--- product_id: 15889478 title: "Black Swan" price: "€ 21.44" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/15889478-black-swan store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # Black Swan **Price:** € 21.44 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Black Swan - **How much does it cost?** € 21.44 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/15889478-black-swan) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Feverish worlds such as espionage and warfare have nothing on the hothouse realm of ballet, as director Darren Aronofsky makes clear in Black Swan , his over-the-top delve into a particularly fraught production of Swan Lake . At the very moment hard-working ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) lands the plum role of the White Swan, her company director (Vincent Cassel) informs her that she'll also play the Black Swan--and while Nina's precise, almost virginal technique will serve her well in the former role, the latter will require a looser, lustier attack. The strain of reaching within herself for these feelings, along with nattering comments from her mother (Barbara Hershey) and the perceived rivalry from a new dancer (Mila Kunis), are enough to make anybody crack… and tracing out the fault lines of Nina's breakdown is right in Aronofsky's wheelhouse. Those cracks are broad indeed, as Nina's psychological instability is telegraphed with blunt-force emphasis in this neurotic roller-coaster ride. The characters are stick figures--literally, in the case of the dancers, but also as single-note stereotypes in the horror show: witchy bad mommy, sexually intimidating male boss, wacko diva (Winona Ryder, as the prima ballerina Nina is replacing). Yet the film does work up some crazed momentum (and undeniably earned its share of critical raves), and the final sequence is one juicy curtain-dropper. A good part of the reason for this is the superbly all-or-nothing performance by Natalie Portman, who packs an enormous amount of ferocity into her small body. Kudos, too, to Tchaikovsky's incredibly durable music, which has meshed well with psychological horror at least since being excerpted for the memorably moody opening credits of the 1931 Dracula , another pirouette through the dark side. --Robert Horton "You can't tear your eyes away" (Entertainment Weekly) from This "wicked, psychosexual thriller" (Daily Variety) starring Academy Award Winner Natalie Portman and directed by Darren Aronofsky (THE WRESTLER). Portman delivers "the performance of her career" (Vanity Fair) as Nina, a stunningly talented but dangerously unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her driven artistic director (Vincent Cassel) and the threat posed by a seductive rival dancer (Mila Kunis), Ninas tenuous grip on reality starts to slip away plunging her into a waking nightmare. Review: A Phenomenal Blend of Beauty, Horror, Tragedy, and Triumph - Black Swan is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I just saw it a few days ago and I plan to see it a few more --or maybe a few more than "a few" times-- before it leaves the theaters. And I know I'll buy the DVD when that comes out and watch it more times with the luxury of being able to study why it worked so well by virtue of my DVD player's pause, rewind, and slow-motion buttons. In this review I will explain why the movie had such an impact on me and then in a section below the word "spoilers" I will make a few comments about the plot and particularly the ending. Why was it so compelling a film? Because it was a powerful story, brilliantly executed, and with incredible performances by four of the lead cast. The story line is quite gripping. We watch someone who is beautiful, talented, driven to perfection and incredibly fragile take on a performance that quite literally pushes her into a psychotic break. We cheer for Nina Sayers; we pity her; and we fear for her as the twisty plot unfolds springing surprises on the viewer along the way. The film is beautifully staged. It made ballet accessible for me and I imagine a lot of other people who were not into it. I found both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis's dancing to be very convincing and moving. The film deftly presents us with moments of beauty (especially Nina's ultimate performance as the Black Swan) and moments of horror when the film plays its little tricks to convince us she is losing her mind. The performances were what sold it in the end. Natalie Portman's portrayal of Nina was utterly convincing as someone teetering on the edge of madness. And I suspect I'm not alone among guys who would find themselves wishing they could rescue her from her plight. Mila Kunis, Vincent Kassel, and Barhara Hershey also did tremendous work. Mila made a wonderful foil to