characters.

To give you a brief rundown of the main cast, we have Hei, the titular Black Contractor, who makes bipolar swings between being an impossible bad-ass who can control lightning, and an unassuming dweeb named Lee Shinshun. Next up is Yin, who is remarkably similar to Rei Ayanami, and capable of sensing other Contractors. We also have Huang, an ugly, hard-bitten man with a heart of gold, (or maybe pyrite?) who can't stand the Contractors he works with. And last but not least, we have my favorite character: Mao. An acerbic computer hacker trapped in a cat's body.

Front and center we have Hei, off to the right is Mao, and to the left is Yin and Haung.

Like many other anime, the show's greatest flaw is it's artificiality. We have an overly complex premise that waxes fanciful and science-fictional, characters who are defined either by their lack of emotion or their broadly drawn personalities, and sin of all sins, the whole thing wraps up with a "WTF Anime!?" endings that flirts with apotheosis only to end up in bed with the absurd. Still, I can't help but wonder how a show a like this would fair if it was given a wider audience and a bigger advertising budget. Considering the huge following for shows like Lost and Heroes (just pretend they stopped after season 1), I think shows with more speculative premises have a lot of promise.

Long story short, if you dislike other anime, you may not find much to like here. If you are a fan of anime and you haven't seen Darker than Black, you're in for a good time.