The Psychotronic Film Society continues its long-running series of underappreciated world cinema with a special screening to mark the eighth anniversary of the theatrical release of director Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller “Black Swan.” That acclaimed feature about a young American ballerina whose grip on reality deteriorates during high-pressure preparations for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” wound up with five Oscar nods. Natalie Portman won Best Actress for her performance.

However, while Aronofsky has taken heat for seemingly appropriating plot elements without attribution for his film from the 1997 Japanese animé film “Perfect Blue,” which he denies doing, the PFS has unearthed an almost completely unknown Italian feature from 1989 which also seems to be an unacknowledged precursor to Aronofsky’s effort. Director Peter Del Monte’s giallo-nouveau “Etoile” or “Star,” was released in some parts of the world under the alternate title “Ballet,” and its plot concerns a young American ballerina whose personality changes after she becomes disturbingly obsessed with preparations for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”

It stars Jennifer Connelly (“Labyrinth”) as the ballerina. This surreal, slow-paced thriller was not shown in theaters here in the states and has never been released on home video in the USA, either. However, Connelly worked with Aronofsky a decade later on his film “Requiem for a Dream,” so he likely would have been familiar with her previous movies. This is a rare chance to see an unusual foreign film which just might have been the basis for an extremely well-known American mainstream hit. This uncut, widescreen print will be shown in its original spoken English.