Black Swan
Short description
Nina Sayers is a dancer with a New York ballet company whose life is almost entirely given over to her work. When the director Thomas Leroy mounts a production of Swan Lake, he considers her for the lead, a dual role that calls for both the innocent White Swan and the seductive Black Swan. Nina fits the first half of the part with ease but cannot find her way into the second, and the arrival of a new dancer, Lily, sharpens the competition for the role. The pressure from her mother, a former dancer who manages her daughter's life closely, and from Leroy's exacting demands push Nina toward an exhaustion that blurs her sense of what is real.
Darren Aronofsky directed the film, which he made between The Wrestler and Noah, working from a screenplay by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John J. McLaughlin. Natalie Portman plays Nina, with Mila Kunis as Lily, Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy, Barbara Hershey as Erica Sayers and Winona Ryder as Beth Macintyre.
Made for about 13 million dollars, the film took roughly 329 million dollars worldwide, a large return on its budget. It holds a rating of 8 out of 10 on IMDb from more than 885,000 votes and 7.7 out of 10 on TMDB from around 16,000 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.2 out of 10 from 320 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Vincent Cassel compared his character to George Balanchine (Georgy Balanchivadze), one of the founders of New York City Ballet.
- Meryl Streep was considered for the role of Erika.
- Blake Lively auditioned for the role of Lily.
- In the first version of the script, Natalie Portman's character was named Alexandria.
- Originally, the film was intended to take place in France, with filming in Budapest, but this idea had to be abandoned due to budget limitations.
- The first version of the script was called “The Understudy.” The story revolved around a New York theater. Darren Aronofsky liked the script and suggested moving the action to the world of ballet.
- It took ten years for the screenplay to be made into a film.
- Darren Aronofsky offered Mila Kunis the role of Lily via Skype. Mila didn't even have to audition for the part.
- Natalie Portman lost 9 kilograms for her role in the film.
- Filming all the scenes with Winona Ryder took 10 days.
- In preparation for filming, Mila Kunis took ballet lessons for 5 hours a day, seven days a week, for 3 months.
- As a child, Winona Ryder tried ballet, but only lasted through the first lesson, as she said the teacher was too strict.
- Clint Mansell wrote the film's music, which is a variation on the theme of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".
- Natalie Portman recommended Mila Kunis for the role of Lily.
- During filming, Darren Aronofsky tried to set Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis against each other to further intensify the tension between their characters.
- During filming, Natalie Portman suffered a rib injury. Full recovery took 6 weeks. She also sustained a concussion during filming.
- A year before filming began, Natalie Portman resumed ballet lessons. Initially, she trained for two hours a day for six months with choreographer Mary Helen Bowers, gradually preparing for the workload to build strength and flexibility and avoid injury during further work. She then increased her training to five hours a day and added swimming.
- The film has a number of plot and visual similarities to the anime "True Tears." Darren Aronofsky bought the rights to adapt it in order to film a scene in "Requiem for a Dream." Aronofsky himself denies any direct influence of the anime on the film.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
