Black Swan; brilliance; psyche-brutality and elegance

Black Swan

Black swan; that which I would have failed a DUI test driving home, in a pseudo shock, awe and “high / drunkness” that shook about 10 minutes after the movie…if you follow, and appreciate the brilliance, you may need 10 minutes to recover.

A tale of the new supplanting the old in ultra-pressure Ballet, the story is not about the world of Ballet, but of Nina (Natalie Portman), who is vying to supplant the older Beth (Winona Ryder), who needs, and rivals and plays a twisted mental relationship into existence with Lily (Mila Kunis), another supplantor, for which may derail and ultimately destroy Nina.

SPOILERS BELOW (full blog is a Spoiler)

This movie is a Play about her, Nina which is supported with the music during scenes of “normalcy” or reality of which you would find IN that ballet, though she is far removed from the stage. This causes many people in the audience who are either not following, feeling like this is a “supernatural thriller” or are just uncomfortable with the emotional servitude of Natalie Portman, to chuckle during those scenes. It does Sound somewhat ridiculous, if you take the bombastic music at face value in what could be described as “intense” scenery (ghosts below). But, the brilliance of this encapsulates the movie in the proper atmosphere of a Play, being drawn to a conclusion, similar to the Swan Princess.

TL;DR at the end.

Full Breakdown

She frequently see’s Beth (Winona Ryder), that who she wants to replace, who has been the star, the “perfection” of Ballet (to Nina) even at the beginning of the movie:

When she is in the scaffold laden alley way and shuts her Mom’s (Barbara Hershey) call off (feeling like she blew the role, and not wanting to dive back into that soft bubble of safety and “little girl with protectionist mommy), a tall and dark shadow turns off her phone at the exact same moment.

As they pass, it is Lily, Nina’s “doppelganger” appears, the  flash, and its Beth she “see’s” in the darkness. “Dark Nina” will be the future reference.

(Beth, frequent visage)

Frequent usage of this is done throughout the movie, a dark shadow of a women, who could be Lily, Beth (both “Black Swans), who end up being, either someone different, or similar..though, they tend to always be, the Black Swan’s. Ultimately, it represents Nina’s “dark side” or the anti-White Swan, the Black Swan.

Nina also “see’s” Lily on a separate train, for some reason incredibly Drawn to her, while never seeing her face, just a flash perhaps, but the essence of the Black Swan, something so counter-Nina to her psychology and profile, that she maintains even after “Lily” gets off, she tries to follow her with her eyes.

Lily did in fact arrive late, slamming a door breaking the concentration (with the same white-ear buds that were seen on the train), “ruining” what Nina thought was her final chance..the chance to Not, be her Mother (though that is NOT the crux nor running theme of the movie, only a subtle plot which is still important, buttressing the main schema of “The Play”).

When she does get the part, she knows and is frequently told by the producer, Thom (“Thomas Lero” Vincent Cassel) that she Needs to tap into the Black Swan, the Seductive One, the Dark One, the Onne without inhibition, the one which does not “fake,” but flows, even if the technique, is not “perfect.”

White

Nina is the perfect “White Swan” sexually and emotionally vulnerable, technically “perfect” as much as can be, but oh so overshadowed by Lily, the epitome of a Black Swan, whom, is shown early on in the movie, her actual technique is at least marginally more “sloppy” due to her “passion” or “swan’ness” (what a lame word).

With Nina already near breaking points, uncomfortable with the sexuality and passion of Thom, during the galla / Ball / fundraising event, the moment of unveiling the New Swan and Retiring the Old, Lily makes an off-giggle (into dead silence), planting seeds of doubt and future paranoia of Nina.

Black

Beth, the retired, self-destructive Swan, is always what Nina has ascribed to be..being teased and jabbed at by the other girls by defending her beauty and dancing prowess, though others (and Thom) would deem her much too old, played out, etc.

Stealing Beth’s items (lipstick, others and a nail-filer, highly important in her hand mangling and back-mutilation) hammers home the point of emulation and desire to Be Beth, which reaches also, into self-destructiveness.

Becoming

Running out on a tantrum, breaking the pattern of “yes mom” and being the “little Princess” and going out for a drink with Lily…Lily previously had spoken with Nina, when crying at the theater, offering a cigarette, apparently telling Thom to “take it easy” on her, which is misinterpreted on all sides.

