In his four feature films to date Darren Aronofsky has displayed a breathtaking diversity of tone and style. The tense, claustrophobic black & white of Pi; the lurid, feverish Requiem For A Dream; the operatic grandeur and poetry of The Fountain; and then the working-class realism of The Wrestler – four very different films, any one of which would be a highlight in the careers of many of Aranofsky’s generation of directors.

I’ve written before about Gus Van Sant’s strength in being able to make very different types of films – a trait shared by many of my favourite directors, including Richard Linklater and Danny Boyle – and I see Aronofsky very much in this same vein. Whilst his interests as a film-maker are quite different from Van Sant’s, he shares the talent of being able to shoot and pace a film in a manner complementary to its themes. That’s a powerful gift for a director to possess and it was my hope that Aronofsky would be able to continue utilising it after the 2008/09 awards season. The danger with having made such a universally praised film as The Wrestler is that in its wake Aronofsky would have been offered dozens if not hundreds of similar projects, and if he was not careful he could easily have become Hollywood’s go-to director for $6 million working class redemption stories.

Aronofsky however, perhaps remembering lessons learned during the troubled genesis of The Fountain, is too clever and too ambitious a director to fall into such a trap, and his next film looks once again like something new.

Black Swan is a psychological thriller revolving around two rival ballet dancers in a New York production of Swan Lake. This is the sort of one-sentence synopsis that requires the addition of an actor or director whose work I’m particular fond of before I become interested. Luckily Black Swan has both, in that Aronofsky’s lead is Natalie Portman, in the kind of physically and emotionally challenging role which should see her at her very best. The trailer for the film has just arrived, and does exactly what a good promo should: provide a glimpse into the film’s world, a taste of its tone, and some idea of its characters, without spoiling any of its plot. In these two minutes we meet Portman and Mila Kunis’s duelling ballerinas, as well as Vincent Cassel as the ballet’s director Thomas Leroy. The glance of plot we get is enough to clue us into what the stakes are, and to whet the appetite for a taut relationship triangle between the three leads – nothing more is required.

Tonally I was surprised at how dark the film appeared and the extent to which it contains elements of fantasy or even horror. The music and quick cuts of the trailer are straight from the psychological thriller handbook, including a moment with the genre’s favourite household object: the mirror. Where this particular shot might appear hokey or trite under the guidance of a lesser director, it appears to me to be just part of Aronofsky’s bag of tricks to envelop and unsettle the audience. The tension built in those scenes of Requiem For A Dream when Ellen Burstyn is confronted by her refrigerator is quite extraordinary, and it looks like Aronofsky’s painting with some of the same colours here. The ballet sequences afford an excellent opportunity for dramatic lighting and beautiful composition (a la The Fountain), whilst tight, realistically lit shots add tension to the more personal scenes. That’s quite a trick to pull off, but I can envisage Aronofsky using the dance scenes somewhat like Scorsese used fights in Raging Bull: to add insight into the characters’ frame of mind as well as providing pure spectacle, and as releases of pressure within the movie.

It’s the combination of all of these elements which makes Black Swan such an exciting prospect. A beautifully shot psychological thriller is rare enough; one with a unique setting and which holds the prospect of seeing a brilliantly talented actor returned to her best could be one of the films of the year.