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.
