& Quot; Black swan & quot; It was one of the most acclaimed films of 2010, it won Natalie Portman the Oscar for Best Actress and sparked controversy with her stunt double. Portman’s doppelganger argued that Oscar was undeserved, because she was the person who danced most of the time; Director Darren Aronofsky applauded Portman’s work and said he was only replaced in the most difficult scenes.
Putting aside this controversy over the Oscars, “Black Swan?”presents us with a ballet, a psychological thriller from Swan Lake, Natalie Portman dazzles in all its aspects, because her role is much more than a dancer, she is a complex character, with mental disorders becomes more visible as the ballet approaches.
- Portman has a very convincing performance that captivates us from the first moment.
- We must not forget that the actress is a degree in psychology from Harvard University and that.
- Probably.
- This knowledge served to prepare her for the role.
The plot revolves around Nina, a young dancer who lives with her mother and works in a ballet company. The company wants to open the season with a revamped version of Swan Lake. Nina wants to take the lead; She is a highly disciplined, methodical and demanding dancer, but the character demands a crazier, wilder side. The film will accompany the ballet and, masterfully, involve us in the personality and disorder of the protagonist.
The music, photography and dance stand out from the beginning, attract the attention of the viewer and envelop us in a unique environment, full of a tension that will grow to its brilliant end.
Nina’s personality is discovered as the film progresses. Her mother had also been a dancer, but she was unsuccessful in her daughter and left everything to care for her. We don’t know anything about your father; her mother raised her alone and is extremely protective of her.
Nina has no friends, only relates to her ballet partners, and in her life all that matters is dancing, when entering her room we find a very infantile space, in pale tones and decorated with many stuffed animals, similar to a room as a child, someone who has not yet grown up. This piece is a reflection of the world of Nina, a very dependent young woman, controlled by her mother and who has not yet reached maturity.
It was her mother who passed on her passion for ballet and, perhaps, also projected in her all her frustrations, in this way Nina also makes her understand to her mother that she has never noticed anything, that has never gone so far, that it becomes a cause for conflict between the two.
Nina never disobeyed her mother, she always lived extremely controlled, never had the ability to decide for herself. That’s why Nina developed a complex personality; he pays for his frustrations and helplessness with himself: he injures himself and causes his own vomiting, his mother knows these problems well, controls his back wounds, cuts his nails so as not to hurt himself and takes care of her so that he does not spend too much time in the bathroom.
Nina was not a happy child, she did not have a healthy development; her mother protected her too much, but she also projected her frustrations on her daughter. All of this has made Nina an emotionally unbalanced person; this imbalance will peak when the ballet company proposes a role that will destabilize it, deploy its own personality. Nina is obsessed with perfection and will do everything she can to achieve it, even if it harms her health.
Swan Lake tells the story of Odette, a princess who has been transformed into a white swan by a spell, who to break it needs the love of a prince, a love she cannot because she has a rival: the black swan. Nina’s company decides to reinvent the story a little bit and play the role of the two swans played by the same person.
Nina seems to fit perfectly into the role of the white swan, but not on that of black, because she lacks spontaneity because she is too disciplined. As in Tchaikovsky’s work, Nina has a rival, Lily, another of the company’s dancers, a rebel and a carefree young woman who fits perfectly into the role of the black swan.
From that moment on, Nina’s personality begins to destabilize. He will begin to become obsessed with his opponent and show his face more unbalanced and dark.
As we enter the ballet and meet the main characters, Nina’s personality dissociates, cannot even be recognized, nor differentiate between reality and what is a dream.
Mirrors play an important role in the film, presenting to us the distortions Nina enjoys, the confusions and the film’s most critical moments. You might think that mirrors are considered a powerful symbolic burden. According to Lacan, we recognize ourselves in the mirror, in the other individual. The two swans live inside Nina and will not be able to achieve balance, harmony.
Nina does not have the father figure, her mother absolutely controls her, and it is clear that her development has not been a success and there are many gaps in her fragile personality. The advent of rivalry and the search for the dark side that the role of Ballet requires will lead Nina to begin to show the first symptoms of psychosis, will establish an internal struggle with the two swans that live in it, while the relationship with her mother and those around her will become increasingly difficult.
In addition to the demands of the role and the rivalry with Lily, Nina has to face a less kind face of ballet and the world, she had never played a role as important as this and, therefore, was not aware of the darkness that surrounded her . surrounded her.
In her evening with Lily, we see that Nina has a total knowledge of nightlife and drugs, because she has never been exposed to these situations and is still under the protection of her mother, Nina is unable to control herself, decide for herself and know. which is best for her.
On the other hand, within the ballet company, we find that relationships are also not entirely healthy, dancers are replaced when they reach a certain age, the rivalry is present in each of them, and they are capable of anything to get a role. In addition, more powerful men, such as the company’s director, can abuse and pressure dancers.
Nina’s character also has a strong resemblance to Norman Bates, the protagonist of the film “Psychosis”, especially in his relationship with his mother. The overprotection and darkness of the entertainment world lead Nina to imbalance, instability and self-destruction.
& Quot; Black swan & quot; it is the reflection of psychosis in the form of a thriller embellished by ballet; a dangerous search for perfection, a perfection that the public admires, that the public looks on in amazement, without knowing everything necessary to achieve it. The end result is perfect, but the road was full of thorns.
“The only person in your way is you, is it time to let her go, to leave?Black swan?