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Black Swan


The critical consensus

The most toxic, rapturous, melodramatic, operatic movie about a mentally disintegrating ballerina you’ll see all year… And featuring some of the best dance sequences ever.

****(*)Jamie Graham, Total Film, 30/12/2010

Black Swan has a crazy momentum that keeps us hooked, even if it eventually topples off the stage.

***(*)(*)Philip Concannon, The Skinny, 04/01/2011

An extraordinary, intoxicating movie. Its hard, twisted edges may turn off some, but there’s no faulting either Aronofsky’s technical mastery or Portman’s flawless performance.

****(*)Dan Jolin, Empire Online, 17/01/2011

Few directors explore the darkness of a professional life better than Aronofsky, and with Black Swan he lets rip in audacious style, slow-burning through layers of accumulating tension to finally reach the kind of visceral, bloody shock conclusions best exemplified in the best work of David Cronenberg and Brian de Palma.

****(*)Eddie Harrison, The List, 18/01/2011

If Black Swan is watchable, it is the watchability of a car crash.

**(*)(*)(*)Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, 19/01/2011

Wow! A 21st century masterpiece.

*****Chris Tookey, Daily Mail, 21/01/2011

While the film is near perfect, it's a tribute to Portman that she outshines everyone else as the frail, brittle ballerina who is slowly but surely losing it.

*****Daily Record, 21/01/2011

Though tipped for Oscar success, Black Swan really isn’t much more than a shrieking psycho thriller polished to a high gloss by a fine cast and a marquee director, but on those terms it’s rattling good fun.

Paul Greenwood, Evening Times, 20/01/2011

It is exciting, quite mad and often really scary.

****(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 20/01/2011

Portman is perfect, looking every muscled inch a ballerina.

****(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 20/01/2011

Black Swan dances itself dizzy in its urge to overwhelm us, but Aronofsky's boldness and Natalie Portman's exquisite, raw-nerved performance make the surrender very enjoyable.

****(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 21/01/2011

As for the film, like the pirouetting point-of-view shots Aronofsky sometimes deploys, it's a head-spinning and visceral experience - an art film that wears its trash credentials with pride, and vice-versa.

*****Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 22/01/2011

Only during its last 15 minutes does Black Swan stop being a high-class pastiche of a melodrama and start being a whirling, nightmarish, gloriously unhinged farce in its own right.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent on Sunday, 23/01/2011

Black Swan holds the attention in a manipulative manner, but one can see in it the possibility of a better, more satisfying film with the same setting and the same dramatis personae.

Philip French, The Observer, 23/01/2011


Features about Black Swan

Black Swan raises the bar with striking and beautiful set of posters

Paul Owen, The Guardian, 20/12/2010

Portman tells of the agony she endured to be a dancer

Terri Judd and Jerome Taylor, The Independent, 01/01/2011

Black Swan: Dancing on the edge of sanity

John Hiscock, The Telegraph, 30/12/2010

Natalie Portman: The prodigy comes of age

Andrew Collins, The Observer, 02/01/2011

Black Swan--Darren Aronofsky interview

Alistair Harkness, The List, 03/01/2011

Six exciting things which make Black Swan very exciting

John McKie, Caledonian Mercury, 05/01/2011

What Britain's ballet stars made of Black Swan

Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, 05/01/2011

Blood, sweat and murder at the ballet: The endless torture of Darren Aronofsky

Jonathan Romney, The Independent on Sunday, 09/01/2011

Why home is where the art is

Alison Rowat, The Herald, 13/01/2011

Darren Aronofsky: Hollywood's most ambitious director

Tim Walker, The Independent, 15/01/2011

Interview: Natalie Portman, actress

Stephen Applebaum, The Scotsman, 18/01/2011

Black Swan: Natalie Portman interview

David Gritten, The Telegraph, 17/01/2011

Black Swan moves in from the wings to lead the race for the Oscars

Alison Rowat, The Herald, 17/01/2011

Mila Kunis: The other Black Swan finds her feet

James Mottram, The Independent, 20/01/2011

Natalie Portman worried she will bore cinema fans

The Independent, 21/01/2011

interview: Darren Aronofsky, film director

Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 21/01/2011

Natalie Portman in 'Black Swan': Little Miss Perfect lets her dark side show

William Langley, The Telegraph, 22/01/2011

Feathers ruffled over Black Swan

Susie Mesure, The Independent on Sunday, 23/01/2011

Duo Darren Aronofsky and Clint Mansell score on pointes

Elisa Bray, The Independent, 28/01/2011

Black Swan caught in row over costume award nominations

Eleanor Morgan, The Guardian, 04/02/2011

Natalie Portman--Black Swan Q & A

James Mottram, The List, 28/03/2011

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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