Poster image taken from here
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
Rating: 2.5/5
Black Swan is a psychological horror film that examines a ballet production and the rivalry between two of its ballet dancers. Directed by Darren Aronofsky ( Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler), the film stars Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis and took ten years to make it to the screen.
The Story
The film examines the mind of Nina (played by Natalie Portman) a dancer in a New York City ballet company. She lives with her overbearing mother - a former ballet dancer - who sacrificed her career to have (and care for) Nina. Nina's mother wants her to have what she couldn't and incessantly pressurizes her daughter to be the best. The fact that she isn't particularly well-to-do only increases the pressure she puts on her daughter. It is this background that predisposes Nina to want to be perfect - something she states over and over again, right till the end of the film.
The company for which Nina dances, decides to put on a performance of the ballet classic - 'Swan Lake', under the supervision of renowned director Thomas Leroy (played by Vincent Cassel).
Swan Lake
The ballet, Swan Lake, is about a beautiful girl who is turned into a white swan by an evil sorcerer - a spell that can only be broken by true love. Her saviour comes in the form of a prince - who falls in love with her. However, before their union can take place, the prince is tricked and seduced by her evil twin - the black swan. The prince falls for the wrong swan. Devastated, the white swan throws herself off a cliff and falls to her death (for a more detailed synopsis, please click here.
The Story (continued)
Thomas Leroy tells the dancers at the company that this production of Swan Lake will be more contemporary and that for this new production, a new lead - a new Swan Queen will be chosen - someone who will play the roles of both the black and the white swan.
Leroy picks Nina as the new swan queen, but hesitantly. He tells her that she is perfect for the role of the delicate white swan, but isn't convinced that she will do justice to the role of the seductive black swan. Nina, now the new swan queen, replaces the old one- Beth Macintyre (played by Winona Ryder) - who is devastated by this.
Leroy begins training Nina to become the black swan - something she finds incredibly difficult to do. He tells her that she must 'let go', 'lose control'. Leroy asks Nina to observe Lily - a new dancer in the company who appears to be the ideal black swan - one who Nina has had a secret fascination for, right from the start of the film.
By now, Nina has begun hallucinating and seeing visions of a darker self. She also imagines herself literally turning into the black swan (beak, feathers etc.). This only furthers her frustration and she begins to question her sanity.
Nina strikes up a friendship with Lily - in whom she sees her darker self. She even imagines a sexual encounter occuring between the two of them. Their friendship takes a turn for the worse when Nina realizes that Leroy is readying Lily to be her replacement. From this point, we see Nina's hallucinations worsening as she further transforms into the black swan. She also begins to see parallels between the story of Swan Lake and her own life.
The day of the performance finally arrives and Nina gets off to a shaky start. Right before she can go on stage as the black swan, Lily enters her dressing room and a fight occurs between them. Nina sees Lily as her darker self and in this fight, Nina stabs Lily in the gut, killing her. She then goes on stage and puts on the performance of her life and we see her successfully transforming into the black swan on stage. When she returns to the dressing room to change back into the white swan, she realizes that her fight with Lily was hallucinatory. She realizes that in stabbing her 'darker self', the person that she has actually stabbed, is herself.
Nina (now conscious of the shard of glass in her gut) goes on stage for the final scene where the white swan jumps off the cliff. She is stunning and the crowd goes ecstatic. However, when Leroy and all the other dancers come to congratulate her, they find her bleeding to death. The final moments of the film show a dying Nina (on stage) whispering repeatedly, "I was perfect."
Black Swan is beautifully filmed. Some of the ballet is stunning and the film exhibits technical prowess. However, it appears the Darren Aronofsky has fallen victim to the spectacle that he creates, leaving the story highly undeveloped.
We see Natalie Portman's character incredibly unhappy. We are supposed to believe that she is suffering from immense turmoil due to all the pressure that is being put on her. However, this is conveyed ineffectually by the film. If one is to take away anything from it, it can only be that being a ballerina is lot harder than one would imagine it to be. The only purpose that ballet seems to serve in the film, is that of spectacle. The film could have been about rival clowns in a circus and it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the story.
One question - Why must anyone be interested in examining the mind of Nina the ballet dancer? All her character displays, is signs of mental illness - this does not warrant a film, but a psychiatrist. What makes her the subject of interest? Even if we examine her life, there appears no reason for us to find her interesting.
Nina's mother does not seem as overbearing as she supposedly is. She is definitely poor, but she isn't starving. Apart from her mother, the only source of Nina's frustration is the ballet company - which isn't particularly austere. Even her rivalry with Lily only begins somewhere towards the last third of the film. So what is this great turmoil that she's facing, for her to grow hallucinatory feathers? The only explanation is that she's a raving lunatic. Thus, Nina is the victim of her own madness and it must be seen as 'how a young girl loses her sanity'.
When viewed this way, the film turns more bland as we now see the string of clichés it is. Natalie Portman literally wrestling with her darker self is not something extraordinary. Besides, her insanity just allows for more spectacle - such as her transformation into a swan - without any substantial development in the storyline. After all, she's mad.
Black Swan is driven by the good looks of Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and combines it with the spectacle of Ballet to give us a watchable film - one we realize is incredibly hollow in retrospect.
