It’s been a while since I saw Black Swan and I still am not over it.
Huge spoilers for Black Swan ahead!
A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie with the intent of widening my knowledge of genre films and different perspectives portrayed in film.
Somehow that led to Black Swan.
On the whole, I’m not very good with horror movies. I am that friend who will scream and hide behind a chair whenever anyone from The Shining even bats an eyelid. But Black Swan was different- it was horrifying but definitely more in the “psychological thriller” vein rather than an archetypal horror film. I was definitely terrified, but more in the way of I-now-cannot-look-in-a-mirror-ever-again sort of way.
To summarize the film to anyone who may have forgotten: Black Swan is a 2010 psychological horror directed by Darren Aronofsky, being later nominated for multiple Oscars, with Natalie Portman winning for Best Leading Actress. The story follows Nina Sayers, a young ballerina lusting to get the role in her company’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet- which would involve her to not only take on the role of the White Swan- Princess Odette- but also her evil twin, the Black Swan. The pressure mounted from the role leads Nina into insanity and eventually, her own demise.
To begin, I feel it is important to have a grasp on the story that is at the epicentre of this entire film- Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Tchaikovsky between the years on 1875-76 that follows Princess Odette, who has had a curse of being transformed into a swan during daylight hours placed on her by the evil owl-like sorcerer Rothbart- this curse can only be broken by true love. Odette stumbles across Prince Siegfried when she transforms back into a human just as he is about to shoot her with a crossbow: he sets out to win Odette’s love.
Later on, a ball is hosted for Siegfried to chose his future bride. Six candidates are presented, one of whom is Odile- Rothbart’s daughter whom he has transformed to look exactly like Odette. In a flurry, Siegfried vows to marry Odile and realising his mistake, passionately apologises to a heartbroken Odette. Yet, she is too distraught, so decides to commit suicide with Siegfried at her side- they will be finally united in love in the Heavens.
Tragic? Indeed.
Obviously the whole premise of Black Swan is this ballet, and the idea that Nina will need to transform into both the White and the Black Swan to acheive “perfection”.
Now this film has many analytical layers that I want to explore, so I’ll break it down into the following headings:
Duality
Now this is probably the biggest point you can take away from Black Swan. The film is all about duality, and from the exposition to the final fade out you can see that this is the case. From the second scene of the film, mirrors are immediately used as an ongoing motif to represent the internal war in Nina’s head between the sweetness and grace of the white swan and the seductiveness of the black swan- for example, near the beginning of the film, Nina sees a dark, mysterious reflection of herself in the windows of the subway. Doppelgangers are also a common motif to represent the story of Swan Lake, with Nina passing a more provocative, ominous version of herself as she walks home from the ballet company; Lily is also portrayed as some form of a doppelganger, especially in the final scene where the “black swan” is continuously morphing between Nina and Lily. This instantly fools the audience into believing that Lily has been callously murdered, when in fact Nina’s psychosis has become so severe that she cannot distinguish between herself and others- she stabs herself with a shard of glass and dies after giving what was definitely the greatest performance of her life. The fact that the mortal weapon was a broken piece of glass symbolises here how all of these symptoms of pyschosis regarding duality have driven Nina into an inescapable hole of paranoia that eventually kills her- this is a further comment by Aronofsky on the harshness of the ballet world.
The harsh world of ballet
Ballet is a destructive, beautiful art form that not only changes you physically, but emotionally.
I am now in my 11th year of ballet- and I can attest to all the intense feelings that Nina experiences in this film. Fear of failure. Impostor syndrome. Fear of being replaced. Body image issues. The list continues on.
So why do people still do ballet?
Ballet allows such freedom. No other medium gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself into a character whilst demonstrating a deep creative and artistic ability alongside physical strength. It is fluid and ever-changing and beautiful. Yes, pointe shoes and overbearing teachers destroy you on more levels than one, but in some twisted way, that is the way ballet dancers come alive.
