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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Black Swan (Clint Mansell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you seek a direct reflection of the psychological
horror musically expressed in the necessarily awkward merging of the
extremely disparate styles of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Clint Mansell
as heard in the film.
Avoid it... if you expect this music to translate into anything resembling a sane listening experience or if you believe that Mansell should have better deconstructed Tchaikovsky's music rather than simply chopping it up and overlaying it with tired synthetic techniques.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Black Swan: (Clint Mansell) An outstanding
psychological thriller that does no favors to the ballet industry,
Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan shot through the arthouse scene in
late 2010 to become one of the year's most notable box office success
stories. Positive press abounded for this production from the start due
to the rigorous training required of its lead actresses, culminating in
universal praise for Natalie Portman in the titular role. The plot
follows the damaging impact the world of ballet can have on an already
turbulent psyche, Portman landing the lead role in a New York City
ballet's production of Swan Lake but suffering from terrible
hallucinations involving the competition for the job and her goal of
perfection. While her natural abilities lend well to half of her role
(as the White Swan), the necessary sensuality of the other half (the
Black Swan) proves more elusive, sending her on a wild ride of psychotic
visions that inevitably include outrageous sexual discovery and
murderous violence. The immense critical and popular praise for Black
Swan carried over to its soundtrack, one that presented some very
daunting challenges for Aronofsky's usual composing collaborator, Clint
Mansell. Obviously the presence of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's original
1876 composition for the famous ballet would be a dominant presence in
the film's general soundtrack, though the parameters of the plot also
called for Mansell to explore his usual ambient textures while working
around the contributions of several other artists. Led by the British
electronic duo The Chemical Brothers, these other new tracks were
employed as source pieces where necessary, especially involving
nightlife sequences, though none of them is included on the official
soundtrack album release for Black Swan. Mansell and
conductor/orchestrator Matt Dunkley concentrated specifically on
referencing and manipulating the Tchaikovsky work into not only source
placements (some unaltered performances are utilized for a few scenes on
stage, mostly towards the end of the picture) but also as part of a
highly troubled soundscape of electronic disillusion. The end result is
an intriguing but ultimately potentially unlistenable treatment of a
famous piece of music that serves its topic quite well but will clearly
disturb any listener on album if that person expects to hear Tchaikovsky
performances without a substantial amount of intentionally obnoxious
overlays. The album is one of those true souvenir products that will
please those seeking an intellectual musical remnant of the film but for
others will be an impossible slog through extremely difficult discord
between musical styles.
The basic premise of taking the famous themes and passages from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and altering them to match the hallucinations felt by the lead character is clearly the right choice. What's disappointing about Mansell's approach to this task, however, is how poorly he adapts Tchaikovsky to fit his needs. Rather than take the main theme for Swan Lake and "Danse des Petits Cygnes" and work fragments of their progressions and instrumental applications directly into the foundation of his score, he instead opts to take the easier (though still ultimately effective) route: pitting the source material at war against his own stylistic mannerisms. Most of the recognizable Tchaikovsky representations in Black Swan are well performed in straight forward ways, then interrupted by or overlayed with Mansell's collection of groaning, disturbing electronic effects and dissonant layers of sampled noise. This move begins immediately in "Nina's Dream" and culminates in "Night of Terror," the Tchaikovsky passages playing regularly while slashing and grinding sounds punctuate beats or outright overtake the orchestra. The techniques used by Mansell to instill the darkness into the mix are quite pedestrian, from seemingly backwards vocal exhales to atonal shrieks from woodwinds, pulsation of ensemble hits back and forth from speaker to speaker, or more simplified sounds such as electric guitar grinding or wind-like moaning. The most distracting merging of the two disparate styles comes understandably in "A Swan Song (For Nina)," by which point the poignant piano performances of Tchaikovsky are disrupted by sound effects that seemingly merge crackling thunder with falling stage elements. When Mansell does not quote Tchaikovsky, the score is also a mixed bag. In some cues, as in "A Room of Her Own," the composer uses the piano to emulate some of the basic mannerisms that one can recognize as being related to Tchaikovsky's style, and these sequences are original highlights. At other times, though, Mansell allows his own techniques overtake the cues, from the somber textures of "Lose Yourself" to the related expression of troubled, orgasmic zeal in "Opposites Attract." By the end of "A Swan Song (For Nina)," Mansell dissolves the soundscape into an insufferable droning environment of electronic muck (complete with progressions of an oddly Arabic tilt) befitting the futuristic scenes of a Terminator film. Overall, Mansell basically succeeded in shattering Tchaikovsky's music as necessary for Black Swan, but the result is nearly impossible to enjoy apart from the film. On its own, you can't help but get the feeling that the source material could have been better deconstructed (in ways Elliot Goldenthal might be inclined to explore) rather than simply chopped up and overlayed with tired synthetic techniques.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 52:28
NOTES & QUOTES:
The sparse insert includes a note from Mansell about the challenges of working
on this assignment.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Black Swan are Copyright © 2010, Sony Classical and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/26/11 (and not updated significantly since). |
