Another year at the Oscars has come and past and now we are forced to watched the next months go buy as poorly produced comedies and flashy yet poorly scripted action films are set to be released. These films preluding to the summer blockbusters that we have all come to enjoy, all since the release of Jaws (1975). After two the two hour awards show and the dust cleared, The Kings Speech stuttered its way to the top.
Having seen the majority of the films nominated in every category, I was not surprised to see it win. However, I found my heart being with another film nominated, Black Swan.
After I watched Black Swan for the film time I had a feeling of balance. Unlike my viewing of Kings Speech where I was pleased with the ending, I did not feel the full effect of its conclusion in the same sense that I was impacted by the progression of Black Swan. Black Swan was possibly the first film since my first viewing of my favorite film, The Sixth Sense (1999), where I felt like things were complete the proper with the mood of the film. Yes, both films reveal a death, but the impact of the deaths were not as important as what had preceded them and what they represented to the film.
NOTE: I am only talking about the best picture category for three reasons. 1) I felt that the nominations for acting were correct. 2) My knowledge upon the documentaries and shorts are limited. 3) I have already voiced my concerns with the artistic nominations which did not feature, in my opinion, the best artistic film of the year, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
With Black Swan, the final act of the dance was the for the White Swan to fall off the cliff, killing herself. The act of viewing actions as unjust being the moral of the story, the movie itself drags beyond the binary of good vs bad and into an unforeseen balance of the two. Good is bad within the end of Black Swan. The whole comparison with the rough world of Ballet along with the complex psychological mind of Nina makes for an interesting depiction of purity suffering in an impure world. The concept of death is the result of Nina's own insistence on being surrounded by bad influence, which in the film is shown to be Mila Kunis' character, Lily. Her character is presented only for the purpose of challenging Nina to, and I say this with the full understanding of Portman's former acting jobs, go to the dark side. Nina's insistence on staying pure however is place in jeopardy by the reoccuring nightmares and the constant reminder of her mental health. The binary oppositions within the film are so forged together that the viewer is forced to understand how each action affects the balance of the binaries. Nina herself is a binary between sane and insane. Her mother and Lily represent the binary of young vs. old (With Nina being the middle ground). White Swan vs Black Swan is the same as good vs bad or pure vs sin. Etc. These binaries force the viewer to notice details which suggest a reliable conclusion that will merge these opositions. With Nina's death, she is the young dying old, the good dying like the bad, the insane dying like the sane. She becomes the balance point between the world in which the film represents.
Now I'd like to reiterate that I did enjoy Kings Speech and understand why the film won. I am simply stating the case for why I believe Black Swan was the best film nominated. I have stated before that Black Swan was not my favorite film of the year, which was actually Scott Pilgrim. Black Swan for my simply represented the moral concepts that art cinema wishes for cinema to question within its works.
Congratulation to all winners at the Academy Awards (minus the awards to Alice in Wonderland)
No comments:
Post a Comment