Nina as Lily, the embodiment of what the Black Swan should have been...a carefree, beautiful, sexy woman. Vincent Kassel in the role of Thomas Leroy gave a performance that ensured a character that could have amounted to a hateful cliche was believable and one could easily understand why Nina would find him so captivating and overwhelming. Finally, Barbara Hershey turned in a fine performance as Nina's damaged mother, someone who loved her daughter but in a way that was twisted and malign and profoundly unnerving. You'll notice I left out Winona Ryder from my list above. It's not that she did a bad job in the part she played of Beth, the former prima ballerina. It's just that the character was such a small part...it could have been done by anyone. I find myself wondering if there were scenes involving her that wound up on the cutting room floor since a draft of the shooting script I saw had more scenes with her in it. It's not a flaw to the movie but I do wonder why an actress of Ryder's caliber was willing to do such a small role. A lot has been made of "anger and ecstasy fueled lesbian hate sex" between the characters of Nina and Lily. I actually thought there were other scenes that were sexier (Nina "touching herself" and a scene where Thomas shows Nina what it's like to be seduced). It's also important to remember that Nina and Lily's encounter was just a figment of Nina's burgeoning psychosis and also an indicator of how repressed she was (it was pretty clear she was a virgin). I also think that critics who describe the relationship between Lily and Nina as a "twisted friendship" are missing the boat on that. The friendship is only twisted as seen through Nina's distorted view. I think that Nina's psychosis assigned Lily, the role of nemesis and rival that she really did not play in reality. Finally, here are my thoughts about the ending. It's been the subject of a lot of debate on the Internet Movie Database. Some people are convinced that Nina died in the end after giving a phenomenal performance as the Black Swan...that when she thought she killed her "rival" Lily, she only managed to wound herself with a shard from the mirror she broke. I think the movie is deliberately ambiguous about what really happened. My interpretation of what did was that Nina did manage to hurt herself but not all that badly...which would explain why she was able to to perform as the Black Swan and the White Swan instead of being found in a pool of her own blood in her dressing room. I flatly reject the idea that she could have danced the way she did if she was as badly hurt as she was. I think it's more believable to conclude that Nina may have been convinced she had mortally wounded herself but was simply overcome by her psychosis and the fact that in the end she really had pulled it off and become perfect. Review: A Compelling Look Into The Crucible of Ballet - The beloved ballet "Swan Lake" is the most beautiful and compelling of all ballets. But, the film "Black Swan" is its destroyer -- a psycho dramatic voyage into the underworld of ballet. Nina Sayers, a budding ballerina extraordinaire, finds herself in a waking nightmare as she ventures as a maiden into the domain of the black swan. The pressure on Nina is intense. For starters, she dwells in the crucible of the all-consuming world of a New York ballet company. At home, she fends off the hovering presence of an overbearing mother, a former ballet dancer who never made it out of the corps not even to soloist let alone to principal dancer. Her dual dominance of her daughter runs hot and cold from loving acceptance to grim disapproval. She wants her daughter to succeed and yet, perhaps not too much. Nina has no close friends in the ballet company with its cutthroat competiveness. Yet the company is her life force. Bereft, too, of normal sexual release with another, the sole focus of her physical body is as an object of the dance. It is the presence of Lily, the free spirited newcomer to the company that pushes Nina's buttons, driving her unbearably. I couldn't help noting Lily as a take-off on Lilith, the dark soul who in Jewish folklore is to have been Adam's first wife before the creation of Eve. There is a real-life experience of complete mental collapse in the ballet world. It is known that the Russian ballerina Olga Spessivtseva was institutionalized for twenty years in an upper New York state hospital before being released. The ballerina had visited and intensely observed mental patients in preparation for the famed mad scene in the ballet "Giselle" and this led to her own bout with insanity. All in all, there is much that is out of sync in this film. The role of the prince in the ballet performance is danced by a guy named David (the name itself means beloved) whose emotions run only from