Black Swan: A Tale of Duality

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2011)

The film, Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky follows the life of the character, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman). At first Nina is depicted as a woman who is very fragile as well as reluctant to believe in herself. Nina is a ballerina who wins the lead role in the production of Swan Lake. But as the film progresses, she losses her mind and slowly evolves into the evil twin sister of the white swan, the black swan. A character such as Nina would not be complete without her fair share of flaws. There is quite an extensive list. Having a mother such as Erica Sayers (Barbara Hershey), it is assumed that Nina was forced into becoming a ballerina at a young age. Erica was not able to have her moment to shine as a ballerina so she is living out her dreams through her daughter. Given this fact, it is not surprising that Nina has obsessive compulsive disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, an innate desire to mutilate herself, and split personality disorder.
Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the role of the white swan perfectly, but the new dancer as well as the competition in the New York dancing troupe Lily (Mila Kunis) embodies the black swan's persona. As the film progresses, these two commence their bitter rivalry as well as a warped friendship.
The further the training for the production continues, the further Nina sinks into madness. She starts having these delusions in which she envisions herself in these situations where she would not normally treed. Whether it from embracing her sexuality when she has the delusion of her and lily making love or when she kills of f her white swan persona to pave the way for her black swan counterpart these methods of characterization are just one of the elements pertinent to this film. However, symbolism, acting, soundtrack, and theme play a large role as well. As mentioned before, theme is one of the key elements that attribute to this film's success.
There are many themes present throughout this film; however, the theme that I would like to center my attention towards would be the one of duality. For being a film that pays homage to the story of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I found that this theme was the most important.
Instead of having the option to consume a strange elixir, Nina has to choice to succumb to her dark desires. Even though she perceives herself as this embodiment of perfection, sub –conscience desires something more. When Nina is not picked right away for the role of the white swan, she confronts the director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) to plead her case. Once she does this, Thomas forces himself on Nina. When this transpires, her sub-conscience breaks through and bites Thomas lip. By doing this act Thomas reconsiders his decision and picks Nina as the lead. Later on in the film, when the production of Swan Lake is playing, Nina most act fast for her moment to shine as the black swan is arriving shortly. AS she is overcome with anxiety and fear she has a delusion of her stabbing Lily for fear that she may take her place as the alternate. Right before Nina does this though, Lily's says that Nina should take a break and that it is her turn. Once she does this, Nina's eyes turn bloodshot and she stabs Kunis while exclaiming, "No, it's my turn!" Once this whole sequence of events transpires, Nina goes out and performs here role as the black swan; however this time she does not miss a beat. Right before she goes onto the stage her transformation into the black swan starts to progress further. Wings and weather begin to protrude out of her body. Towards the end of her dance as the black swan she completely losses herself to her evil counterpart and rushes over to the side of the stage and gives Thomas a passionate kiss.
After this, she goes back into her dressing room to prepare herself to go onto stage as the black swan. Concerned about the body of Lily she goes and checks on it and is shocked to find that it is nowhere to be found. She sits back down and realizes that what she stabbed was not Kunis but rather herself. Overcome with emotion, Portman begins to cry. But she comes to the realization that the show must go on, she must complete her performance. The story of Swan Lake ends with the white swan committing suicide so one can only surmise what is going to happen next. With tears running down Nina's face and a fatal wound slowly taking her life away, Portman jumps of the ledge and plunges to her death with the a rain of applause following her. Thomas then rushes to her side ignorant of the fact that Nina is slowly dying and exclaims, "You were perfect!" Overcome with relief Nina whispers, "I faked itI was perfect..." After these last words, Portman looks up to the stage lights and drifts off to her death.