Woman-hater

It’s amazing, but Darren Aronofsky has managed to create a ballet movie AIMED AT MEN! “Black Swan” has none of the characteristics a woman would look forward to in a ballet movie – exquisite music and dance sequences, hard working young women with a spirit of camaraderie, the excitement of living in New York as a ballerina, gay male dancers as best friends, a peek inside the world of ballet. What Aronofsky DOES provide is a nightmarish group of backstabbing neurotic (but beautiful and vulnerable) dancers leading dark and dreary lives. With some lesbian sex thrown in “for the boys.” Natalie Portman’s character is on the edge of madness and her self-mutilation sequences are nauseating. Barbara Hershey is photographed in such gruesome unflattering close-ups that she should sue the director. The males in the movie are older and lascivious and in charge. It’s not a pretty picture and it makes one wonder if Aronofsky secretly hates women.