Black Swan

lol

A rental for me like lots of titles this month. Hopefully I'll like it.

I was very disappointed by the film's awkward mish-mash of body horror and... well, Perfect Blue, so I'll probably pass.

That said it was shot on 16mm, so I'm still curious how it'll look on BD...

Looks like I'm in the minority. Day one purchase for me. Best Cinematography IMO.

In what way was it an awkward mish-mash?

I have to say I've never even heard of Perfect Blue so I can't say much there. I tend to doubt it was anything they copied in part, although I supposed you never know. Looks like an obscure Japanese anime movie or something.

Some of it was also shot on Canon DSLRs. I think inside the subway car for one.

Perfect Blue is a film about a pop star who's rise to fame leads to the heroine falling out of touch with reality, forces her to connect with her sexuality, and is stalked by images of her own violent doppelganger. It's a very similar film, though it takes its' cues from giallo thrillers and Japan's "Idol" culture. (Even the characters names, "Mima"/"Nina", are virtually the same.) Aronofsky loved that "obscure anime movie" so much he the rights to remake Perfect Blue back in early 2000, and even copied the 'bathtub scene' shot-for-shot in Requiem for a Dream.

This isn't something anyone familiar with his work can wave off as totally accidental. I'm not saying Black Swan is literally a remake of Perfect Blue - it isn't. But the thematic and narrative similarities are still pretty gosh-darn rampant... that's not a flaw in and of itself, but it sure didn't help sitting there thinking "Wow, never saw that befo- heywaitasecond!"



Trust me, I'm as shocked as anyone that I didn't love this film... but man, I didn't. It just made me want to watch a double-feature of Perfect Blue and The Fly instead.

Grain levels are about the same level as the Wrestler I hear (Aronofsky's last film, also shot on 16)... so pretty friggin heavy

Day 1 purchase for me as well. Excellent film and the preview on blu looks pretty damned good.

Saw this one several weeks ago. Talk about predictable overrated garbage. Typical of the kind of film the Oscars eat up though.

Day one for me. I know quite a few people who disliked the movie because "it was too dark and depressing" and also "it was creepy". Don't people do a little research on what they plan on seeing? Or maybe just look at the movie's poster and that may give a clue LOL.

I loved it though and thought it was great.

Maybe Aronofsky was still sitting on the Perfect Blue remake rights, and thought he might as well make use of it. I won't mind if it's nothing I haven't seen before, as long as it's well-done and atmospheric I think I'll enjoy it. And I loved the 16mm look of The Wrestler on Blu-ray, so hopefully this will look similar.

Day 1 for me as well. This film is excellent. Portman, Cassel were terrific.

hmm i see your point and i was clearly mistaken, i had no idea

although for 99% of moviegoers the last half of your last sentence won't apply



I don't know it seemed to make sense to me. And how was it not gradual, first those minor things she saw and then later full blown, longer things.

actually they didn't really

no best film, no best editing, no best directing, no best cinematography, no best anything other than portman

not the sort of thing they eat up when they have a safe hits all the points King's Speech so I think you've gone a bit too far with your point.

Yeah its pretty nasty.

Very good!

It's just a horrible experience to watch this one...
So much colour noise going on and you can bareley see faces or details in some of the wide shots.
I know that they used Canon DSRL in some scenes but they must have destroyed every bit of detail in PP to mimic the 16mm print.

Wow. That wasn't my impression in the theater at all.

I agree, that wasn't the impression I got either. I thought the gritty look complimented the movie well.

These caps have ONLY been cropped.
http://www.imagebam.com/image/1bdb6f122113226
http://www.imagebam.com/image/1bdb6f122113226
http://www.imagebam.com/image/10bea0122113769
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c7f597122114011
http://www.imagebam.com/image/466f52122114226

Confirmed Region Free from Movietyme and Dvdworldusa

Watched a few minutes of this just to check the pq, very heavy grain.

Black Swan was shot by Matthew Libatique, ASC on handheld 16mm so it was never going to look squeaky clean when converted to HD for Blu-Ray

I dont dislike grain, I just found it extremely heavy. I didnt really hate it either.

Squeaky clean is an understatement, this might have more grain then saving private ryan. That i liked because it suited the world war 2 theme.

Then again who am I to question the director, I just felt for me personally the grain become slightly distracting.

Amen on the heavy grain. Never saw a blu-ray this grainy. They should have saved some money and just went with a DVD. And the film itself was extremely disappointing to me, even though I'm partial to ballet (my mother was a ballet dancer) and Natalie Portman I was expecting some cool mix of The Red Shoes and Psycho, instead I got disjointed confusion that just never came together to tell a compelling story. YMMV.

Yeah, I watched this one on BR last week and was pretty disappointed in the film itself. As for the heavy grain, it really wasn't an issue for me except in some of the darker scenes. I know it was an artistic choice, but I couldn't help thinking that there's a number of older films shot on 16mm that look a *lot* better on Blu-ray such as Evil Dead.

T.B.

I am sticking with a rental for Tuesday. I have Tangled and Ten Commandments ahead of it though to watch so I may not get to it till later this week.

what was disjointed and confusing about the plot???