Lily, during that scene, of coming upon Nina crying, she was just another “dark” figure of a women, until, she steps into the light..brilliantly done, and one of the first truly “creepy” usages of an unknown, where we, and Nina, the audience, cannot tell who, what, and if it is real.

Sexuality

Thom, with the biting, the smashing of lips, testing the passion (if their exists Any within Nina, though, could have just taken that as an opportunity of being the creep boss sleeping with his Ballerina’s), is the first indication of a darkness, or Blackness to which the Swan could progress. Her perfection as the White Swan, and technique, leads Thom to choose her, as the Swan..forcing her hand with the kiss, actually stopping Nina, forcing her to “defend” herself actually coming to his office “dolled up” starts the trend of Becoming.

Thom, after informing Nina that Beth had thrown herself intentionally (his thoughts) in front of a car after the Ball confrontation, indicates massive self destruction, coupled with, when Nina Stole Beth’s items, Beth had trashed her room violently. He also gives Beth an “assignment” of sexuality, touching, exploring herself, “live a little.” This includes Thom forcefully kissing “open your mouth, OPEN your mouth” grabbing her breasts and crotch, shoving her away “that was me seducing you, it has to be the other way” (paraphrased).

With this experimentation, her closeted life begins to die, her first experimentation is nearly (or was) “caught” by her sleeping mother at her side in a chair..this prompts Nina later when taking out the trash, to grab a wooden club, which, seeing her mother crying over her paintings (more below on paintings), the trick of Darren makes the audience inhale as if she is going to kill her mother..like a droll Hollywood movie would do…running to her room, she experiments with blocking her door.

The next, in a bath tub, Nina once again experiments with herself, diving under water to cover her sounds of pleasure, or just experience this on a different level, when she opens her eyes, an ephigy of a dying swan, young, Snaps her out of the tub in terror a floating “ghost” of her dying fractured life. The fracturing of her perfect world, and the pressure of not / being her mother, comes to mount.

She can’t tell what is real, she wants to be Beth, which to her, is Perfection, and starts slowly cracking under her own façade of a bubble life..

Booze, E and Sex

When she begins experimenting, she starts seeing her lost child die more frequently, older even, a teenage “dying” Swan, or rather, her protracted childhood Dead or fading behind her, scratching out of the pressure.

Random old man kissing / groping himself on a train shows the sexual innocence and “vulnerability” of Nina, as she still is unable to tell, people, No. This prompts her to tell, her mother NO for seeing her back…to see if she is still self-abusing *DING* door bell…Lily at the door.

The experimentation culminates with Lily, apologizing for speaking with Thom about the “pressure” of Nina (which is interpreted by Nina as Lily trying to supplant her, though is only a seed at this point..for now, she is a Black Swan, who can “help” her transform and mimic to Become), invites her for dinner, then a drink.

With her psychotic mom nipping at her, and Lily’s realistic reaction to such a thing “holy, what the..really?” Nina runs out, cracking her former life in two choosing this path of the Black Swan.

Drinking, men, flirting, ecstasy, from drinks, to drinks with Tom and Jerry, to a club of sounds, house music and making out in the bathroom with man..she “wakes” up, stumbles outside, and finds Lily, getting into a cab..Lily seduces Nina to a degree with crawling her fingers, up, onto her thigh, down, into her groin (theme)..Nina pushes her hand away..stumbling in drunk to her house, giggling, defying her mother even more “oh yes, Tom and Jerry I FUCKED both of them! Drinking!!!!” running with Lily to her bedroom, blocking her door to her mother with the club “THIS IS HOUSE PRIVACY.”

Locking eyes with the devlish, Black Swan, which she needs and wants to be, Needs to be, she dives into Lily, kissing, grabbing, the tearing of cloths, but Lily is the dominant one, the dark one, taking control, licking her thighs, making Nina moan. Lily looks up, and Shifts into Beth, in another terror moment of Becoming..calmed by Lily, she begins again, and instead of seeing Beth, Nina see’s the back tattoo’s of Lily, in wings, undulating, as if transforming, which swarms INTO Nina, into her body, a transference of Swan.

