Not only is this a superlative psychological thriller, but a beautifully shot film accompanied by a stunning sound track composed by Clint Mansell. It is however, a film that really only works if you let yourself be carried away, like its main character, in a storm of hysteria, paranoia, emotion and delirium. For me, it wasn’t difficult to suspend disbelief as I found the story line, visual experience and characterisation mesmerising. In my view, Aronofsky has proved himself to be as much as master of the genre as Hitchcock, Polanski or Argento.

Natalie Portman plays delicate, prima ballerina Nina, who is focussed on proving to her manipulative choreographer (Vincent Cassel) that she can free her erotic dark side to play the not only the innocent white swan, but also the mirror image of the black swan in the ballet Swan Lake.

The keystone is the relationship between Natalie and her over protective and apparently equally unbalanced mother (impressively portrayed byBarbara Hershey), who abandoned her own stagnant ballet career on becoming pregnant with Natalie and has channelled her rage and disappointment into coaching her daughter. She has attempted to infantilise Natalie, amongst other things by giving her no privacy, but I won’t spoil what is a laugh out loud moment that demonstrates this!.

This is a highly enjoyable movie that I have no hesitation in recommending. If you are of a nervous disposition, it might be advisable to take a companion along to see it!

It’s a brilliant movie like this that makes me want to go back to film making myself. When choosing a new digital SLR recently, having a high definition video facility was one of my criteria. That was something that gave the Nikon D 7000 the edge over the also impressive Nikon D 3100. To find out more about this camera read one of the Nikon D 7000 reviews .

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