SusannahBLACK SWAN
January 29th 2011 02:51
BLACK SWAN (2010)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder.
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
I have been eager to see this film for a few months now, as I first indicated when I posted images of the limited edition artwork created for Black Swan on Filmrant back in October. I was very pleased then to have had the privilege of attending a preview screening in New Zealand. I can say that Black Swan does not disappoint, and that Natalie Portman deserves award nominations for the lead role. Darren Aronofsky has created an intricate portrait of a young woman losing her mind in the pursuit of artistic perfection.
With shades of Polanski’s Repulsion, and echoes of Argento’s Suspiria, Portman plays a young ballerina called Nina. She is a withdrawn and immature young woman, who seems to be lying when she answers the ballet director’s (Vincent Cassel) question if she has ever had a boyfriend and if she is a virgin. Despite being over 20, she still lives with her mother, Erica (Hershey), with a bedroom decorated in pink and white, with ballet-costume wearing stuffed animals. Her mother is a faded ballet star, who never achieved heights in her career because of her pregnancy with Nina. Her hobby appears to be drawing rather bad portraits of her daughter from photographs of her. There are shades of the Michael Haneke’s Piano Teacher as well; a withdrawn woman, artistically gifted, sexually repressed, who lives in a suffocating relationship with her mother, and who mutilates herself.
When reigning prima ballerina Beth (Ryder) is forced into retirement, and it is announced that ballet director Thomas is staging Swan Lake, and looking for a new principal dancer for the Swan Queen, Nina is desperate to take over the role. Technically perfect, and with the fragility and fearfulness right for the white queen, it is as her double, the black queen, on which Nina falls down. Thomas tells her she can play the white queen no trouble, but she needs to let go of herself, to loosen up, in order to play the black queen. Thomas sets her the homework assignment of masturbating in order to help free her inhibitions. This leads Portman to some brave acting as she portrays Nina’s struggles with her inhibitions in one of her most intimate moments.
Aronofsky uses a lot of imagery: reflections, blood, and the colour palette of pink and white. Reflections are predominant in the film and are used to indicate the dark side that lurks within Nina, but which she has repressed. At the beginning of the film she is riding the subway and sees a reflection, which she thinks is of herself, except dressed in a charcoal coat, not a pink one, but which turns out to be a new arrival to the ballet, Lily (Kunis). Later, when coming home, she sees a dark female figure in an underpass, and feeling threatened, is reluctant to walk down the alleyway. However, she proceeds to walk down, and, as she gets closer to the other woman, thinks it has her face, until she sees that it is in fact someone else. This scenario is repeated throughout the film as Nina continues to disassociate herself from her dark side and her sexuality, continuing to see those qualities as something belonging to a dangerous other who wears her face. She projects the qualities that she has repressed onto, and confuses with, the free-spirited and liberated Lily. Lily represents everything that Nina is not, and she starts to see her as a projection of herself, rather than a real person. Eventually even Nina’s reflection starts to betray her, and she comes face to face with herself, with disastrous consequences. She thinks she has finally triumphed over Lily, and over her dark side, but at what cost?
Aronofsky’s choice of colour palette helps to establish the characters also. Nina is repeatedly associated with the colours white and pink, as signs of her innocence and immaturity. She is frequently seen in her pink coat and white woollen scarf, as well as white ballet outfits. The ballgown she wears is striking in its whiteness. Her bedroom’s décor is festooned with white and pink. Lily, and the alternate Nina, are always seen wearing black, or dark colours. Nina denies her dark side, but when she embraces it in her dance as the Black Swan, she finally achieves transcendence, metamorphosing with black feathered wings.
Self mutilation is also a recurring theme. Nina appears to suffer from anxiety. She develops a rash on her shoulder which she hides with shrugs, but which she believes is arising from her dark side emerging. Her mother insists that she is scratching herself, and clips her nails to stop her from doing so. When Nina glimpses her own reflection in the mirror reaching to scratch her shoulder, she believes that it is acting beyond her, that it is not her doing it, and disassociates herself from her reflection. Scenes where Nina throws up also indicate that she may be suffering from bulimia.
Nina’s life is ballet. When she and Lily meet two guys in a club, one of them says: “You haven't told me who you are”, to which she replies: “I’m a dancer.” He then says: “No, I meant your name.” The fate of Beth, that is, to be forced to retire from ballet while still a young woman, terrifies Nina. Even more so when Beth walks in front of a car, possibly on purpose, and her leg gets horribly injured, meaning she will never dance again. To Nina, this is perhaps a fate worse than death when dancing is all you live for. The part of the Swan Lake tale that appeals to her the most is the part about the Swan Princess’ sacrifice. The White Swan would rather die than be without the love of her prince, and so kills herself. Perhaps, in the end, Nina’s true love is ballet, to which she is finally gives all of herself, leading to a truly operatic conclusion.
Altogether Black Swan is a tightly wound, thrilling and disturbing portrait of an artist whose art is everything to her. It is a heavily symbolic film, which may not be to everyone’s taste, but which serves to indicate the fragile mental state of the unreliable narrator. The finale of the film, where Nina dances the Swan Lake ballet to Tchaikovsky’s music, is truly thrilling, and the conclusion leaves it open enough for people to have many discussions afterwards about what really happened, and what was real and what was not.
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Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder.