A to B. He doesn't emotionally engage as he "walks the ballerina" in performance like a somnambulist. Nina Sayers is too much work for him. He even drops her in performance and later just looks dazed in bewilderment at her fate as the condemned swan. It's been said that ballet is woman, and yet, ballet is nowhere without a compelling male dancer. Margot Fonteyn writes in her book "The Magic Of Dance," (I am fortunate to have an autographed copy) that "Dance is very much an man's activity." I cannot imagine what ballet would be in today's world without the foregoing geatness of Rudolf Nureyev, my overall favorite dancer, and the charismatic talent of Mikhail Baryshnikov who made ballet respectable for the male dancer through his role in the ballet film "The Turning Point." Ballet would mean nothing for me today without the gentle excellence of Angel Corella, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In October of 1986, a ballet review that I wrote "The Paris Opera Ballet's Controversial Swan Lake" appeared in "The World & I," an international magazine of the Washington (DC) Times. This disturbing version was choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev as a nightmarish dream of the principal male character. It destroyed the beauty of the eternal vow made in traditional versions to Odette by the prince by never even acknowledging it. Nureyev, who danced in some performances as the prince and in others as the tutor, did not dance in the one I reviewed, implies that the prince is destroyed by the dark influence of his tutor who becomes his Rothbart. I did see Rudolf Nureyev dance in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" that he choreographed at the Metropolitan Opera on July 18, 1981. As Romeo, his greatness still shone brilliantly. Margot Fonteyn, however was relegated to dancing the role of Juliet's mother, Lady Capulet. After this performance, I saw Rudolf Nureyev outside the backstage entrance. I handed him an individual packet of a vitamin product that I had been selling. He took it, flashed that famous smile of his at me, and asked me what it was. I told him, vitamins. He then graciously autographed my program....one of my most cherished of all the autographs I've collected. The very best aspect of "Black Swan" is its incredible casting. Natalie Portman embodied Nina Sayers to perfection. She truly earned the Oscar she was awarded for Best Actress. Benjamin Millepied, principal dancer and choreographer with New York City Ballet, downplayed his charisma in the role of David and yet his smoldering presence came through. Vincent Cassel blew me away as the artistic director, fascinating me as much as he did Nina Sayers. I was stunned when I learned that he was an actor but not a dancer. Mila Kunis as Lily was compelling and I enjoyed her role but, other than in appearance, in no way did she resemble an actual ballerina. I can't imagine that a tattoo such as she displayed on her back would be tolerated in a major company and the ballerinas whom I have known were disciplined in the extreme...free spirits inside perhaps...but never, never in public nor on display. This film is a must for every true lover of ballet, if only for its glimpse into a dancer's world which never can be fully imagined from a pristine seat in the audience. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Contributor | Arnie Messer, Barbara Hershey, Benjamin Millepied, Brian Oliver, Darren Aronofsky, Janet Montgomery, Kristina Anapau, Ksenia Solo, Mark Margolis, Mike Medavoy, Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Scott Franklin, Sebastian Stan, Sergio Torrado, Tina Sloan, Toby Hemingway, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder Contributor Arnie Messer, Barbara Hershey, Benjamin Millepied, Brian Oliver, Darren Aronofsky, Janet Montgomery, Kristina Anapau, Ksenia Solo, Mark Margolis, Mike Medavoy, Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Scott Franklin, Sebastian Stan, Sergio Torrado, Tina Sloan, Toby Hemingway, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder See more | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 9,773 Reviews | | Format | Subtitled | | Genre | Drama | | Language | English | | Runtime | 1 hour and 48 minutes | ## Product Details - **Format:** Subtitled - **Genre:** Drama - **Language:** English - **Runtime:** 1 hour and 48 minutes ## Images ![Black Swan - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71+DXnWGUQL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Phenomenal Blend of Beauty, Horror, Tragedy, and Triumph *by M***A on December 16, 2010* Black Swan is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I just saw it a few days ago and I plan to see it a few more --or maybe a few more than "a few" times-- before it leaves the theaters. And