Previously, we’ve done some substantial coverage of the new, as-yet-unreleased film, The Black Swan. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream), and it stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and my French lover Vincent Cassel. Initially, the script for this thing leaked very early, and the basic plot was always known – Natalie plays the star ballerina, with Vincent Cassel playing the director/mentor/lover/tormentor role. Natalie disintegrates, and Mila Kunis, a rising star in the ballet world, enters her life. Crazy, druggy lesbian sex ensues. Maybe. This was also the film where Natalie met her current boyfriend, ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied, certified hottie. Anyway, the trailer was just released and it looks… f-ck, it looks really good.
CASSEL!!!! Oh, I’m so SO happy there’s so much Cassel in this trailer, because it gives me hope that there’s lots of Cassel in the film. Mila Kunis looks pretty awesome too – it’s nice to see her playing an interesting, dark dramatic role with a challenging director, and judging her solely by the trailer, it looks like she held her own. Natalie… well, she’s doing a good job of looking kind of crazy and strung out. Thoughts? Would you still see this movie even though Natalie is kind of a smug bitch in real life? I would. But I’m doing it for Cassel and Mila.
I dedicate the rest of this post to Cassel:
Header poster courtesy of Collider. Additional promotional images courtesy of USA Today.
It looks like “Single White Female” en pointe.
Now THIS is a movie that women should be going to see! Not that Eat, Pray, Love crap!
Single White Female meets The Company! (little seen Neve Campbell/Robert Altman ballet movie).
i’m interested in going to the see this, but for Cassel , Kunis and Aronofsky.
i can only hope that Portman won’t grate on my nerves.
wow very Cronenberg-esque…so seeing it! love Natalie and Mila, & Aronofsky is a potential genius!
i loved The Company. that was a great film.
Nobody is going to pay to see this crap!!! However, I do love Mila Kunis.
I also like the visual reference to Britney Spears’ six-year-old video “Everytime,” in which the heroine emerges meaningfully from below the waterline in her bathtub.
And the not-so-subtle substitution of real dancers in the long shots for heavily emoting actresses in the close-ups is very “Flashdance”.
Even the understudy-as-shark concept seems to be borrowed from “All About Eve.”
Does this movie have ANY original ideas?
Ack…
WHY are they using those terrifying contacts?!?!
I would imagine contacts like that would be a serious distraction for a dancer/the other dancers around them.
Looks like somebody wants an oscar ( *cough*smug bitch Portman *cough* )
jeez im tired of movies doing the lesbian thing for shock value and to sell tickets its so..ughhh…
Probably might see it for Mila. The stuff on her back freaks me out.
Ahhh, I can’t wait for this film! Looks really good, and dark, which I like. And I like Natalie Portman! Does she have some nasty history that I don’t know about, lol? I think she is intelligent, beautiful and a good actress. IDK, I think she is captivating…
CAndyKay, this is also giving me a huge flashdance vibe.
yo!
sexy mr. cassel always plays the villain.
miss goodie-goodie natalie goes to the dark side.
add that with some meg griffin sexy with a dash of WINONA CLEPTO RIDER CRAZY!
this looks goooood. 🙂
Can’t wait for the movie. The red contacts are distracting. In the mirror photo, Natalie looks like Madonna.
One of my friends went to school with NP. She cut line for lunch all the time. He went from huge fan to hater by the end of his freshman year (99-00). Smug entitled bitch indeed.
This is one of two movies I am dying to see. The other one being Catfish.
until Portman recants her support for Polanski, I’m not really interested in financially supporting her work.
Too much rhinoplasty, waaay too much.
Wow, the trailer makes the movie look great. Too bad that I won’t be able to see it, because I am personally boycotting the movies of all actors who publicly defended Roman Polanski.
I can’t wait to see this movie because Aronofsky always disturbs me. Natalie Portman, however, is an overrated wooden actress and I’m not sure why anyone casts her in anything.
I wanna see the film, I’m a sucker for weird, dark and ballerina stuff. But I don’t share Kaiser’s opinion on the french fellow. I didnt watch the trailer yet, and was scrolling down reading the text, getting so built up for this amazing hottie, and when I saw this fellow I was ( ). Anyhow that’s why there are red cars and green cars.
Can’t wait to see this!
Bleh. I didn’t know she supported Polanski….
