On Tuesday, Andrea and I saw Black Swan. I enjoyed this movie a great deal, and I even enjoyed the suspenseful and scary parts, which I usually don't enjoy because I don't like scary movies. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good dance movie, a semi-scary movie, or a psychological thriller. It wasn't really scary as much as it was jumpy and had people popping up and out of nowhere. I loved the dancing and I was glad that most of the scenes included dancing and a lot of the movements in slow motion or up close so you could really see the technique.
The movie is about a ballerina, Nina, who is a perfectionist and somewhat scandalously lands the role of Swan Queen in the Swan Lake Ballet. She dances for the NYC Ballet and appears to be one of the director's favorites. As the movie gets underway the audience realizes her mother is the typical stage mom who is living her long lost ballet career through her daughter. She treats her daughter like a little girl, tucking her into bed at night, helping her undress and put her clothes and jewelry away, and preparing her food. Nina seems to like this treatment at first, but becomes annoyed by it as the movie goes on. It is clear that her entire life has been about Ballet and all of her hard work finally leads her to her goal as the lead role in the Ballet.
However, this is not just a movie about a prima ballerina and her role in Swan Lake; it is about the competitive nature of the dance world and the psychological and physical effects it has on a dancer. Nina finds her competition in Lily, a new dancer to the company who is beautiful, in a dark--temptress sort of way, and who is a carefree and sensual dancer. Nina appears jealous by Lily's ability to let go, and dance in the moment, the exact character that she needs to become for the role of the Black Swan. She has the character of the White Swan perfect, but in order to be the best and most captivating Swan Queen, she needs to portray the passionate and luscious nature of the Black Swan. Nina works her hardest to capture this personality in her dancing, but fails to impress the director. I believe it is at this point that she starts to become psychologically affected by her competition, and she begins to worry that other people are trying to hurt her to obtain her role. She starts scratching herself, a nervous habit that she had as a child. Her mom sees her problems coming back and tries to put a stop to it by watching over every move of her daughter. As the movie becomes more intertwined with the gruesome physical effects that are a result of psychological illnesses, we see Nina become captivated by Lily, perhaps indicating that she is succoming to Lily's "spell." As the two girls go out for a night at the club to release stress, Lily and Nina's relationship escalates into a passion for love. She tempts Nina in the same way the Black Swan is a seducer to the White Swan's Prince, and convinces her to take drugs and disobey her mother.
However, Nina realizes Lily's behavior was intrusive to her perfectionist ways, for she arrives late to the dress rehearsal and Lily eventually becomes Nina's back up. This drives Nina mad and she begins to think that Lily is out to get her. She oversleeps on the day of the show and her mom tells the director that she cannot dance because she is sick. Nina has really been scratching herself and has fallen psychological ill with competitiveness and paranoia. When she wakes up, she pushing past her mom, hurting her in the process, and runs to the theater. She arrives just in time to see Lily dressed up to dance the part of the Swan Queen. Nina convinces the director that she is fine to dance the part, and she gets dressed for the show. As she goes on stage, she dances the White Swan beautifully. All seems to be going perfectly until she returns to her dressing room to changes to the Black Swan. Lily is sitting there, dressed as the black swan. She tells her that she doesn't believe Nina will make it through the rest of the performance, that she will not be able to handle it. Nina is infuriated and starts to fight with her. As they struggle, they fall into a mirror against the wall, which shatters around them. Nina picks up a piece of the mirror and stabs Lily in the stomach. As she falls dead, Nina drags her body into the bathroom to hide the body. After killing Lily, she is overcome by an evil and dark spell that allows her to dance the Black Swan part with more emotion and passion than she could have ever done before. She appears to have taken on Lily's character, but darker.
After that part of the play ends, she returns to her dressing room to change back to her White Swan costume, but sees the blood draining out from under the bathroom door. She throws a towel down to cover up the blood and then continues to get ready. She is clearly shaken by what she has done, but her thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door. When she opens it, Lily is standing there. Nina is shocked, didn't she just kill her? Lily tells her what a wonderful job she did and how she amazed the audience and the director. She congratulates her for a great show and then leaves to get ready for the last scene. Nina shuts the door and turns to the bathroom. She picks up the towel and there is no blood, no body in the bathroom, and the mirror is shattered. She is confused for a moment, but then realizes what really happened. As she reaches to her stomach, blood begins to seep through her costume and she pulls out a shard of glass. Nina stabbed herself, and has only moments to live before the end of her career, and thus her life. She takes the stage, bleeding, but no one seems to notice. She dances the last scene--the one where the White Swan leaps off the cliff to kill herself after losing her prince to the Black Swan. The ballet ends and the dancers come to congratulate her. They see that she is bleeding and run to get help, but Nina is totally content. She achieved her life goal, danced the dance of her life, and ended it in the same passionate, and "beautiful" way that is described in Swan Lake.
You can interpret the meanings in this movie multiple ways. As I see it, Nina embodied Swan Lake. She became the Swan Queen physically and mentally. The movie basically told the story of Swan Lake, but in a raw, brutal way that was mixed with the beauty of the ballet. We saw Nina go through the glory of being idealized by the director, just as the White Swan is idealized by her prince. Then we see her become jealous and fall to the psychological effects of jealousy as Lily, the Black Swan, tempts both her and the director. We see the director fall for Lily, just as the prince falls for the Black Swan instead of the White Swan. And as Nina falls into sadness and illness, she ends up killing herself over the loss of her love, just as the White Swan kills herself at the end of Swan Lake.
Interestingly, you could interpret Lily to be a figment of Nina's imagination. Meaning that Nina was both herself and Lily. Just as the Swan Queen portrays the White Swan and Black Swan. This becomes evident when she thinks she stabs Lily, but really stabs herself. Also, she thought that Lily slept over her house after their night out, but Lily told her that she never spent the night.
Lastly, you could interpret Ballet to not just be Nina's career, but also her life. She watches the fall of a dancer, the former ballerina who had the lead role in the other ballets, because she was getting too old. Nina fears the fact that at some point, a younger dancer will replace her. Also, after that former ballerina tries to kill herself by jumping in front of a car, Nina visits her at the hospital and sees her injuries that she will have to live with. Perhaps Nina knew that by stabbing herself and letting herself bleed to death, she would not have to live without dance. Dance is her life and because she feels that she wouldn't be able to live with out dance, she realizes that she can escape being replaced by ending her career herself. She does not wait for someone to do it for her, instead she embodies every movement of the ballet to be forever remembered, ending the ballet, her career, and her life as the Swan Queen.
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