Darren Aronofsky made two acclaimed films in 2008 and 2010. 2008's The Wrestler, about a washed up professional wrester trying to rebuild his life, and 2010's Black Swan, a story about an up-and-coming performer driving herself to perfection at the cost of her sanity. Different in types of films, but very similar in terms story. Like many Aronofksy films (If not most!), the films dealt with a lead character whose passion/obsession leads them in a downspiral mentally and physically. As it turns out, these two weren't just similar, but were originally planned as one film. Aronofsky called Black Swan a companion piece to The Wrestler, but started out in the form of one of his early projects about a love affair between a wrestler and a ballerina. He eventually separated the two concepts of wrestling and the ballet as he deemed uniting both performing worlds as "too much for one movie". He compared the two films in the following statement:
"Wrestling some consider the lowest art—if they would even call it art—and ballet some people consider the highest art. But what was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are. They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves."
In the end, it paid off. Both were highly acclaimed and saw both leads being nominated at the Academy Awards with Natalie Portman winning for Black Swan. Stay tuned!
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