Black Swan

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I have been to see a film on the day of its release and I have to say that Black Swan was one of the best films I have seen in ages. A, what can by no means be described as small, group of sixteen went to see Black Swan for a friend’s birthday. I had been perhaps a little obsessively following everything about the film after having first heard about it late last year. I read review after review and was assured of its quality with Natalie Portman’s Golden Globe win for her role as Nina Sayers and its twelve BAFTA nominations. This borderline obsession is now continuing after I have seen it and I can’t stop thinking and talking about the film, so I am convinced that it is amazing and I definitely want to see it again as so as possible!

The story itself, detailing the mental stability of young ballet hopeful Nina Sayers, a babied girl with obvious problems, and her taking on of the role of the Swan Queen and struggle to dance the role of the Black Swan, has already by many been described as over the top. The psychological thriller has also been renamed a horror with its sometimes excessive gore, but I think that whichever it is it is extremely successful. Nina’s mental breakdown is paralleled with her on stage improvements and her determination to be perfect is what eventually leads to her collapse. This take on the ballet world’s stance on perfection is something which has also been criticised with Nina’s self-harming and eating disorder which, although not life threatening have arguably shown ballet in a bad light. This along with her need to impress her morally questionable director, Vincent Cassel and new, exciting and mysterious dancer, Mila Kunis, both of whom give excellent performances, finally breaks her. There is also tension between her and her mother who gave up her career to look after her and therefore can’t let go of her, which creates a very sinister atmosphere especially in scenes of cutting nails and Nina’s creepy childlike pink bedroom.

Burlesque

So the tradition of my friends and I going to the cinema once a week (unless it is something really rubbish showing) has truly begun and I can see myself becoming steadily more broke this year as a result. This week we went to see Burlesque with the amazing and brilliant Christina Aguilera and Cher. Once again I was surprised by how good this film was and I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD!

The Tourist

After a exhausting first week back at college, jam packed with exam revision and musical rehearsals, I decided that it was a good idea for the first cinema outing of 2011. At the local cinema in my town students can get cinema tickets for just £4 so my friends and I decided that we could easily scrape that together. Following the second two hour rehearsal of the week we headed to the train station to get the train to the cinema. However, the train was cancelled and if we waited for the next one we would have missed the film but luckily we found a lift and made it in time.

A look back and a look forward in film

Right, I intend to start the new year off well. I have made all the usual new year's resolutions such as eating better, losing weight, being more organised and doing more revision but also I plan to be more disciplined with regards to my blog. One thing the Christmas period has shown is the fact that I am easily distracted from my blog and from now on I want to write at least one post each week. I know this may seem very easy to some as most people try to post once a day but I think for me this will be more realistic.

So, for my first post of the new year I think I shall stick to a topic which seems to be slowly becoming a theme to this blog, film. Maybe a look back on the films of 2010 and a look forward to those in 2011. A kind of cliched best of if you like!