Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
Black Swan FINAL V2-intl - Central-Kino
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have for expression. What was interesting for me was to find these two connected stories in what might appear<br />
to be unconnected worlds.”<br />
The two films are also tied by a lead performance that dives well beneath the surface, says<br />
Aronofsky, who compares Portman’s commitment to that of Rourke. “The role of Nina is quite different from<br />
anything Natalie has done before,” notes Aronofsky, “and she took it to another level. Playing Nina was as<br />
much an athletic feat as a feat of acting.”<br />
The challenges of making BLACK SWAN were also similar to the notably intense production of THE<br />
WRESTLER, perhaps even harder. As secretive as the world of professional wrestling can be, Aronofsky<br />
found the ballet world even more insular and closed-off to outsiders.<br />
And then there was the training that Natalie Portman had to undertake in order to make the film’s ballet<br />
scenes as incandescently lyrical as they are full of mounting tension and foreboding. “Ballet is something most<br />
people start training for when they’re four or five years old and as they live it, it changes their bodies, it<br />
transforms them. To have an actress who hasn’t gone through all of that convincingly play a professional ballet<br />
dancer is the tallest of orders. Yet somehow, with her incredible will and discipline, Natalie became a dancer.<br />
It took ten months of vigorous work, but her body transformed and even the most serious dancers were<br />
impressed. I’m convinced that the physical work also connected her to the emotional work,” states Aronofsky.<br />
Aronofsky notes that he was gratified to find a cast who could take on this challenge. They, in turn,<br />
were attracted by a story that became a suspenseful, yet daring, odyssey into a dancer’s sudden rise and<br />
terrifying descent.<br />
Aronofsky finally got the chance to express his idea for BLACK SWAN ten years ago via a screenplay<br />
by Andrés Heinz – a dark drama that took place on Broadway, setting up a perilous rivalry between an actress<br />
and her mysterious understudy. Aronofsky was intrigued, but having grown up as a witness to his sister’s<br />
shockingly tough training as a ballet dancer, he wanted to switch the backdrop to that of a premiere New York<br />
ballet company. This change led to the creation of Nina and Lily, two competitive rising dance stars willing to<br />
sacrifice anything and everything for that one perfect performance.<br />
Even as he was engaged in other projects for many years, Aronofsky continued developing the project<br />
with Mark Heyman (co-producer of THE WRESTLER).<br />
It was Aronofsky’s idea to merge Heinz’s original concept with the story behind the world’s most<br />
popular ballet, “<strong>Swan</strong> Lake,” which tells the story of a dramatic duel between innocence and wickedness. All<br />
the while, he was also working with Heyman to create the macabre new twist which galvanized the tale. In the<br />
final draft, the key elements of “<strong>Swan</strong> Lake” – swans, demons, spells and doubles – became entwined with<br />
Nina’s psyche as it shatters into a psychosexual kaleidoscope of shards, turning her from a naïve young girl into<br />
a dangerous, metamorphosed creature.<br />
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