Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 581 Premiere
December 10, 2010, evening.

The sunset over Los Angeles painted the outline of the Santa Monica Mountains in a magnificent crimson hue.

Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the TCL Chinese Theatre.

A huge poster of "Black Swan" hangs on the exterior wall of the old theater;
Keira Knightley's innocent yet terrified face forms an eerie contrast with the sinister black reflection in the background.

The red carpet stretched from the roadside all the way to the theater entrance, with countless media reporters lining both sides.
The flashes of cameras and telephoto lenses repeatedly illuminated the deepening night, turning it into daylight.

The screams of fans and the shouts of reporters mingled together, creating an atmosphere of extreme excitement.

A black Lincoln limousine pulled up at the end of the red carpet amidst the attention of the crowd.

The car door opened, and Wu Chen and other key members of the production team got out first.
Keira Knightley wore a white haute couture gown today, creating a stark contrast to her dark image on the movie poster, which immediately ignited the flashbulbs at the scene.

Rebecca Sarkin, leading the Paramount team, followed closely behind, her face beaming with undisguised anticipation as she gazed at the vibrant scene before her.

As Paramount's core film for this year's Oscar race, they have high hopes for "Black Swan".

Of course, if the box office also becomes a hit, then it would be the best of both worlds.

Jason Blum is here too; he's here purely as a guest to watch the movie.

The arrival of James Wan and Christopher Nolan and his wife brought the cheers to a new climax, especially for the latter.

“Chris,” Wu Chen said with a smile as he hugged Nolan, jokingly adding, “Warner doesn’t have any objections, right?”

“Oh, they won’t be that stingy.” Nolan was amused by him.

“That’s not necessarily true,” Wu Chen blinked. “You’re Warner’s non-sale item right now.”

With Inception now grossing over a billion dollars worldwide, Nolan's status at Warner Bros. is unparalleled.

During an interview at the end of the red carpet, Nolan did not hold back his praise for Wu Chen: "Wu has always been a director who can bring surprises, and I am very much looking forward to his new work."

Matthew McConaughey wasn't there; he was filming "The Lincoln Lawyer" in New Orleans.

It's unclear whether it was Wu Chen's last-minute support on the "Interstellar" project, but Matthew seems to have entered a new phase of his career, with film offers pouring in. He even recently expressed his gratitude to Wu Chen over the phone.

However, Matt Damon, who plays Dr. Mann, is here.

The media also gave this A-list Hollywood actor a lot of face.

When Matt Damon hugged Wu Chen, he mysteriously leaned close to his ear and whispered some gossip.

"real or fake?"

After hearing this, Wu Chen's face was full of surprise. This was too ridiculous.

When Winslet's director husband, Sam Mendes, was directing "Revolutionary Road," which she starred in with Leonardo DiCaprio, he got carried away and personally designed and filmed a spectacular and visually stunning sex scene.

After filming was completed, the director himself couldn't accept it.
The marriage subsequently broke down.

"of course it's true."

Matt Damon, that mischievous friend, even patted his chest and guaranteed it.

Time flew by, and after Wu Chen, along with Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, and other key members of the cast and crew, briefly shared some interesting anecdotes from the filming process on stage, the premiere officially began.

Inside the TCL Chinese Grand Theater, the lights slowly dimmed.

When Paramount's iconic snow mountain logo appeared, the scene instantly fell silent.

The film begins with a somber string melody intertwined with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake;
The camerawork is sharp and unsettling, with numerous mirror reflections and shaky subjective perspectives that make the audience feel as if they are personally entering Nina's mental world on the verge of collapse.

The movie's story is actually not complicated; in fact, it could be described as quite simple.
It's about a young ballet dancer who strives to uncover her own dark side in order to play the role of Black Swan;

It is also a story of releasing the wildness that the controlling mother had been suppressing, ultimately leading to the collapse of her mental world and her descent into destruction.
But the real challenge of this story lies in how the director should express it and how the actors should present it.
The simpler the story, the more it reveals true skill. Meanwhile, inside the theater, hushed gasps and gasps of surprise could be heard from the audience as they watched the suspenseful scenes unfold.

"Wu truly deserves to be called a master of thrillers; he's incredibly skilled!"

"Keira's performance was also very relatable."

"The dance is so beautiful. The black and white swans, this design is wonderful!"

Some spectators whispered among themselves in the darkness.

James Wan sat in his seat, leaning slightly forward.

He could sense that Wu Chen didn't use the jump scares of traditional horror films, but rather used sound design and camera movement to build up a sense of psychological pressure layer by layer, which was what made people shudder.

"These mirrors are so well arranged!"

Nolan narrowed his eyes as he observed Wu Chen's use of the image of the "mirror".

He discovered that every mirror in the film has a unique narrative function; they are not merely reflections, divisions, voyeurism, and imprisonment, but also the boundary between black and white.

During the scene where Nina hallucinates and plucks the black feathers from her back, the sound of a body shifting due to physical discomfort can be clearly heard in the theater.

Finally, the film reached the climax meticulously designed by Wu Chen.
The mirror maze in the backstage area.

Nina ran through the narrow corridor, her reflection endlessly copied, stretched, and folded by the mirrors on either side, like a visual prison without end.

The image of the black swan in the mirror runs parallel to her, overlaps with her, and becomes entangled with her.

Her breathing became rapid, and she could no longer distinguish between her real self and the illusion.

She stopped abruptly, raised her hand, and tried to touch one of the mirrors.

At that very moment, without any warning, all the mirrors on the screen shattered simultaneously with a "crash"!
It wasn't a simple shattering; it was a magnificent, deadly rain of glass.

Countless fragments, like snowflakes whose time has been slowed down, danced and spun in the air.

Each tiny fragment reflects a different light and shadow.
Some lights reflected Nina's terrified face, some reflected the Black Swan's alluring smile, some reflected the blinding spotlight on stage, and some reflected the bottomless darkness backstage...

The entire theater fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone was completely stunned by the extremely gorgeous yet destructive scenes on the screen, and forgot to breathe.

"my God."

"This scene is so dreamlike, yet so dark."

In the darkness, someone in the audience let out a dreamlike gasp.

Nolan's wife, Emma Thomas, instinctively gripped Nolan's arm and looked over.

"This shot."

Nolan nodded slightly, "Wu used the purest visual language to achieve the most perfect interpretation of the theme of 'complete personality collapse'."

He couldn't help but marvel.

The scene of the mirror maze is so beautiful and perfectly matches the theme.

In his view, this might be a scene that leaves its mark on film history.
The last scene of the movie.
Nina, transformed into the Black Swan, completed a stunning performance, a shard of mirror embedded in her abdomen, her white dress stained crimson with blood.

She fell silently to the ground, looking at the stage lights, a satisfied yet eerie smile on her face, and with her last strength, she said:

I was perfect.

The screen went black instantly, and the credits slowly rose.
(End of this chapter)