the black swan

Wow! I'm blown away. I just watched the black swan with Natalie Portman and it's amazing!!! In fact, the best of the film is the last thirty minutes or so, in my opinion.

It is incredible how the character of the swan princess is developed. It was incredible! Excellent performance by Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. And the dancing is obviously beautiful. Just as you would guess from the title and trailer, the film is dark and Portman's obsession with perfection and personifying the swan princess drives her to transform before your eyes on the silver screen. While before a timid, soft-spoken, controlled and submissive young girl, she plays with fire with the help of her director and Mila to personify the darkness of the black swan. In the film her transformation is primarily shown through sexual experimentation and breaking out of the submissive and obedient girl of before in her relationships with others. Instead of the timid, soft-spoken girl of before she becomes a angry, fierce and passionate woman both on and off-stage. It really was incredible! And it is interesting how the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred and there are quite a few points where what you think is real later is shown to be fiction. The final ballet is amazing, particularly the dance of the black swan. Anyway, it's my favorite film thus far of my holiday film-watching. (Although, just to let you know there is a decent amount of sexual content that is somewhat intense. It's part of Portman's transformation into the dark swan. So, just to let you know so you're forewarned.)

So...I'm hoping to tackle The American (El Americano) and Biutiful as well as some of the films on our un-narrowed down film night list for the spring. (Not to mention the huge pile of books I'm hoping to make my way through.) As always, I'd LOVE recommendations for film night. Basically, films that have strong themes to discuss afterward, that have developed characters, that are just good films,... Oh, and if you can think of good foreign films, I'm always in need of some good suggestions. Thanks in advance!!!