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When I first started dabbling with film and watching them for more than just entertainment value I started with 90s' movies. Specifically, movies about teenage angst and having your adolescence feel like an eternal summer; such works as Dazed and Confused, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Jawbreaker, Donnie Darko and anything else you could find at a Blockbuster or movie rental business at the time. Although along the way, I slowly progressed onto other works. One of the films I recall watching vividly and reminding myself that I could never watch again was Requiem for a Dream, it was on top of the list along with Mysterious Skin. I remember it giving me such a physical sensation that no film ever had, it made me feel sweaty, grimy. Like slime sticking at the bottom of the basement. I felt the sweats of Jared Leto, the small death of his mother and the troubling exasperation of his girlfriend. Evoking in me the swift punch of the human condition. I didn't think to look up the director but a couple of years later my friend invited me to watch the new movie with Natalie Portman: Black Swan. The contemporary interpretation of Tchaikovsky's ballet, Swan Lake.
Perhaps it was because I didn't know enough about it or because I went to a performing and visual art school and the thought of more advocating of theater made me tired, I refused to go. However, after years and years of putting it off I finally decided to watch it when I realized that it was the same director that made Requiem for a Dream. I wanted to experience the disturbing visuals and violent sound effects that are often incorporated with the pinch of skin or the falling of limbs. At first watch I was thrilled and upset that I hadn't seen it before. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be one of my favorite films along with classics I render highly.
There was something that drew me in to an obsessive level. The strange connection I felt to Nina; in part because I related to the constant torment of wanting to perfect her own art to an unhealthy level that it comes off as forced and not genuine. Along with the feelings of being a late bloomer, of changing identities because your vulnerability is seen as a weakness. In closer inspection, after I finished watching it I watched it again. There was a lot my brain processed and yet a lot more that I wanted to dissect even further. Like the way the studio and Thomas's apartment are all black and white backdrops, signifying the duality of both the white and black swan along with the internal war that is in all of us of good and bad.
There were a lot of themes that were explored that one would think it overwhelming but if each inspected as a separate entity made the story have more depth, more insight into what it means to be in a competitive world as well as the mundane feeling of wanting to be more.
With the psychological metamorphoses that turns alarmingly vivid towards the end with Nina turning into a personification of a swan, it gave a great insight into mental health. Most importantly, the use of mirrors throughout the movie implying that Nina's perception is distorted and implies an unreliable narrator because of the shift in reality. This reminded me of the animated film by director Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue, a surrealistic paranoia dream where the main character sense of reality is also deteriorating.
The relationship and interactions between Nina and the others is also interesting. The way Nina constantly tries to avoid Lily, played by Mila Kunis, and even the most basic of conversations is quickly cut short. Perhaps because she is intimidated by Lily but deep down envies her, embodying everything that she is not but wants to become. Confident, care-free, and comfortable in her own skin. The hallucination of her coming back to her mother's apartment with Lily, where everything Lily says she voices to her mothers implies the change within her of becoming adult, of finally saying what she wants to say. Culminating with Lily and Nina in the bedroom where she is finally engulfed by the black swan, showing that she is finally transitioning from child to adult, even though it's not an easy one.
From the strange rash on her back turning into the growing of black feathers to the end where her hallucinations are in full spire and she is fully and entirely a black swan with red eyes and dark wings, her performance is a dizzying spell of camera jolts and close ups. The peak of her dance has got to be the most mesmerizing of all and it comes to show our fascination with madness. Of why we adore artists that conjure up the most troubling and intense pieces of art and that is because they show to us the extremes of being utterly and completely alive in the most shameless way possible, no need to prove anything to anyone. Something some of us are often afraid and seldom do because of how precarious it can be.
To lose yourself can sometimes be a tricky dance between confidence and loss of self.
There are a lot more things that I would love to discuss about the film but feel these were some of the main points I wanted to address. If you'd like to further talk about this analysis feel free to message or comment below.
As always thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Your sincere narrator.
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