The Venice International Film Festival got under way Wednesday with "Black Swan" star Natalie Portman taking the opening night red carpet by storm for the Darren Aronofsky film's world premiere.
Critics also took notice. Early reviews so far range from positive to glowing for the sexually charged thriller set in the world of ballet. A sample:
Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter says Portman gives a "bravura performance" as the troubled dancer at the film's center.
"An instant guilty pleasure, a gorgeously shot, visually complex film whose badness is what's so good about it," Honeycutt writes.
Variety's Peter Debruge calls it "a wicked, sexy and ultimately devastating study of a young dancer's all-consuming ambition."
IndieWire blogger/critic Todd McCarthy opens his review by classifying "Black Swan" as "'Red Shoes' on acid," but goes on to say "As a sensory experience for the eyes and ears, 'Black Swan' provides bountiful stimulation.
ScreenDaily's Mike Goodridge raves: "Alternately disturbing and exhilarating, this dark study of a mentally fragile performer derailed by her obsession with perfection is one of the most exciting films to come out of the Hollywood system this year."
"Powerful, gripping and always intriguing, it also features a lead performance from Natalie Portman that elevates her from a substantial leading actress to major star likely to be lifting awards in the near future," writes David Gritten, for the U.K. Telegraph. He gives "Black Swan" four stars.
The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab concurs. "The film looks bound to win its star, Natalie Portman, plaudits and award nominations for her searing performance," he writes.
Earlier in the day, Portman and Aronofsky met with the press to discuss the film's origins. Portman opened up about the much talked about steamy sex scene involving her and Mila Kunis and what it was like to shed her "good girl" image.
"(Darren) described it as: 'You're going to have a sex scene with yourself,' and I thought that was very interesting because this movie is in so many ways an exploration of an artist's ego and that narcissistic sort of attraction to yourself and also repulsion with yourself," Portman said, according to a Reuters report.
Portman started to train a year before filming began, she told the Associated Press.
"Six months ahead of the film, I went into sort of hyper-training, where five hours a day I was doing both ballet and cross-training, with swimming," Portman said. "A few months before was when we started getting into the choreography. It was very extreme."
Aronofsky, who won the Golden Lion at Venice two years ago with "The Wrestler," said "Black Swan" should be seen as a complement to the Mickey Rourke comeback vehicle.
"The more I looked into the world of ballet, I actually started to see all these similarities to the world of wrestling — they both have these performers that use their bodies in extremely intense physical ways," Aronofsky told Reuters.
"Black Swan" will also screen in the Telluride and Toronto fests this month. Fox Searchlight will release the film Dec. 1.
"Black Swan" is one of 23 films in the official competition at the Venice fest, which wraps Sept. 11. In case you missed it, here's the trailer that buzzed around the internet.