Lily As Enemy

Sleeping through her normal early schedule, Nina is late, frantically looking around, the “club” is not sealed on the door, her mother would not wake her, allowing her the consequences (or scared that her daughter has truly, surpassed her in her “career” she feels so strongly in despair of loss), Lily is not there.

Lily is in fact, stepping in, for rehearsal, for Nina as the Swan..Nina realizes upon confrontation, she left the club alone, after “waking” up from the club sounds and noises and making out with a man in the bathroom, and Never went home with Lily, Never slept with her “you had a wet dream about me? WAS I ANY GOOD! *laughing*

When she had arrived home with Lily, her mother never made a motion nor mention towards her, as she would have in her controlling ways. Nina’s psychosis plays the role of wishing to Be and be With the Black Swan..

Death of Child, Mother and Painting

Nina in rage destroys her “childhood” idealic strange bubbled room and life, where her mother changes her out of her cloths, tucks her to bed, monitors her in the bathroom, sets up a music box, CRASHED to the ground, all of her dolls, silly pink blankets and “Princess” items are shoved disgusted into the trash shoot.

Very close to the beginning of the movie, the creepy, strange pictures of sorrow and loss that her mother paints, Crying (always, she cries when painting), actually shifts its eyes to Nina as she passes when seeking her mother..the first indication of the movie that confuses some audiences (Supernatural? Ghosts? No, its her sanity).

Her mother, in a conversation, tells Nina her perspective, that she gave up her career to Have Nina, to give birth..”You didn’t have a career” retors Nina, spiking the intensity of Crazy mom, “you were 28” Nina further defying her mother and forcing her mother to confront the possibility that she had NO career, and Nina, her daughter, The Swan, supplanted HER.

The mother, with her crazy pressure, paints horrible depressing, screaming visages, subconscious representations of the mom’s own bitterness at her having to “fold” her career.

Dying Swan

Nina finds that Lily is in fact the Alternate, more chemistry, seeing eyes with Thom, with her partner “Gentlemen,” begins to crack her…begs Thom to not let it “be her.” Thom, implants the (correct) idea, that “this is your moment [Nina]” and, to “get some sleep” for the big day, he is supportive.

Rehearsing too late with the pianist, sweating, trying to get the moves, self-abusing herself through over-exertion, the pianist leaves and the lights go down…flashes and flickers of the Dark antagonist sweeps into vision, she see’s, hearing noises, Lily, the Black Swan fucking Thom, further cementing her own role as the Swan Queen, Thom turns to Nina, see’s her, and morphs into her initial dream of the Dark antagonist (or, “evil sorcerer for the “Swan Princess”) while having sex with Lily..

Supplant

Nina, supplanted Beth, the original Swan, and her mother, the past-futile and furtive Swan, and is now being hunted, by Lily, for her Moment as the Swan..

She became, Nina the Swan Queen, that which she wanted, taking over Beth’s glory, then saw herself as guilty, s Lily, trying to steal her own Glory, Nina had in fact taken Beth. Trying to “make amends” to Beth by returning her things, feeling like she was a fraud, because to her, Lily was a fraud.

In a hospital, Beth is a wreck of insanity…Nina see’s Beth stab herself with the nail file..fleeing, smashing the elevator keys to escape the Beth who tells her “Perfect? I am…NOTHING…NOTHING” Stabbing her face, repeatedly, DROPS the file, as if she herself, had stabbed her…I believe she did, in fact stab Beth, as she did not stab herself.

Home and Death

Walking, darkness, into the kitchen, “mom?” flicking a light, seeing nothing, wipes the blood from her arm…”such a pretty girl” creeps into her ears, a haunting teen/child like voice. Running, Nina turns back on the light, STANDING in the kitchen is another Dead Swan, older, a Child Swan, always within white, a terrible ethereal corpse…Nina runs, passing the picture room of her mother, the pictures all begin animating, chatting screaming the frustration, pain “NEVER GOOD ENOUGH” the insanity of her mother, tearing the pictures, shoving past her mother and blocks the door from screams of “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”…breaking or hurting her mothers hand and she tries to force herself in, once, TWICE, crushing her hand with the door..

