I heard Black Swan at tonight’s Zeigeld premiere screening like never before. The big-screen speakers blasted and trumpeted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, lifting me up and over and out…fuhgedaboutit. It was my third viewing of Black Swan, and I was blown away yet again…over the falls. This film is a masterwork, a symphony, and 97% of the ticket-buying audience will never appreciate how great it can sound and feel because they’ll be seeing it at some shitty-ass megaplex with the sound turned down so the theatre owner can save on maintenance.

Black Swan star and dead-certain Best Actress nominee Natalie Portman, director Darren Aronofsky at post-premiere after-party at Manhattan’s St. Regis Hotel — Tuesday, 11.30, 10:40 pm.

Black Swan‘s breakout star Mila Kunis — Tuesday, 11.30, 11:45 pmn.

Black Swan costar, Mesrine superstar Vincent Cassel.

Scott Feinberg has just posted a 45-minute interview “with one of the more colorful characters in this year’s awards race, Social Network costar and Best Supporting Actor contender Justin Timberlake. It’s one of his first, if not his first, long-form interview this awards season, and I learned a lot from it about Justin and his performance.”

They do a piece about falling down and they don’t include Vivien Leigh‘s radish scene in Gone With The Wind? The look on that boxer’s face when he gets up doesn’t exactly say “I’m ready to fight again!” It says, “Whoa, I gotta fight that guy again?…shit.” I’m glad for General Motors employees who still have jobs and are feeding their families, but I see that GM logo and something goes cold inside. Top-dog GM executives can rot in hell, no offense.

It’s been one of those frenetic mornings. A lot of calling about something I’ve decided not to run for the time being. Tapping out some rough reactions to True Grit. Some back and forth about the Sundance ’11 condo. And preparing for the two big events of the day — a Kids Are All Right schmooze thing in Chelsea, and then the big Black Swan premiere and after-party tonight. The long and the short is that I have to do a time-out for two or three hours.

Michael Mann has so far made one serious failure, and that was (and is) The Keep. I saw it once 27 years ago, and that was sufficient. And yet some, I realize, feel it’s a little better than that. Not that anyone’s had much of a chance to give it another viewing. The Keep isn’t available on DVD or Bluray, but it’s now available through Netflix Streaming.

Congrats to Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik and distributor Roadside Attractions for nabbing two Gotham Awards last night. The grimly realistic Ozarkian drama that launched Jennifer Lawrence took the Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance trophies. And cheers to the three big honorary award recipients — Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky (looking very dapper with his Preston Sturges moustache), Get Low star Robert Duvall and Conviction star Hilary Swank.

Taken from balcony behind the stage as honorary award-winner Robert Duvall was delivering remarks. Notice Black Swan star Natalie Portman (excellent evening dress!) and her director Darren Aronofsky sitting ringside. I can’t tell if the other guy is Portman’s ballet choreographer b.f. Benjamin Millepied or someone else,

It’s good for an ornery little film like Winter’s Bone to get some hugs and positive attention. Does this mean it’s a “better” film than competitors Black Swan, Blue Valentine and The Kids Are All Right? No — it means that the Gotham award-deciders said “let’s politely blow off the highly respected and admired Blue Valentine, a John Cassevettes-like indie with killer performances, and go with an even smaller little rural film…this way we won’t look like Black Swan or Kids Are All Right star-fuckers or obsequious ass-kissers in any way shape or form….it’ll re-enforce our indie cred.”

I showed up around 9:30 pm after seeing True Grit uptown. And no, I’m not saying anything until the embargo goes up tomorrow at 1 pm eastern.

I had half-expected that Lena Dunham would win the Breakthrough Director Award for Tiny Furniture, but nope — they gave it to Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers. Ronald Bronstein won the Breakthrough Performance award for his work in Daddy Longlegs. Don’t give that Gotham love to the small marginal guys whom people know and like somewhat — give to the really small and marginal guys who’ve barely penetrated public consciousness.

