I had been anticipating seeing Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan ever since I saw it’s haunting preview earlier this year. I love love love Natalie Portman and I’ve found Vincent Cassel completely irresistible since that whole break dance/break in scene in Ocean’s 12. If only I had taken the whole “From the Director of Requiem for a Dream” thing more in consideration than Monsieur Cassel’s flawless upper body I probably would have been better prepared for what awaited me.
Black Swan completely blew my mind. I literally and audibly proclaimed “WHAT THE FUCK?” various times throughout the film. I felt confused. I felt violated. I felt deceived. I felt victimized by the propaganda these intellectual film people create with their limited city release only, Oscar-Buzz worthy, Sun Dance Dances With Wolves bullshit.
After the movie people asked me what I thought of it. I explained how haunting I found it, to which someone merely said, “Well, good! If it made you think, and you still can’t stop thinking about it, then it was a successful movie.”
Is that really true? When she first said that, I agreed. I mean, I’ve heard that before, that the goal of a creator is to make their audience think through their work. But, in this same vein, wouldn’t this make anything employing the power of shock successful? The image of Paris Hilton rubbing herself down with a cheeseburger unfortunately lingered in my mind for sometime, as did Two Girls One Cup, as did Snakes on a Plane, as did many a youtube sensation and D-grade movie. Were those all successful just because they were memorable?
What’s the difference then, how can you separate the two in this modern world where people pay more attention to scandal, sex, slime, and sodomy than anything truly noble?
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