Nina stairs in the mirror, her back undulates, sprouts of blackness protrude, she pulls a black feather from her back, Transfroming and becoming, her legs bend, snapping backwards into a birds, and she smashes her head into a corner post, falling..fading away..

Waking

She wakes to her mother..her mother called the studio, cancelling Nina’s performance for “not feeling well” …Nina has mittens on her hands, as she was scratching her back all night..her mother refuses her to leave “until she gets better,” this is NINA’S MOMENT! She crushes her moms hurt hand in her own, finding the hidden door knog and escapes forever from her past life and dungeon of Princessness.

White Swan

She runs to the theater…Thom is concerned, knowing something is not quite “right” about her, her demeanor, etc.), Lily is irate (this is probably not real, though I think it is, as Lily would have been “psyching” herself up for the main performance, not to be relegated last minute)..Nina, once more, becoming more and more Dark, tells Thom, intensely, that she will do it.

Her toes stick, they hurt as she puts on her shoes…her toes, they are welded on the left side…becoming…she moves on.

With the White Swan, she is fantastic. During a break, see’s Lily groping The Gentlemen, her Partner for the act (real or imagined? Probably imagined..mid-performance of a high-stress environment? All the set techs? Who knows)..she cries, with the other Little Swans trying to console her..

Second session as White Swan, the crowd, Lily and the Gentlemen, her being seduced by the Gentlemen, it mesmerizes her, all the other Swans (the Little Swans from IMDB) jealous little bitches (note the change from above), trying to get HER moment, stare at her with vitriol, she miscalculates her weight, and the Gentlemen DROPS her to her knee..”what the Fuck?”

Nina cry’s foul, telling Thom “HE DROPPED ME!”

On this dropping, Lily is in her room..changing, to be the Black Swan “Thom is concerned you cannot go on to the next set…” a fight, “MY MOMENT” they struggle, Nina throws Lily into glass, taking her to the ground, Lily fights back, choking Nina, winning, winning…Nina changes, Eyes glow Red, she gets monstrous, her neck extends, shocking Lily enough for Nina to grab a shard of glass and stab Lily, into the guts, the lower ribs, breaking off a sliver of glass…Lily’s light fades from her eyes..and dies.

Nina drags Lilly into a shower / off-closet room…and, composing herself, dresses for the Black Swan.

She has Become.

Black Swan

The performance is amazing..perfection, her eyes glow red, the seductress, feathers begin sprouting from her arms, enhancing the lustressness of the dance, pushing and pulling the audience (of the theater) in and out of reality, dashing off stage to smash Thom is the lips, Becoming the Seducer, she finishes the performance with full regalia of wings to a roar of ovation..off stage, she is fuming with sexuality, puffing, moaning to herself with the prowess of a Pride Lioness, stalking back to her room, to finish the performance, as the White Swawn…

The door knocks..Lily congratulates her…world, comes crashing down, the psyche cracks, she never killed Lily, Lily: “Despite our past troubles, you did really, really well” (paraphrased)…the closet is empty, she had stabbed herself, removes the shard of glass..Thom had told her earlier “the only person standing in your way, is you”..composes herself, and becomes the White Swan. In attaining her own “perfection” in relation to Beth, she had finally cultivated her own level of self destruction to become the Black Swan, the needed variables for a perfect, Swan Queen.

Swan Queen: Final Act

Once again, vulnerable, feeling the pressure, the perfect White Swan, she is brilliant, dashing back and forth between the Sorcerer and Gentlemen, she runs to the top of the stairs, finalizing the Arc with a sorrowful gaze to the Sorcerer…to the Gentlemen..to the crowd, but mostly to the Queen Swan, her Mother, holding her eyes, holding them, her mother knows, knows something is wrong..and dives, dives to her spot..

Dead.

“Perfect” the dying words, with Thom, asking, screaming “What did you do…What did you DO!”

Fade out to brilliant white… I don’t understand if the Star constellation were meant as symbolic, superimposed (subtly) over the bright white screen, right before “Directed by Darren Aronofski.” I am sure they were meant to be (or maybe it was the low-budget theater )

Perfection.