I know I'll buy the DVD when that comes out and watch it more times with the luxury of being able to study why it worked so well by virtue of my DVD player's pause, rewind, and slow-motion buttons. In this review I will explain why the movie had such an impact on me and then in a section below the word "spoilers" I will make a few comments about the plot and particularly the ending. Why was it so compelling a film? Because it was a powerful story, brilliantly executed, and with incredible performances by four of the lead cast. The story line is quite gripping. We watch someone who is beautiful, talented, driven to perfection and incredibly fragile take on a performance that quite literally pushes her into a psychotic break. We cheer for Nina Sayers; we pity her; and we fear for her as the twisty plot unfolds springing surprises on the viewer along the way. The film is beautifully staged. It made ballet accessible for me and I imagine a lot of other people who were not into it. I found both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis's dancing to be very convincing and moving. The film deftly presents us with moments of beauty (especially Nina's ultimate performance as the Black Swan) and moments of horror when the film plays its little tricks to convince us she is losing her mind. The performances were what sold it in the end. Natalie Portman's portrayal of Nina was utterly convincing as someone teetering on the edge of madness. And I suspect I'm not alone among guys who would find themselves wishing they could rescue her from her plight. Mila Kunis, Vincent Kassel, and Barhara Hershey also did tremendous work. Mila made a wonderful foil to Nina as Lily, the embodiment of what the Black Swan should have been...a carefree, beautiful, sexy woman. Vincent Kassel in the role of Thomas Leroy gave a performance that ensured a character that could have amounted to a hateful cliche was believable and one could easily understand why Nina would find him so captivating and overwhelming. Finally, Barbara Hershey turned in a fine performance as Nina's damaged mother, someone who loved her daughter but in a way that was twisted and malign and profoundly unnerving. You'll notice I left out Winona Ryder from my list above. It's not that she did a bad job in the part she played of Beth, the former prima ballerina. It's just that the character was such a small part...it could have been done by anyone. I find myself wondering if there were scenes involving her that wound up on the cutting room floor since a draft of the shooting script I saw had more scenes with her in it. It's not a flaw to the movie but I do wonder why an actress of Ryder's caliber was willing to do such a small role. A lot has been made of "anger and ecstasy fueled lesbian hate sex" between the characters of Nina and Lily. I actually thought there were other scenes that were sexier (Nina "touching herself" and a scene where Thomas shows Nina what it's like to be seduced). It's also important to remember that Nina and Lily's encounter was just a figment of Nina's burgeoning psychosis and also an indicator of how repressed she was (it was pretty clear she was a virgin). I also think that critics who describe the relationship between Lily and Nina as a "twisted friendship" are missing the boat on that. The friendship is only twisted as seen through Nina's distorted view. I think that Nina's psychosis assigned Lily, the role of nemesis and rival that she really did not play in reality. Finally, here are my thoughts about the ending. It's been the subject of a lot of debate on the Internet Movie Database. Some people are convinced that Nina died in the end after giving a phenomenal performance as the Black Swan...that when she thought she killed her "rival" Lily, she only managed to wound herself with a shard from the mirror she broke. I think the movie is deliberately ambiguous about what really happened. My interpretation of what did was that Nina did manage to hurt herself but not all that badly...which would explain why she was able to to perform as the Black Swan and the White Swan instead of being found in a pool of her own blood in her dressing room. I flatly reject the idea that she could have danced the way she did if she was as badly hurt as she was. I think it's more believable to conclude that Nina may have been convinced she had mortally wounded herself but was simply overcome by her psychosis and the fact that in the end she really had pulled it off and become perfect. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Compelling Look Into The Crucible of Ballet *by B***Y on January 19, 2012* The beloved ballet "Swan Lake" is the most beautiful and compelling of all ballets. But, the film "Black Swan" is its destroyer -- a psycho dramatic voyage into the underworld of ballet. Nina Sayers, a budding ballerina extraordinaire, finds herself in a waking nightmare as she ventures as a maiden into the domain of the black swan. The pressure on Nina is intense. For starters, she dwells in the crucible of the all-consuming world of a New York ballet company. At home, she fends off the hovering presence of an overbearing mother, a former ballet dancer who never made it out of the corps not even to soloist let alone to principal dancer. Her dual dominance of her daughter runs hot and cold from loving acceptance to grim disapproval. She wants her daughter to succeed and yet, perhaps not too much. Nina has no close friends in the ballet company with its cutthroat competiveness. Yet the company is her life force. Bereft, too, of normal sexual release with another, the sole focus of her physical body is as an object of the dance. It is the presence of Lily, the free spirited newcomer to the company that pushes Nina's buttons, driving her unbearably. I couldn't help noting Lily as a take-off on Lilith, the dark soul who in Jewish folklore is to have been Adam's first wife before the creation of Eve. There is a real-life experience of complete mental collapse in the ballet world. It is known that the Russian ballerina Olga Spessivtseva was institutionalized for twenty years in an upper New York state hospital before being released. The ballerina had visited and intensely observed mental patients in preparation for the famed mad scene in the ballet "Giselle" and this led to her own bout with insanity. All in all, there is much that is out of sync in this film. The role of the prince in the ballet performance is danced by a guy named David (the name itself means beloved) whose emotions run only from A to B. He doesn't emotionally engage as he "walks the ballerina" in performance like a somnambulist. Nina Sayers is too much work for him. He even drops her in performance and later just looks dazed in bewilderment at her fate as the condemned swan. It's been said that ballet is woman, and yet, ballet is nowhere without a compelling male dancer. Margot Fonteyn writes in her book "The Magic Of Dance," (I am fortunate to have an autographed copy) that "Dance is very much an man's activity." I cannot imagine what ballet would be in today's world without the foregoing geatness of Rudolf Nureyev, my overall favorite dancer, and the charismatic talent of Mikhail Baryshnikov who made ballet respectable for the male dancer through his role in the ballet film "The Turning Point." Ballet would mean nothing for me today without the gentle excellence of Angel Corella, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In October of 1986, a ballet review that I wrote "The Paris Opera Ballet's Controversial Swan Lake" appeared in "The World & I," an international magazine of the Washington (DC) Times. This disturbing version was choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev as a nightmarish dream of the principal male character. It destroyed the beauty of the eternal vow made in traditional versions to Odette by the prince by never even acknowledging it. Nureyev, who danced in some performances as the prince and in others as the tutor, did not dance in the one I reviewed, implies that the prince is destroyed by the dark influence of his tutor who becomes his Rothbart. I did see Rudolf Nureyev dance in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" that he choreographed at the Metropolitan Opera on July 18, 1981. As Romeo, his greatness still shone brilliantly. Margot Fonteyn, however was relegated to dancing the role of Juliet's mother, Lady Capulet. After this performance, I saw Rudolf Nureyev outside the backstage entrance. I handed him an individual packet of a vitamin product that I had been selling. He took it, flashed that famous smile of his at me, and asked me what it was. I told him, vitamins. He then graciously autographed my program....one of my most cherished of all the autographs I've collected. The very best aspect of "Black Swan" is its incredible casting. Natalie Portman embodied Nina Sayers to perfection. She truly earned the Oscar she was awarded for Best Actress. Benjamin Millepied, principal dancer and choreographer with New York City Ballet, downplayed his charisma in the role of David and yet his smoldering presence came through. Vincent Cassel blew me away as the artistic director, fascinating me as much as he did Nina Sayers. I was stunned when I learned that he was an actor but not a dancer. Mila Kunis as Lily was compelling and I enjoyed her role but, other than in appearance, in no way did she resemble an actual ballerina. I can't imagine that a tattoo such as she displayed on her back would be tolerated in a major company and the ballerinas whom I have known were disciplined in the extreme...free spirits inside perhaps...but never, never in public nor on display. This film is a must for every true lover of ballet, if only for its glimpse into a dancer's world which never can be fully imagined from a pristine seat in the audience. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Balanced like a ballerina... *by A***P on April 5, 2011* Blu-Ray review. If you are reading this for the DVD or any other format, some of this information may not apply. Film: 4.5/5, Image Quality: 4.5/5, Sound Quality: 4.5/5, Extras: 3.5/5 Overall: 4.5/5 (wounded up in total star ranking) Quality: Having been shot partially on 16mm film, this movie will have a large amount of fine film grain, and a dark overall look that may appear gaudy at first glance. But it is nicely sharp and detailed throughout. At some parts, the grain clears up and looks perfect in some scenes. Altogether, it's the best possible transfer given the movie's source limitations and artistic intent. Sound quality sounded great to me, especially regarding the music and sound effects. Extras include a 49-minute making-of documentary, close to a dozen short featurettes, trailers, and BD-Live and mobile features. For this film's initial release, it comes with a digital copy and a glossy semi-reflective slipcover. The cover art appears on both the outside and inside of the case, and could be reversible. Chances are that future pressings of this movie will omit the slipcover and DC in favor of a single-disc in a plain case. Film: Darren Aronofsky has made some of the most remarkable nightmares on film. Whether plunging into the mystique of numerology, the destructive wages of drug abuse, or the woes of a wrestler past his prime, Aronofsky makes films of style and intellect that are topped by very few directors, especially in this day and age. Sure enough, "Black Swan" is just as worthy of a film as the director's previous efforts. I felt the film started off as a typical, mild character-driven drama; lots of ladies dancing, lots of bitter rivalry and stress, but little on conflict, much less style. But toward the second half, the film became totally whack. A few visual hints are dropped in the first half, which will likely make you blink and ask yourself "did I really see that?!" In the second half, it becomes substantially more intense, the visuals become extraordinarily trippy and surreal, and all conflict reaches a proper climax. If you stick with it, the film will be engrossing and sublime, with enough emotional punch and food-for-thought to keep you intrigued and entertained. I'd say it's about as rewarding as "Fight Club." The story itself is simple and straightforward; a petty drama involving ballerinas doing a bold new vision of the Swan Lake spiel. As the film goes on, it reaches deeper beneath the surface and pulls up some strong character development and refreshing thematic territory. This is very much a story about perfection, not only in the dancers' performances, but in the sense of duality: the union between light and dark creates a perfect balance that ultimately drives the main character to confront, fight, and ultimately transform herself. Not to mention, there are also some strong themes concerning maturity, lifestyles, sexuality, and ambition. The film also manages to throw in decent helpings of paranoia, and works very effectively to toy around with the audience's sense of understanding what's real in the film and what isn't. In the end, it may not be a terribly grandiose plot, but it does have great depth, and I find the central theme of corruption and duality quite elegant. As far as the cinematography goes, I was pleased with the photography; there are some bouncy documentary-style cameras, but not nearly as many as I expected. Editing is excellent. Acting is great; Natalie Portman is perfect as Nina and Vincent Cassel is good. I usually find it hard to take Mila Kunis seriously, but she actually did a great job here. Writing seems good. Production value is high, and contains some awesome costumes and interesting sets. Clint Mansell's use of classical music fits this movie well, and does have a few standout moments. There are quite a few sex scenes, a few cringe-worthy moments, and a lot of dark surreal imagery, and will likely deter some viewers. But none of it is overly-graphic or gratuitous at all, and I see little reason not to recommend it to anybody. 4.5/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 4.5/5, film: 4.5/5, emotional impact: 3/5) ## Frequently Bought Together - Black Swan - Girl, Interrupted - The Perks of Being a Wallflower --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/15889478-black-swan](https://www.desertcart.be/products/15889478-black-swan) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-05-08*