Ballet takes Nina’s life. Literally. Ballet dancers have extortionately impossible "skinny-yet-strong" body standards to live up to, and Nina’s ongoing battle with bulimia is very common for professional ballerinas. Suicide rates are higher for ballerinas than for any other professional dancers due to the overwhelming pressure thrust onto these often young women- Nina’s story is only a slightly dramatized retelling of a recurring truth. The vicious competition between dancers often breeds isolation and a lack of socialisation abilities. This lack of social abilities wraps Nina further and further up in her only source of identity- ballet- to the point where she becomes more of a singularity than a fully-fledged person. This is why, as her ballet world begins to collapse at her feet, the rest of her world falls with it: ballet is her entire life.
Perfection is not a want in ballet, it’s a requirement. No arm misplaced or eye line dropped can go uncorrected. Every extension and jump is analytically scrutinized by everyone from your peers to your own parents. Nina’s unhealthy strive for perfection is a theme that is brought up very early on, from her determination to secure the role of the Swan Queen (despite the cost of her mutilated toenail), to her mother repeatedly stating that Nina is “the most dedicated dancer in the company.” Perfection has become a lifestyle for her, every placement condemned by her own eyes if the technique is anything short of perfect. This deep desire to fulfill her role to its fullest leads to Nina’s spiral into madness; she seeks to perfect the Black Swan, and seemingly the only way to achieve this is by physically and emotionally transforming into her evil alter-ego. Her visions of morality and the world hastily becomes hazed in this fog of metamorphosis, and even as she takes her last breath, Nina’s final words still are “it was perfect.” In some horrific way, Nina’s singular goal in life was to attain perfection, and the sole way in which she could accomplish this is by fully losing herself to truly embody the black swan. Unfortunately for her, the birth of evil comes hand in hand with the death of innocence and purity, as her childhood naivety is murdered in place for the blossoming of hellish maliciousness.
Beth is also a key character here to fully understand the malevolence of the professional ballet industry. For Nina, Beth is a failure. A spoilt egg far past her prima years, someone beginning to shrivel into retirement like rotting fruit. Beth terrifies Nina, not only because she reminds her of herself, but also because she reminds her of her mother. It is touched on that Nina’s controlling mother was once too a professional ballerina who gave up her prime for Nina, consuming her life with narcissistic paintings of her daughter. Nina despises her, placing sole blame upon her for a lack of a proper life: she’s not wrong. Her mother’s heavy infantilisation of Nina (notice the stuffed toys and music boxes in a 28-year-old’s bedroom) stunts her growth, leading to a lack of personality blossoming outside of ballet- Nina’s mum is so transfixed on living her glory days through her daughter that all of these issues fully wash over her. Beth symbolises Nina’s mother at present as well as the future Nina, and this terrifies her. Nina has always seen Beth as this “perfect” being: she steals some of her belongings (e.g. the lipstick) and defends her in the dressing room during the exposition, so witnessing Beth’s descent into madness (she walks into oncoming traffic purposely and is almost paralyzed during hospitalization), as well as the clear parallels between Thomas’ sexually abusive behaviors with the two of them (the disgusting pet name of “little princess”) quickly becomes a ghastly thought for Nina. For her, a life beyond success is no life at all. As well as this, her mother placing a heavy blame on Nina for the loss of her career is filling her with guilt, and she feels that these emotions need to be destroyed in order for her to become fully-fledged into the role of the Swan Queen. So while the hospital scene (where Nina visits Beth to return her stolen belongings) is ambiguous, it can be inferred that Nina murdered Beth in cold blood: firstly to further her transformation into the evil black swan, secondly, to detach herself from the remorse her mother is placing on her which keeps her rooted in her infantile, white swan-like ways, and lastly to destroy the image of her career eventually fading away into oblivion. Nina never makes it past her career-high due to her untimely death, and Beth’s suicide attempt could also foreshadow Nina’s later tragic death.
Parallels to “Swan Lake”
The parallels to the ballet of Swan Lake are sometimes obvious in Black Swan, but occasionally Aronofsky adds nuances to these that can only be understood with a wider knowledge of the context surrounding this film.