TL;DR

The movie is a play about Nina, her own attainment and death, her own POV, which we never, NEVER see, from the other characters. This is Nina, AS the Swan Queen, dying. Her psyche immediately starts cracking with even the Potential of becoming the coveted Swan Queen, seeing pictures move, and eventually, herself or “old self” as ghostly images of white-gowned young girls during times of moving further and further away from her old life.

Freud (Wikipedia): fits within the context of Nina..mostly sexually repressed, we actually never know if she in fact is a virgin, had boyfriends, and has many defenses against the opposing sex and sexual interaction. She has problems with boundaries, assertiveness, and is coddled immensely by her overprotective (and probably over-pressuring) mother to succeed and be cloistered.

The genital stage in psychology is the term used by Sigmund Freud to describe the final stage of human psychosexual development. This stage begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened. Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure of the genitals.^[1] The less energy the child has left invested in unresolved psychosexual developments, the greater his capacity will be to develop normal relationships with the opposite sex. If, however, he remains fixated, particularly on the phallic stage, his development will be troubled as he struggles with further repression and defenses.^[2]

Bolded, only due to the majority of the sexuality in the movie, in relation to Nina (discounting her “seeing” Thom and Lily), relates to the genitals. In fact, recall Lily was “seen” by Nina during the final performance groping the genitals of The Gentlemen.

1) Thom grabs her to prove a point of “you need to seduce me, as the Black Swan”

2) Nina pleases herself twice (with repercussions of her mother potentially catching her, and seeing dying Swans / her old self

3) Lily gropes her in the cab (false memory / reality)

4) Lily gropes the Gentlemen

Other themes / Tid Bits

I am not surprised it has not been a Box Office Smash, despite raving reviews of “intelligent” critics who enjoy movies, as this is a SLOW BURN movie. I noted that during ~30 minutes into the movie, I thought, most of this audience is now shifting and thinking..what is so amazing about this movie? It is slow exposition, very subtle fracturing of Nina’s mind, and it is HER POV we are always in, always following, Never into the mind or “eyes” of Lily, or Thom, hence Nina’s play, and her movie are drawn out before us, her final performance and ultimate death.

8.9/10 on IMDB 12/21/10

Rotten Tomato’s (which I normally can gauge my own response) 88%.

Far off from its brilliance, I’d say it’s hard to argue against a 9/9.5/10, unless you just can’t enjoy the brilliance of its “slow burn buildup”

Not surprised Vincent Cassel was also a character (Marcus, the main boyfriend) within Irreversible, the same, only movie I can think of that at the end, leaves you in such a state of Shock and/or Awe (to many, laughing off the uncomfortableness).

Other crap I didn’t include above or need to do later upon further viewing / gaining a DVD when available.

“Pretty girl” ghost at the end, is her? In white, again the Child that she has been Dying under the pressure of coming out of her very, very protective bubble of sexuality and pressure cooker of Ballet.

At some point, I don’t remember the exact When, Nina runs off stage as the White Queen crying, consoled by the Little Swans.

Also, Nina visited Beth earlier in the hospital, saw her legs were all sorts of fucked up..symbolic.

Blabbering: The only person in your way, is you. Stab / kill murder Lily. When she fights with Lily, Lily seems to be winning with the choke, until Nina “turns” slightly into the Black Swan elongating her neck, stopping Lily with shock to allow Nina to kill Lily..her last protective layer of psyche’s protection, gone, self destruction and “perfection,” as was her dying words (or was it “perfect”?) supports.

Different variations of the “ghost” or Dying swan (IMDB is Little Swan [EDIT: this is incorrect, though she SEE’s dying swans, as I call them, these are in fact, via IMDB the “characters” in the Actual “play” that IS the movie for Nina, Nina’s Swan Song, Nina as the Swan Queen, failure here]) is different ages of her character dying, or her mind fracturing being so enclosed within being that little Princess, to her Mom, and Eventually Thom. Edit 2: the “ghosts” are fractures of the psyche, either her dying self, or, the “Black Swan” doppleganger as nicely pointed out in the comment below. On further watch, I believe this to be correct.

Will update this as second third viewing / grammar / etc comes into play

Edit: Neglected the Mirror theme (maybe its so common in movies, I did not note its importance, however, the scene placement and WHAT she saw, definitely, Is).