The show, as usual, happened at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Awards presenters included Natalie Portman, Bill Murray, Melissa Leo, Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell, Winona Ryder, Anthony Mackie and Paul “I thought I was going to get some awards attention for my performance in How Do You Know” Rudd.

No offense but co-hosts Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci should give it a rest after this. Every time I turn around they’re always saying smart and gracious things at a lecturn in front of a big well-dressed crowd.

Just-announced Oscar co-host Anne Hathaway presented a special tribute to Focus Features CEO James Schamus.

Kids Are All Right star Annette Bening attended, but I didn’t see her anywhere.

I mentioned to Duvall in the press room that I’d just received my Warner Home Video archives DVD of John Flynn‘s The Outfit, and that it’s one of my favorite ’70s noirs. He liked hearing that and walked over for a quick chat. He said that it didn’t play on very many screens because “the mafia didn’t like it for some reason” and made some moves to block it.

Winter’s Bone dierctor Debra Granik.

Get Low star Robert Duvall in press room after winning his honorary Gotham award.

Irvin Kershner “seemed amused when I told him that, when I first saw Loving back when I was in college, I really didn’t care much for it because I couldn’t relate to its melancholy story about a guy who was beginning to worry that he’d taken a wrong turn somewhere in his career – and, worse, in his life – and worried whether it was already too late to turn back,” Moving Picture Blog‘s Joe Leydon wrote yesterday.

“But when I watched the movie again 15 years later — and this is the part that Kershner really enjoyed hearing — it was much, much easier for me to relate to the lead character, and to appreciate the spot-on accuracy of the movie’s insightful observations. I probably should take another look at Loving – if only to salute Kershner – but, frankly, I’m afraid I now might find it even more relevant.”

Loving is a film close to my past life, in a sense. It’s set in the commuting world between Manhattan and Westport, Connecticut, which I knew from having gone to high school in nearby Wilton and lived in Westport in ’76 and ’77.

George Segal and Eva Marie Saint played a married couple. It also featured Sterling Hayden, David Doyle, Keenan Wynn, Roy Scheider and future 20th Century Fox president Sherry Lansing.

Segal plays a successful art-director ad guy who feels he may have made a mistake in opting for marriage, kids and suburban domesticity. He feels creatively trapped, hemmed in. Cold as this sounds, a part of him wants to leave it all and start over again. Partly, you can sense, because Segal is aroused by the socially tumultuous times and, on the cusp of his 40s, he wants to savor the fruits before it’s too late. Loving is famous for its tragically farcical ending with Segal and a friend’s wife getting busted for infidelity by a security video camera during a Westport party. A crowd of revelers (including Saint) are watching the show from the main house.

Leydon calls Loving “quietly devastating” — that’s pretty close to how I feel.

Am I allowed to say…? Naah, forget it. I was going to say while I found Leslie Neilsen‘s original Airplane performance amusing, I never laughed. At most I chuckled. Chortled? Neilsen obviously hasd that deadpan-manner thing down pat. Tens of millions (including Keith Olbermann) loved him for that. It made him into a comic legend in the realm of…well, his own. But let’s not go overboard.

For me “funny” Neilsen was a one-trick pony. He delivered the same clever but thin vibe, over and over. Serious, pre-Airplane Neilsen, however, was another matter. Watch him closely and you can almost (almost, I say) sense his loathing for some of the dialogue he was obliged to say. As David Zucker said in an 11.29 Hollywood Reporter tribute piece, he and Airplane partners Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams thought “serious” Neilsen “was hysterical…when we watched those movies, we laughed.”

And yet twelve years ago David Zucker was asked by an AV Club interviewer if it’s “frustrating” to see Nielsen regarded worldwide as a comic genius. “Well, yeah,” Zucker replied, because “everything guys like Leslie Nielsen say and do onscreen is put in from backstage. Everything’s being controlled from Houston. He doesn’t even flick a switch. He’s just up there in the capsule, and all he can do is act.

“All you have to do is watch him in anything else — Mr. Magoo or Repossessed. You know, all these people think, you know, Leslie Nielsen, that guy’s funny! Let’s get him for our movie! And then they have him trying to be funny, but he needs good jokes.”