Nina, at her roots, is the white swan. Innocent, naive, infantile, everything from the repetition of her being called a “nice girl” to her feminine, stuffed animal-filled room clearly personifies her as the white swan. She is the epitome of grace and elegance with her careful technique and neat hairstyles. Nina falls in love with ballet and the role of the Swan Queen; she wins over Thomas to secure this role (he parallels to the Prince here) as Odette wins the prince over into loving her. (May I mention now that I find Thomas absolutely revolting. He is a malicious predator and in no way should he be romanticised: real-life Thomases exist globally with the disgusting function to destroy the lives of young girls, and this cannot be ignored. I am simply placing him as a parallel to Prince Siegfried due to the fact that both Nina and Lily, in a corrupt way, somewhat long for his approval, as Odette and Odile long for Siegfried’s love).
Lily is the embodiment of the black swan. In stark juxtaposition to Nina, she is reckless, carefree and passionate, spending her free time dancing, sleeping with various men and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Lily is who Nina wishes she was, but she is held back by the “curse” of her controlling mother, similar to how Odette is stunted by her curse of transforming into a swan during the daytime.
Whilst it cannot necessarily be said that Thomas changes his mind and “falls” for Lily like the prince falls in love with Odile, the competition is definitely present. Nina is constantly compared to Lily as Thomas continuously chides her precision and technique, with Lily’s passion and freedom being hailed as almost godly. This rivalry drives Nina into hysteria, causing her to even hallucinate murdering Lily. As an audience, we almost feel a sense of sympathy towards Lily, as her quite friendly tone is berated by Nina’s cold paranoia; Lily is nothing more than a new ballerina attempting to make her mark, and Nina’s treatment of her is at some times unjustifiable. On the other hand, some moments twist this view for an audience into the belief that Lily is in fact as deceiving as her parallel of Odile: these include her spiking Nina’s drink the day before dress rehearsals and making passionate love to Thomas on opening night (this may correlate to the prince vowing his love to Odile instead of Odette), these events seem to deliberately sabotage Nina, with the intent of Lily then stepping into the role of the Swan Queen, although Nina’s deteriorating mental state makes it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusions here.
These parallels between the film and the ballet also have linked to Nina almost going through puberty. At the beginning of the film, Nina is sweet, innocent and still clearly in the childhood stage of her life (see above) due to her mother’s restrictive behaviors stunting her growth. As the film progresses and Nina begins to “act out”, this represents her transformation into the black swan as symbolic for going through puberty and reaching adolescence: Nina begins experimenting with her sexuality through masturbation and fantasies of sex with Lily (however taboo and “uncomfortable” this topic may be for some (mostly male) viewers, it is important to understand that these are stages almost every teenage girl explores and should be normalized beyond the stigma it is currently presented with in the media) as well as entering the world of the black swan/adulthood through “seducing” Thomas near the beginning to secure the role of the Swan Queen, attending parties, consuming alcohol and drugs, having sexual encounters with multiple men and repeatedly disobeying her mother's orders with the sole purpose to spite her. By the end of the film, whatever essence of the white swan that remains in Nina is killed with the shard of glass that ends her life- these “childlike” traits were, up until that point, still somewhat prevalent in her (for example, leaving the stage in tears as she is dropped during the first act of the ballet). After the fatal wound is inflicted, Nina has now completed her transformation into the white swan as she has transformed fully into an adult, leaving the rotting carcass of naive childhood behind. Whilst it may seem strange that becoming a grown adult causes death in Nina’s case, this may also link to the increase in suicide rates when ballet dancers come of age and become professional, this is due to increasingly high pressure and an increasingly low tolerance for mistakes.
The clearest parallel in the entire film is Nina’s suicide, symbolizing the death of the white swan in the final act of Swan Lake, due to her deep depression that ensues as she finds the prince in love with Odile. Odette dies for her love of the prince, Nina dies for her love of ballet and to finally fulfill her destiny as the Swan Queen.
In summary: I love Black Swan. There has never been a film before that has made me sit down and contemplate the nature of perception and reality in the way that it did, Aronofsky is a genius of a director. Also Natalie Portman was so deserving of that Oscar!
(dear anyone who enjoyed Black Swan as much as I did, I recommend Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle)