Black Swan - Aranofsky's next!

Finally saw it.

I would love to rename this thread ... Black Swan - Aranofsky's Best.

I don't like his other films but this one left me with a new admiration only topped by a Natalie Portman's acting.

When Natalie shed the white swan in the final scenes and we saw her break the ice of her frigidity and show passion
it wasn't just oscar worthy it was a jaw dropping performance.
 
well, I just watched Black Swan, and I had to blow some steam, so I figured this would be a good place for a rant…

not only did I feel it was not a good movie at all (yes, Natalie Portman's performance is great, but the movie is not), but Aronofsky should go to jail for saying it is not based on Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1998); it is a direct ripoff, including all the basic story (star gets stressed with advances in career and starts to lose grip on reality, as she works on a play that tells the story of precisely what’s happening to her), but there are tons of details directly cut and pasted, in case your’re not one to care for subtleties:
* nemesis stabbed in belly with piece of broken glass
* wall with lots of pictures that suddenly start to talk
* motherly figure brings cake (which they don’t eat)
* very similar underground scenes
* and even the name of the main character (nina vs mima)


and there’s even another “holding breath underwater in bath” scene, after having copied it already, pretty meticulously, in Requiem for a Dream:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anlHmGA-Bvs


but of course the biggest concern is that the story is basically the same, with "dancer" instead of "actress" and just a couple of different twists


poor Satoshi Kon, all his movies being ripped without any kind of decency or respect


I can’t imagine how Aronofsky could present his movie in Venice as “not influenced by Perfect Blue” with a straight face, just one week after Kon had died of pancreatic cancer


disgusting
 
Wow... Didn't realize that.
I tend to believe your statements,
And I'll definitely dig deeper Into perfect blue.
If you're right, this is indeed disgusting.
a minimum of 'influenced by' is required !
 
these are those "little details" I was talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbN2sWFOfe4

and also, here's a summary of both plots, taken from here:
http://www.badassdigest.com/2010/12/14/borders-line-is-black-swan-the-perfect-blue-remake-weve-been-waiting-for

Perfect Blue is a chilling psycho-thriller about Mima, a young (pop) star who embraces the darkness within her in order to achieve her dream (becoming an actress), willing to alienate everyone who cares about her to do so. Mima has an overbearing but loving maternal figure (her manager, Rumi) who doesn’t approve of her new shady career choices. She is emotionally tormented by an unknown outsider who begins to destroy Mima’s already tenuous grasp on reality, and Mima is soon haunted by a doppelganger who represents both her mental anguish and the duality of her soul.

And, you know, Black Swan is a chilling psycho-thriller about Nina, a young (ballet) star who embraces the darkness within her in order to achieve her dream (becoming the lead player in Swan Lake). She alienates, she’s got an overbearing but loving mom who disapproves, emotional torment, tenuous grasp on reality, and a doppelganger who represents both her mental anguish and the duality of her soul. Check, check and check.
Click to expand...

edit: but of course, it's best if you watch them both and form your own opinion
 
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I can definitely see the similarities you've talked about (although I haven't seen Perfect Blue, I'll have to check it out). I guess Aronofsky acknowledges the similarities between the two movies, but says that Perfect Blue was not an influence for Black Swan (wiki). He also allegedly bought the rights to Perfect Blue for the bathtub scene in Requiem (wiki).

As far as the plot similarities goes...


harry_potter.jpg

Not saying that he didn't really steal those ideas and images or that it's right to do that, but it's definitely been done before. Plus, I really enjoyed Black Swan, so I'll probably enjoy Perfect Blue.
 
i think the question of interest here is:
what is the decency and obligation of a mature respected director who borrowed and was very much influenced by a fellow less known director,
who recently died of cancer.
 
for me the biggest thing is that, in general, the plot is closely followed; the details are just the icing on the cake: a dead givaway, so that absolutely everybody gets to see what you've done

about what's decent and what's not, one example: I think Black Swan follows the plot of Perfect Blue just as close as The Departed follows Infernal Affairs, and The Departed credited the writers of Infernal Affairs with a "story by"; that would be the thing to do here too, but, if you haven't done it, the bare minimum is, when you're asked, not to deny it flat


edit:
I loved those "homage or stealing" videos; I call stealing on both Reservoir Dogs and The Lion King; just as I did with Avatar stealing everything good it had from Miyazaki's films (of course, that excludes the main plot, which sucked)
you can guess I'm not in a good mood lately... I think I'm becoming a grumpy old fart at an unprecedented young age...
 
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I don't think it's possible to take away all influence, from ideas and story lines we subconsciously take from things we have seen before, let alone trace who actually created something from thin air (if that has been posssible for centuries) or originated an idea without adapting it from another. I'm not saying he didn't steal or borrow or develop, but I'm not even sure he could say if he did or did not.

These types of arguments are all well and good when talking about some horrible remake or otherwise crummy movie, but this was a very good movie(production, cinematography, edited, scored, acted, directed?...) and I normally let issues like this slide as I may have liked the original but I'm not going to let that ruin a potential new experience. But we all have our own tastes and I respect that.

p.s. I thought it was ripping swan lake and many other stories I have seen before about life becoming art but what do I know....

Stay passionate.
 
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