Day 29 - What film changed your opinion about something?
Answer: Black Swan (2010)
Much like my answer for the challenge of Day 28, Black Swan was a film that kind of changed my mind about somethings. The big thing being that an interesting film can be made about any subject matter. I didn't think I was going to like Black Swan. It's a film about the pressures of becoming a star in the world of ballet. Nothing about that really appeals to me as a person. I ended up getting dragged to the film by some friends because they picked the movie and I didn't really care what we saw at the time. To my surprise, Black Swan was actually a really fun and interesting movie. It went places I wasn't really expecting and that kind of opened my mind a little bit to the fact that anything could be made into an interesting film with the right spin on it.
The film is about Nina Sayers and her desire to become the lead for the ballet show Swan Lake. The person who had current been playing the roles of the Black Swan and the White Swan has retired and the director is trying to find a replacement. The problem with Nina is that the director isn't too impressed with how reserved she is. She manages to pull off the White Swan role just fine, but her portrayal of the Black Swan role wasn't up to the director's standards. Nina must try hard. She forms a friendship with fellow dancer Lily. Things begin to slowly get weird. Nina's grip on reality slips.
Another reason that I probably ended up liking the film is because the film does pay homage to an anime film I also enjoy titled Perfect Blue. A lot of the imagery and themes of Black Swan mirrors Perfect Blue. There are scenes that are direct reflections because it looks like Darren Aronofsky was trying to replicate the same scenes in his film. I know there has been talk that has been unclear about the whole situation. I don't know what the current conversation is. I remember Aronofsky had denied there were any influences from Perfect Blue, but I've also heard that supposedly Aronfsky met with the creator in order to try and make a live action adaptation that never came to fruition. If you compare the two, it's pretty obvious that Aronofsky is a fan of Perfect Blue and this isn't the first film he's made that tries to replicate scenes from it.
