Natalie Portman in BLACK SWAN (2010)

This is a movie discussion group. While participants usually arrive having watched the film beforehand, you are invited to come and listen if you haven't seen the film yet.

“Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina cast in her first lead role in a modern version of ’Swan Lake.’ Pushed to the breaking point by the choreographer, a seductive rival, and her oppressive and controlling mother, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare that reflects the tragic story of the ballet itself.”

BLACK SWAN (2010)
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Screenplay by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin
With NATALIE PORTMAN, BARBARA HERSHEY, MILA KUNIS and VINCENT CASSEL
1 hour 48 mins.
Available to rent in many places. Check justwatch.com or details.

QUEER FEAR! loves Darren Aronofsky’s films, because he’s a prime purveyor of SMC—Straight Male Camp. The fact that people take his work so seriously makes it that much yummier, because, according to Susan Sontag, TRUE camp can’t be engineered, but must be a product of earnest effort. Not everyone agrees with this definition of camp, and not everyone takes BLACK SWAN so lightly. As a contemporary elaboration of Roman Polanski’s 1965 “Repulsion,” starring a catatonic yet murderous Catherine Deneuve, BLACK SWAN locates itself in the tradition of psychological thrillers that plunge the viewer into the subjectivity of a traumatized woman. As usual, Aaronofsky’s camera privileges the visceral, but Portman’s carefully calibrated performance, and Tchaikovsky’s ever-present music, restrains Aronofsky’s more vulgar tendencies, making for a rather moving journey. Additionally, the queer erotics seem less exploitative, and more authentic, than we’ve come to expect from directors of Straight White Camp who usually fumble the portrayal of queer femme desire—we’re looking at you, Messrs. Lynch and Winding Refn.