Horror Actressing: Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 at 11:08AM by Jason Adams
We're in between seasons of our "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series, taking the post-Halloween holidays off, but I decided to spring out from under my self-appointed mothballs to celebrate this week's 10th anniversary of Darren Aronofsky's le grande trash Black Swan -- to spring out, to do a lustily precise pirouette, and to plunk down some love here for Natalie Portman's spectacular and much-deserved Oscar-winning turn as the prima ballerina Nina Sayers, our favorite sweet girl slash toe-crunching psycho.
Over this past weekend I randomly ended up re-watching two seemingly disparate horror films that you might not immediately sense a sister-bond between...
Thosee titlese were Black Swan and Ari Aster's Midsommar. I found myself thinking the exact same thought during each film -- how the hell did they do those dance scenes? When Dani, tripped out on mushroom tea, swirls around that May-pole, and when Nina, tripped out on starvation and desperation, swirls her many swirls across the length of her film, the choreography of the camera-work is truly mind-boggling. Both directors insist on getting right in there in the middle of the dance, spinning and whirling as if we're our leading lady's invisible partners -- the audience becomes the Ginger to their Freds.
They say with dance movies it's important to keep your camera far away, so we can actually watch the dance itself, but these scenes, because of their psychological bent, are exceptional exceptions -- we're better off staying mainly trained on the actors' faces. And I say that not because Portman's modest ballet skills got some side-eyes from professional dancers, but because Nina is experiencing a full-on mental movie breakdown here and that particular dance-floor is, as always, across the face. I need to see her pas de deux with delusion!
Aronofsky's trademark shot of staring at the back of a character's head is in full display across Black Swan but notably not so much during these dances -- he'll have us staring at Portman's hair-bun through the winding, cramped corridors of the theater leading up to the stage, but the second Nina spins out in front of an audience wham, we're eye to eye with Portman, and it's the world that now spins about her. These moments brim my favorite steps, leaps, and bounds towards Nina's psychotic dissembling, nowhere more shocking than in the moment when Nina finally, terrifyingly, becomes the Black Swan. The way she pulses and whirrs, practically purring -- this, I tell myself, is when Portman won her Oscar. This sequence explodes, CG gooseflesh -- excuse me swan-flesh -- rippling off of the screen.
This is what we been waiting for! That's not to discredit her many fine smaller touches -- everybody loves the way she cries on the telephone after winning that role of a lifetime, her voice breaking as she says "He picked me, Mommy" -- but despite my lovelier instincts this movie always finds me assuming the role of Vincent Cassel's predatory task-master: I just want my sweet girl to live a little, damn it! Nina's early-on dedication to downcast mousiness is as gumption-getting as Jennifer Lawrence's character in Mother! -- we come to thirst for fury, for red eyes and big bold bird-armed savagery. For snatching our rightful places!
These movies make culpable maniacs of us -- we'll burn the theater down and bleed out for art -- for Capital A Art, Exclamation Point! -- in these people's capable, if only they'll let them be, hands. Perfection, a May-flower crown and the simple sparkling diamond of Creation itself torn from inside our carved-out bellies, is prize a'plenty. The hangover comes the next day -- for now, we live a little.
Reader Comments (27)
Impopular opinion: Portman is a thousand times better in Jackie
I’ve tried so many times... I wish I saw what other people see in this movie/performance. In theory, I should love it, but I always felt it wasn’t on Nina’s side, like it was making fun of her. Maybe that’s the point?
Obviously its cultural impact is undeniable, even if I’m not a fan. And though I’d rank her last of the nominees, it actually is pretty cool (and weird) that Portman won for this. (Rather she won for this than JACKIE).
I adore this film, and this is such a fun take on the performance and how it was shot. Thanks for springing out from under your "self-appointed mothballs". I get that she's divisive, but I was very pleased she won that night in February 2011. Loved Cassel and that tiny but wonderful bit we got from Ryder in this too.