Slightly off topic, but if you guys want to hear some sexy Vincent Cassel singing…try his songs with Zap Mama called Paroles and Non, Non, Non…Love Zap Mama and love him
short clip:
http://www.headsup.com/ecards/3159/industry.html
The Fly meets Single White Female, with feathers!!
yeah, I absolutely won’t support Natalie Portman because of her stance on the child rapist Polanski.
Not sure who the actress is who plays Natalie’s mother. . . but she’s absolutely frightening.
I read the script, it’s pretty awesome. Vincent Cassel’s character is probably the second most important after Natalie’s so he will be in it a lot!
And the lesbian sex is actually pretty important, it’s not done just to be shocking. It will sell tickets though!
I’m all for not supporting supporters of Polansky – but I would like to support Mila – now there is talent!
“jeez im tired of movies doing the lesbian thing for shock value and to sell tickets its so..ughhh…”
so much word. Not only that but the lesbian is always crazy!
See: Chloe
@Missy A – Barbara Hershey is playing Natalie’s mother. Can’t wait to see this, not a big Portman fan but Cassel is always spellbinding.
Cassel is soooo foxy. I can’t believe it, Natalie Portman is actually acting in this movie – she usually just stands around, waiting for someone to tell her how pretty she is! Looks like a good movie (though Mila Kunis still can’t act…).
I love Aronofsky. I LOVE him. He always makes quality movies and the casting is always perfect. I’m not concerned about this at all.
Looks good! Defenitely want to see this movie.
Something off in that poster?
The photo looks like it was taken head-on, with NP looking straight at the camera, but her eye-makeup trail is much longer on the left. Looks rather lop-sided.
Not really a fan of NP anyway, though I dig Mila. She just seems… like someone I didn’t like who I went to high school with. Irritating.
Natalie and Vincent are both excellent actors.
Aronofsky’s name is on the polanski petition too but nobody mentions that………….
Monica Bellucci is one lucky girl. Vince makes me hot.
I’m curious to watch this, but probably won’t see it in the theater. This sounds like a cross between Opera, by Dario Argento and Center Stage. Or maybe The Turning Point.
Cassell, Portman and Kunis are all good actors. Natalie Portman is talented and very involved in the arts, not to mention a high-profile vegan and animal rights activist. She’s also high-class, which probably comes across as “smug” to many people. Hell, I’ve never met her – maybe she is smug and bitchy. But she’s very smart, and I admire her diverse talents.
I agree with all of the others who have posted about lesbian love scenes being overused and overrated. Natalie seems bitchy and supporting Polanski? How creepy. I am sure someone will disagree with me on this but I have never seen the attraction with Mila. I just recall her as Ashton’s chubby buggy eyed gf from that 70’s show. I don’t get it. Anyway, won’t be seeing this one.
If I see this, it’ll be because of Mila. But I’m not sure that even her allure is strong enough to overcome my aversion to Portman.
I don’t know. It just seems so… IS there a word for something that looks lame and squeaky and neurotic and yet boneless at the same time?
I just don’t find these two women impressive. At all. And I think in order to not look like a whiny little bitch in roles like these, you need to have some gravitas; you need to be able to look the audience in the eye and SELL them crazy or sell them creepy transmogrification or wherever they’re going with this. I bet it’s not far enough. Hmm I feel sleepy.
Funny reading these comments that go back and forth on the acting talents of both Portman and Kunis!
I think Portman is USUALLY a pretty good actress, but fairly one demensional. The role definitely has to suit her. But judging from the trailer, Kunis acts circles around her… in MY opinion!
But these two seem to run the gammut of opinions!
Hell, I’ve never met her – maybe she is smug and bitchy.
____________________
I have, and she is.
From the trailer it looks like the main character is schizo, it would be funny to find out the plot involved two people in one body. the wing pattern scare from her back an the feather coming out might be mentally representation of another personality coming out, and the bloody eyes, an all the paranoia, an fear of the 2nd girl. so in short she would be competing with herself to be the lead of her body via a lead personality with the other pushed away, an the transition point would come to a crescendo when her whole swan makeup big show goes down.
just an idea, as many movies have used schizophrenia as a background for a story an it always meshes so well that people see it all too late, kinda of like in real life.
that’s how I see the trailer, it could just be the story mentioned by others an she flips out an mutates into a half swan half person, or already be that way you know like “Splash!” mermaid comes on land, it’s feasible, wasn’t there a story about a black swan or swan that became a woman in fairy tales, I seem to remember one as a kid. Yea! “The Swan Princess”, Adult version? O_o