Venice film festival kicks off with Natalie Portman in Black Swan

The annual Venice film festival opened on Wednesday at the Lido waterfront with “Black Swan”, a dark psychological drama starring Natalie Portman.

Portman plays a ballerina who finally lands the lead role but loses her grip on reality as the pressure builds. The arrival of a rival dancer, played by Mila Kunis, triggers both obsessive jealousy and sexual liberation in a plot echoing that of the ballet around which it revolves.

Portman, her co-stars and the Venice jury led by director Quentin Tarantino walked the red carpet at the official world premiere, mingling with hundreds of fans and signing autographs for them as well.

“I just want to say ‘amore cinema’,” Tarantino said in the opening ceremony.

A steamy love scene between the actresses and elements of violence and horror make “Black Swan” different from clean-cut on-screen roles often associated with Portman.

“(Director) Darren (Aronofsky) talked to me about this (sex) scene in our first meeting eight years ago,” Portman said after a press screening.

“He described it as: ‘You’re going to have a sex scene with yourself,’ and I thought that was very interesting because this movie is in so many ways an exploration of an artist’s ego and that narcissistic sort of attraction to yourself and also repulsion with yourself.”