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
I have been eager to see this film for a few months now, as I first indicated when I posted images of the limited edition artwork created for Black Swan on Filmrant back in October. I was very pleased then to have had the privilege of attending a preview screening in New Zealand. I can say that Black Swan does not disappoint, and that Natalie Portman deserves award nominations for the lead role. Darren Aronofsky has created an intricate portrait of a young woman losing her mind in the pursuit of artistic perfection.
The eye of the Black Swan
With shades of Polanski’s Repulsion, and echoes of Argento’s Suspiria, Portman plays a young ballerina called Nina. She is a withdrawn and immature young woman, who seems to be lying when she answers the ballet director’s (Vincent Cassel) question if she has ever had a boyfriend and if she is a virgin. Despite being over 20, she still lives with her mother, Erica (Hershey), with a bedroom decorated in pink and white, with ballet-costume wearing stuffed animals. Her mother is a faded ballet star, who never achieved heights in her career because of her pregnancy with Nina. Her hobby appears to be drawing rather bad portraits of her daughter from photographs of her. There are shades of the Michael Haneke’s Piano Teacher as well; a withdrawn woman, artistically gifted, sexually repressed, who lives in a suffocating relationship with her mother, and who mutilates herself.
Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel
When reigning prima ballerina Beth (Ryder) is forced into retirement, and it is announced that ballet director Thomas is staging Swan Lake, and looking for a new principal dancer for the Swan Queen, Nina is desperate to take over the role. Technically perfect, and with the fragility and fearfulness right for the white queen, it is as her double, the black queen, on which Nina falls down. Thomas tells her she can play the white queen no trouble, but she needs to let go of herself, to loosen up, in order to play the black queen. Thomas sets her the homework assignment of masturbating in order to help free her inhibitions. This leads Portman to some brave acting as she portrays Nina’s struggles with her inhibitions in one of her most intimate moments.
Natalie Portman as Nina
Aronofsky uses a lot of imagery: reflections, blood, and the colour palette of pink and white. Reflections are predominant in the film and are used to indicate the dark side that lurks within Nina, but which she has repressed. At the beginning of the film she is riding the subway and sees a reflection, which she thinks is of herself, except dressed in a charcoal coat, not a pink one, but which turns out to be a new arrival to the ballet, Lily (Kunis). Later, when coming home, she sees a dark female figure in an underpass, and feeling threatened, is reluctant to walk down the alleyway. However, she proceeds to walk down, and, as she gets closer to the other woman, thinks it has her face, until she sees that it is in fact someone else. This scenario is repeated throughout the film as Nina continues to disassociate herself from her dark side and her sexuality, continuing to see those qualities as something belonging to a dangerous other who wears her face. She projects the qualities that she has repressed onto, and confuses with, the free-spirited and liberated Lily. Lily represents everything that Nina is not, and she starts to see her as a projection of herself, rather than a real person. Eventually even Nina’s reflection starts to betray her, and she comes face to face with herself, with disastrous consequences. She thinks she has finally triumphed over Lily, and over her dark side, but at what cost?
Mila Kunis as Lily
Aronofsky’s choice of colour palette helps to establish the characters also. Nina is repeatedly associated with the colours white and pink, as signs of her innocence and immaturity. She is frequently seen in her pink coat and white woollen scarf, as well as white ballet outfits. The ballgown she wears is striking in its whiteness. Her bedroom’s décor is festooned with white and pink. Lily, and the alternate Nina, are always seen wearing black, or dark colours. Nina denies her dark side, but when she embraces it in her dance as the Black Swan, she finally achieves transcendence, metamorphosing with black feathered wings.
Natalie Portman as the Black Swan
Self mutilation is also a recurring theme. Nina appears to suffer from anxiety. She develops a rash on her shoulder which she hides with shrugs, but which she believes is arising from her dark side emerging. Her mother insists that she is scratching herself, and clips her nails to stop her from doing so. When Nina glimpses her own reflection in the mirror reaching to scratch her shoulder, she believes that it is acting beyond her, that it is not her doing it, and disassociates herself from her reflection. Scenes where Nina throws up also indicate that she may be suffering from bulimia.
Natalie Portman as the White Swan
Nina’s life is ballet. When she and Lily meet two guys in a club, one of them says: “You haven't told me who you are”, to which she replies: “I’m a dancer.” He then says: “No, I meant your name.” The fate of Beth, that is, to be forced to retire from ballet while still a young woman, terrifies Nina. Even more so when Beth walks in front of a car, possibly on purpose, and her leg gets horribly injured, meaning she will never dance again. To Nina, this is perhaps a fate worse than death when dancing is all you live for. The part of the Swan Lake tale that appeals to her the most is the part about the Swan Princess’ sacrifice. The White Swan would rather die than be without the love of her prince, and so kills herself. Perhaps, in the end, Nina’s true love is ballet, to which she is finally gives all of herself, leading to a truly operatic conclusion.
Altogether Black Swan is a tightly wound, thrilling and disturbing portrait of an artist whose art is everything to her. It is a heavily symbolic film, which may not be to everyone’s taste, but which serves to indicate the fragile mental state of the unreliable narrator. The finale of the film, where Nina dances the Swan Lake ballet to Tchaikovsky’s music, is truly thrilling, and the conclusion leaves it open enough for people to have many discussions afterwards about what really happened, and what was real and what was not.
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