2010 - BLACK SWAN, grand guignol ballet film is a camp classic.

In The Red Shoes, Moira Shearer's character, Victoria Page doesn't crack up until about 10 minutes before the end of the film.  In Black Swan Natalie Portman's character, Nina Sayers is clearly some kind of mental case 10 minutes into the film.

Looks like the director Darren Arnofsky had been watching a lot of Roman Polanski films before he made this, particularly Repulsion and The Tenant.

This Arnofsky film also has a lot in common with his previous film The Wrestler.  Both have central characters that are to put it mildly a little on the edge.  Portman starts out the film as a nervous wreck and manages to stay hysterical throughout the whole film.  It's a daring performance and almost redeems her work in those awful Star Wars films. 

Times have certainly changed all right.  In The Red Shoes, Boris Lermontov the impresario of the ballet company manipulates his dancers for his own artistic ends.  In Black Swan, Vincent Cassel's Thomas Leroy the ballet director manipulates his dancers and manages to cop a feel all at the same time and all in the name of his art.

Still the show must go on and like The Red Shoes, Black Swan dances its way to an inevitable conclusion.

This is certainly very assured film making.  Arnofsky is a master at capturing extreme characters in stressful situations and then ramping it up to the nth degree without the whole thing looking really silly.

If you are looking for a horror film set in the classy world of ballet this is it.  Otherwise you would probably be best off watching the ballet segment in Disney's Make Mine Music.

The music's nice.

108 minutes, written by Mark Heyman,  Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin.

2008 - THE WRESTLER-It's all about Mickey, it's got good acting

And yet, another movie made to get awards.

Mickey Roarke in Mickey's comeback role plays Mickey as a broken down old wrestler with a bad heart. Marisa Tomei is the lucky actress who gets to be exploited by this director as his stripper friend. Mickey has a daughter he was never a proper father to, and in true movie tradition she has turned into a lesbian who now lives with a black lesbian. After a heart attack Mickey re-appraises Mickey's life and tries to start over. But probably even more frightening for Mickey is that Mickey is relentlessly stalked with a hand held camera and photographed in grainy color.

Things that happen to Mickey:

1. Mickey makes amends with his lesbian daughter.

2. Mickey gets a real job selling deli meat and salads.

3. Mickey tries to get a relationship going with the lap dancer with a heart of gold.

4. Mickey goes shopping for his lesbian daughter.

5. Mickey plays some old video games with a little kid.

6. Mickey hangs out with his old wrestling buddies

7. Mickey takes his lesbian daughter to an old broken down pavilion, where they share an imaginary but touching dance.

In the end this all to no avail. Because Mickey realizes Mickey can't change. Mickey gets back in the ring for the big match, because it's the only life Mickey has ever known. The movie ends with Mickey jumping off the ropes into the ring and landing hopefully on top of the academy award for good acting. The film fades to black and another Bruce Springsteen song blathers on about the working class as the credits scroll