I'm glad to see you categorize this is as horror, because it is (it's so disturbing), but it seems as though most people overlook it when assembling best-of genre lists.
For me, this was the best lead actress performance of the decade (and easily one of my favorite Oscar wins ever). You can see the fear in Portman's eyes as she slowly loses control while the film progresses. I'll never forget what it was like to see this movie in the theater. It made me dizzy and almost sick but I found it so alluring I wanted to see it again immediately.
A great year for the category and a great winner (even if Kidman or Williams would be my choice). Love when Oscar rewards atypical performances.
Cal Roth notso i think so too.
... and what a supporting cast, by the way, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Wynona Ryder... Kunis should have been probably nominated as well..
mmm... did we already have in this, the magnificent performance of Belen Rueda in "The Orphanage"?
Annette Bening was robbed yet again. Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman were also miles ahead of Portman.
Portman’s campaign hinged so largely on the dancing she did, which was a negligible amount. As Nina, I see her play two beats: regressive little girl and raging psycho. She essentially won an Oscar for successfully starving herself.
It reminds me of Reese Witherspoon winning for wearing a brown wig and singing karaoke or Sandra Bullock winning for wearing a blonde wig and talking in a Southern accent, which isn’t impressive at all as she’s a Virginia native.
Best Actress eternally remains Oscar’s most corrupt category...
It's a good performance, but we all know it should have been Lesley Manville's year!
Mila Kunis was magnetic in this. It never happened again. Well deserved win, this.
Jonathan - PREACH. Manville is out of this world in Another Year.
Jason, do you consider Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in Mother! a great moment for Horror Actressing?
honduran -- I one thousand percent do! I both consider it a Horror film and I consider JLaw's work Great in it.
@Cal-AGREED!!!! I loved her in Black Swan but Jackie, she took it to another level.
Portman is right there at the top of Best Actress winners last decade with Cate Blanchett. It is just THAT good and juicy.
It's OK with me that Natalie won the BA Oscar, although I do think the Academy has robbed Annette Bening a couple of times. Natalie Portman had me after watching Closer twice. That movie was so enthralling. As a failed ballet student (taking my first class at age 30; the teacher kindly gave me a B), I give grand kudos to Natalie being willing to do some of the dancing.
Michelle Williams should have won this Oscar.
One of my favorite Best Actress wins of this century.
Yesss to all this but Barbara Hershey should’ve been nominated too!
Portman’s best performance is LUCY IN THE SKY
I love the film but Portman not that much.
The last part is phenomenal (that shot in the mirror...sublime) but the sad expression she keeps the first three quartets doesn't covince me. I prefer the natural confidence that Mila Kunis shows.
My pick for the best performance of Portman is Leon.
I think Portman in "Black Swan" is undeniable. I put her in the top 3 Best Actress winning performances of the decade - alongside Cate Blanchett and Olivia Colman.
More girlie and adolescent than in her film debut Portman slowly sheds the skin of momma's girl to reveal the artist underneath. Loved all the performances in the film!
Loved the article Jason!
I feel that after maybe this film or probably after Jackie she seems to become like La Binoche in that even if the films fail she walks away unscathed.
Nathaniel could you please rate all the oscar nominated performances from the 2010s?
Saw twice in the theater and just rewatched last week; showed my boyfriend. Such a fun movie but holy shit, so much darker than my 17 year-old eyes could even realize at the time. This woman is abused. By her mother, her dancer instructor (as clearly a lot of the girls are), and thus, herself.
I'm so glad Jackie Weaver got nominated but I'll always be sad it came at the expense of Mila Kunis. Love her. Barbara Hershey would've been a great nominee too.
This reminds that Mila Kunis was almost Oscar nominated ten years ago. If only the leading girl from True Grit wouldn’t have been fraudulently campaigned in supporting...I totally agree with Portman’s win. Ok, the sensation was her ballerina performances who were delivered with a lot of help from body doubles but anyway she gave you the heart and soul of her tormented Nina
Mila Kunis > Natalie Portman