HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company (Mila Kunis).
A Fox Searchlight Pictures release by visionary director Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the Swan Queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.
Although he started thinking about this story 15 years ago, Aronofsky notes that Black Swan is intentionally a companion piece to his most recent film, The Wrestler. While wrestling and ballet might seem like they couldn’t possibly be more disparate worlds, Black Swan dips into moments of sheer psychological horror unlike anything Aronofsky has done before. The two films are tied together by themes of bodily extremes, souls in turmoil and by a filmmaking style that pulls the audience inside the characters’ fascinating inner worlds.
"Some people call wrestling the lowest of art forms, and some call ballet the highest of art forms, yet there is something elementally the same. Mickey Rourke as a wrestler was going through something very similar to Natalie Portman as a ballerina," Aronofsky explains. "They’re both artists who use their bodies to express themselves and they’re both threatened by physical injury, because their bodies are the only tool they have for expression. What was interesting for me was to find these two connected stories in what might appear to be unconnected worlds."
View: Black Swan Premiere Red Carpet Photos
