IN DARREN ARONOFSKY'S thriller, "Black Swan", which has opened in America and is launched around the world from later this month, Natalie Portman plays Nina, the kind of ballerina who is referred to in the dance world as a "bunhead" because she has sacrificed her life to the quest for perfection. Nina is poised to step into the dual role of Odette and Odile in "Swan Lake" at New York's Lincoln Centre. But Thomas (Vincent Cassel), the company's tyrannical director, tells her that perfection isn't enough. She may be flawless as Odette, but she lacks the passion to play Odette's evil twin, Odile. To get in touch with her dark side, Nina will have to live a little.

在达伦•阿伦诺夫斯基的惊悚片"黑天鹅"中（该片已经在美国上映，并将从本月的迟些时候开始在全球上映），娜塔莉•波特曼饰演主人公妮娜——一个芭蕾舞女演员，这类角色在舞蹈世界中常常被戏称为"面包头"，因为她不惜牺牲自己的生活以追求完美。妮娜准备在纽约林肯艺术中心公演的"天鹅湖"中一人分饰两角——白天鹅和黑天鹅。但是专横的剧团总监托马斯（文森特•卡索尔饰）却告诉妮娜仅仅完美还不够。妮娜的白天鹅表演也许无可挑剔，但是她在饰演白天鹅的双胞胎姐妹——邪恶的黑天鹅时，却缺乏激情。为了能够触碰到内心的阴暗面，妮娜必须释放自己。

Unfortunately, she and her devoted, overbearing mother Erica (Barbara Hershey), a former dancer, share a claustrophobic apartment where Thomas's modest tips about overcoming 30 years of sexual repression prove impractical. Her alternate in the leading role, a sexy interloper named Lily (Mila Kunis), even comes home with her after an ecstasy-fuelled night on the town, but the consummation Nina experiences turns scary when Lily looks up in mid-tryst with Nina's face and informs her the next day that she went home alone in a taxi. This is no isolated incident; Nina is going mad.

妮娜和母亲一起生活在一间令人幽闭恐怖的公寓中。妮娜的母亲艾瑞卡（芭芭拉•赫希饰），曾经是一位舞蹈演员，她专横但给予女儿无微不至的照顾。在这样的环境中，托马斯希望妮娜克服30年的性压抑并释放自己的提示，不幸收效甚微。主角的替补演员——性感的莉莉（米拉•库妮丝饰），对于妮娜来说，是一位不怀好意的闯入者。在镇上一夜寻欢作乐后，莉莉甚至跟妮娜回家，两人欢爱时，莉莉的脸变成了妮娜，而第二天妮娜又被告知她是独自坐出租车回家。于是，妮娜的这一次欢爱经历变得惊悚骇人。但这并非偶然，因为妮娜开始精神分裂。

"Black Swan" evokes memories of Michael Powell's "The Red Shoes", but it soon veers into the territory of his "Peeping Tom", about a cameraman who murders his models while filming them. Does Nina murder Lily before triumphing onstage as a very scary black swan? The film, which weds gritty realism with the dreamworld of the ballet, is an unreliable witness. It takes place entirely inside Nina's mind, which is increasingly unable to distinguish between the two. What is incontestably real is Ms Portman's triumph in rising to the demands of the role, and the weird beauty of the film Mr Aronofsky has created to display her Oscar-calibre performance.

"黑天鹅"一开始使人们想起迈克尔•鲍威尔执导的影片"红菱艳"，但很快又让人想起他的影片"偷窥狂"，讲述一个摄影师在拍摄的过程中谋杀模特的故事。在登台成功演出前，妮娜是否成为邪恶的黑天鹅杀死了莉莉？这部影片，将残酷的现实与芭蕾舞的幻想世界结合在一起，展示的画面并不一定就是事实。谋杀完全发生在妮娜的意识世界中，而妮娜越来越难以辨别何为真实何为虚幻。但是，毋庸置疑的是，波特曼成功演绎了这个角色，而阿伦诺夫斯基导演则赋予这部影片异样的美丽，让波特曼得以发挥出具有奥斯卡水准的表演。