Black Swan Redux & Blessings Galore


By Victoria Looseleaf

Who knew that we at The Looseleaf Report would be so completely and utterly tuned in to the zeitgeist at the end of 2010. And being a dance critic certainly didn’t hurt, at least not when it came time to writing about Black Swan. (Read my review here.)

Indeed, so much ink has been spilled over Darren Aronofsky’s film that it almost seems like gilding the balletic lily to say anything more at this point. But since our banner days of receiving nearly 35,000 hits earlier this week, my esteemed colleague Robert Rosen and I have been elated with the huge amounts of traffic generated from the original BS posting (it had, after all, been up since the flick’s opening December 3). Initially flummoxed, we soon discovered why the brouhaha, when my father, Mr. Looseleaf, iChatted me announcing, “Natalie Portman is pregnant.” Yes, TLR had gone viral, becoming the go-to site for pix of Portman and the father of her baby, choreographer Benjamin Millepied (whom I, by the way, had met in Cuba at the International Festival of Ballet).

Dance = the art of non-verbal communication. In other words, move, baby, move.

In keeping with the spirit of the times, then, here’s another video that seems a perfect end to the year: a mash-up of that camp classic, Showgirls, with Black Swan, which may or may not be camp. We leave that decision, devoted readers, to you. In the interim, we do know The Trocks are camp, Charles Busch is unequivocally camp (read my Los Angeles Times article here), and even I, your humble scribe, have been dubbed camp on more than one occasion, having produced and starred in some 400 episodes of The Looseleaf Report, the show that screamed camp, with guests ranging from George Carlin and Leonardo DiCaprio to Steve Allen and Dr. Timothy Leary.


“It’s now or never.” That’s what Elvis said.

So before I post my final musings of the year, here’s a toast to Black Swan, for having raised the barre at The Looseleaf Report, and to all of you, dear friends, who have been following us since the beginning, whether on cable access television, in print or in cyberspace. (The Leaf can also be found chatting with the coolest peeps from the visual and performing arts on classical KUSC-FM radio, so give a listen.) Blessings, then, and the best of times to you in the New Year and beyond.


Should auld acquaintance be forgot…

This entry was posted in BENJAMIN MILLEPIED, BLACK SWAN, CHARLES BUSCH, DARREN ARONOFSKY, GEORGE CARLIN, LEONARDO DICAPRIO, LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO, Natalie Portman, SHOWGIRLS. Bookmark the permalink.