Film Review: Black Swan (2010)

The story of Swan Lake is retold with a difference in Darren Aronofsky

s 2010 film Black Swan where ballet dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) takes
on the dual role of the white andblack swans and must attempt to discover the
portrayal of the black swan to match her perfection of its opposite.

Black Swan takes on the idea of perfection versus imperfection with the
swans playing therole of metaphor. They are symbolic of Ninas need to discover
herself and realise what her way of being perfect is and how she doesnt need to be
the stereotypical ballet image of perfection.Aronofsky takes this further with the
use of characters who all have their faults/weaknesses whetherits Beths (Winona
Ryder) inability to carry on ballet or Ninas mother Ericas (Barbara Hershey) loss
of her dream, and hypodermically injects the audience with the question is there
such a thing as perfection? In some way these characters live through Nina
vicariously as in their eyes she seems theimage of perfection getting everything she
wants. This allows them escapism from their own lives especially Ninas mother
who encircles Ninas life with a conspiracy of evil; making Ninas choices for her.
In some way these characters fear the idea of Ninas perfection whereas, Nina fears
her perfection being penetrated by her weaknesses.

This is a movie about fear of penetration, fear of your body, fear of being
supplanted in the affections of a powerful man, love of perfection, love of dance
and perhaps most importantly of all, passionate and overwhelming hatred of your
mother.

(Bradshaw, 2011)

Aronofsky shows Nina however, to be the opposite to how she is perceived,

through his structure of the film especially with camera angles and semiotics in
colour.

Black Swan is full of over the shoulder tracking shots which create the illusion of
lack of oxygen and claustrophobiadenoting Ninas struggle to breathe when in the
black swans skin instead still embodying the whiteswan as well as the smothering
Nina receives by her mother. The mass use of mirrors also seems to suggest this
with the idea of Ninas black swan being trapped in some alternate universe when
her mirror image responds differently. Ninas being is mirrored throughout the film
with alternatives; an example of applying Claude Levi-Strauss theory on binary
oppositions. Another example of this is Black Swans colour palette with black and
white being symbolic of good and evil, Nina being wellkept and clean in colour
whereas her doppelganger free with her loose hair and dark coloured make-up and
the dark lighting of Ninas claustrophobic scenes being replaced with a dreamlike
air when she finally embodies the black swans character.

Black Swan has extremely evident oppositions and a dreamlike/hallucinogenic

emotion full of surrealism and madness, and where literalness is meant to be a
mark of naivety and inexperience, something that children grow out of as they
become adults; part of Black Swans genius is to remind us of how much more
vivid and dramatic the world can be seen without the filter of metaphor
(Sandhu, 2011)
extremely evident when the soft pastels of pink and green likethose used for baby
belongings are replaced with deep reds and black to show maturity.
For Nina to be an all-round performer it is implied that she has to be sexualised.
The ideology of the exploration of your sexuality defining the stage between
naivety and maturity is represented in Black Swan
Nina needs to open her eyes to the wider world and feel ballet rather than taking
ballet as literal skill. However, it is interesting that it is not teacher Thomas
Leroy(Vincent Cassel) that sexualises Nina but Lily (Mila Kunis) who seems to
embody Ninas doppelgangerand is implicative of the perfect black swan through
her imperfections. The appearance of Lily in Ninas safe haven of her ballet seems
to awaken her from her literal world and takes her on a fast track rollercoaster ride
of the puberty and maturity that her mother deprived her from. Thomas Leroy is
representative to the audience that the only way to find their full self is through
discovery and growing up.

He is the agent by which her delicate balance is disturbed through his insistence
that she must discover her dark side by some form of physical and spiritual
abandonment.

(French, 2011)
At the beginning of the film Nina is too fragile and nave to portray a
mature,explorative character but after breaking out of her shell she grows in
personality and emotion.