The Pain of Transformation essay
Black Swan is a psychological thriller with the twisted plot and the bright performance. Directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2010, this movie has provoked a lot of discussions among critics. Natalie Portman, who plays a young and talented ballerina dancing in a prestigious New York City company, creates an illusory and frightening reality and invites the audience to share this reality with her. The plot is complex and twisted. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) gets the lead role in Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet Swan Lake. This role becomes a hard ordeal for her. Her perfect dancing technique turns to be not sufficient for ideal performance and Nina has to pass the long way discovering her dark side. The plot of the movie is an interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet and the main character of the movie has to pass her way from White Swan which symbolizes innocence and purity to Black Swan which reveals her black side and hidden passions.
The name of the movie is very symbolic, because “the black swan” becomes the symbol for everything hidden and suppressed, which Nina has to explore while preparing for the performance. Step by step Nina’s old personality has been ruined and changed by her new self. The process is painful and we can see the collapse of Nina’s personality accompanied by phobias, hysteria and hallucinations. Nina has to leave her innocent world of purity guarded by her suppressive mother and enter the world of passion, love and betray. On her way she meets all possible fears and doubts. She has to leave her old personality in order to gain her new self. This nearly costs her a life, but she succeeds and her last words “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect” prove this.
The movie is shot with hand-held camera which adds it realism. Aronofsky uses this method on purpose in order to create extra tension and make the audience enter his characters’ reality. This reality is twisted and sometimes horrifying but if we make all the way together with the characters we may feel that liberation and perfection felt by Nina in her final dance.
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