Black Swan (paper)

A psychotic thriller, Black Swan leaves the viewer attempting to guess what is real and what is not throughout the entire film. Natalie Portman's portrayal of a deranged ballerina struggling to understand herself leads the viewer through a wild ride of sex, music, jealousy, and rage to conclude in a climactic performance. Some elements of the film worthy of critical analysis include characterization, back-story, climax, the orchestral accompaniments and realism and anti-realism.

    The characterization in this film is absolutely outstanding not just because of the character development but also because viewers are allowed to view each character through two different prisms, that of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and through a traditional cinematic lens. When viewer character through the eyes of Nina the viewer will find that each character is tinged in darkness reflective of the way in which Nina's jealousy effects her understanding of the people around her. This is evident in the scene where Nina is late for a rehearsal and when she finally arrives in the studio she finds her 'friend' Lily dancing her parts. This is actually normal for any ballet as the viewer comes to understand that Lily is the understudy of Nina. To Nina however she sees it as a significant threat to her chances of success. Throughout the film the director of the ballet is also used to shape Nina as a character. He is adamant about her inability to correctly express the emotions of the black swan. This incessant pushing by the director leads to Nina's growth as a character but also leads to he psychotic breakdowns. These breakdowns are immensely important to the films overall message.

   To add to the mystic surrounding Nina the director attempts to provide the viewer with a glimpse of what her life was like prior to attaining a role in the ballet. She turns out to be a relatively sheltered child that still lives with her mother under very strict guide lines. The interesting part about Nina however is that she has a compulsion to scratch absentmindedly at the back of her shoulder. This is known to have gone on for quite awhile as her mother comments that she is at it again. This foreshadows the mental instability that Nina has and allows the viewer to begin to attempt to decipher whether scenes are actually real or have Nina's mental interpretation woven into them. The addition of this little bit of information allows the viewer to construct a significant, if small, back-story for Nina. The viewer begins to grasp the mental inconsistencies of Nina in a way that wouldn't have been accessible without the added light of her back-story.

    This back-story helps to lead to the climax of the film when Nina thinks she has stabbed her self-anointed 'arch-rival' but in reality she has stabbed herself. The climax proceeds to Nina dancing her soul away until, in the final scene of the film, she jumps from a ledge onto a mattress and as people crowd around her to congratulate her on her outstanding performance they see that she is bleeding to death from her self-inflicted wound and she whispers, “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect.” This statement is the epitome of the movie itself and allows the viewer to grasp the drive that was required of Nina to perform with such talent. The downside is that in order to reach her true potential she had to demonize everyone who wished her well and injure herself to the point of death.

   The injury to Nina also allows the viewer to examine the realism or direct anti-realism that is present in the film. Perhaps the starkest example of realism is not Nina herself but the people around her. The people that she is surrounded with are, seemingly, perfectly sane individuals who have no problem in coping with the world around them. Lily seems to be a person this is exemplified in. Lily, while driven to perform, is not nearly as polarizing a character as Nina is. This is due to the fact that while she is a somewhat wild individual she conforms to what people might expect from a younger female. She is a reasonable, sound-minded individual that the audience can relate to. She is the character that reflect the mental faculties that Nina lacks and is a grounding point for the viewer through her depiction as a realistic person.

   The orchestral accompaniments for the film are also a standout. In keeping with the drama and psychotic thrill of the film the music is arranged in a manner that allows the viewer to be pulled in and held in place while remaining seemingly unawares. The action in the film matches up perfectly with the soundtrack at the most important moments allowing insight into the emotion of the characters. The roaring crescendos and the screech of strings allows the viewer to remain on the edge of their seats while the softer melodies remind the audience that the characters are but human after all though they may embody things that most people leave hidden. The music truly allows the audience to peer into the souls of the performs and understand on a more basic level what drives them to do what they do and the emotions that they feel at the time of action.

   The realism that Lily displays is in direct opposition to the anti-realism that is portrayed in Nina. Nina, while at first seeming to be a regular woman, is depicted as a slightly insane individual. Her hallucinations add the element of anti-realism that makes the film become a masterpiece. The way that she reflects her inner trouble is done in a fashion that both excites the audience yet still seems unrealistic. The audience would not expect for her to stab her understudy and yet the film portrays it as so, at least at first. The climax of the film also serves as a point of anti-realism with Nina sprouting feathers directly from her flesh. While this is entirely anatomically unrealistic it does serve an ulterior motive, allowing the audience a window into her psyche. Therefore the anti-realism which is found in the movie is used to facilitate a bonding on an emotional level between Nina and the audience and enhances the empathy with which one might view her character.

   In all Black Swan is a masterpiece that draws in the viewer and holds the hostage for the duration of the film. The adeptness with which the director creates his characters is especially important as the way that we understand Nina and the way that we understand Lily enable the viewer to understand the meaning behind the film, that perfection is paid for dearly but is also worthy of reverence. The way in which the direct contrasts the realism depicted by Lily with the psychotic elements of Nina keep the viewer guessing what actions are real and which are imagined while at the same time showing the audience what is happening in Nina's transformation from a girl into a woman. The back-story provides even more evidence of the mental unsoundness in which Nina operates. But the shining moment of the entire film is in the climax with Nina giving her soul away to transform into the Black Swan and her breathless exclamation of her perfection allows the denouement to nearly outshine the rest of the film. Tying everything together though is the amazing sound track of orchestral music which sets the tone throughout the entire film and allows the viewer to feel as dark and depressed as the transforming Nina feels.