Black Swan-My Perspective

The movie from director Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan is an incredible movie, but is open to interpretation, just ask anyone who has seen it, and they may very well give you a totally different version of the movie. The reason for this is that this movie almost looks like a dream from the perspective of the audience, considering all the scenes in which the audience is not sure whether or not what they saw actually happened, or whether it was in the mind of the protagonist, played by Natalie Portman.

The plot of the movie concerns the lead ballerina in a production of Swan Lake, played by Natalie. She is up for the dual role of the white swan and black swan. The role is a life long dream for Natalie’s character Nina Sayers, and she works hard to become picked to be the swan queen. Wynona Rider plays a small part as the over the hill ballerina who is being replaced by Portman and isn’t too happy about it, as the life of a ballerina in her prime is a very short lived gig apparently.

The ballet director chooses Portman for the role, and is sure that she will have no problems playing the white swan, but it is obvious that he isn’t completely sure that she will have what it takes to become the darker counterpart that the black swan role calls for. This part of the ballet calls for more of a passionate, secure, dancer and he is trying to bring out those characteristics in Nina’s character.

During the auditions, the life of the ballerina is very accurately portrayed and one gets the sense that Natalie Portman really fit’s the role of the ballerina brilliantly with her beautiful petite figure, and she has really great form as she practiced for this role for about 6 months, according to one of her interviews about this movie, she also lost about 20 pounds. Mila Kunis is another dancer who also wants the lead role but is cast as the understudy to Portman and that’s when the most of the drama starts, or the hallucinations start, however you want to think of it. Nina (Portman) is very aware that Lily who is played by Kunis is more secure about her sexuality and secure about her abilities as a dancer.

Nina is very stressed out about her role as the swan queen and wants to play it perfectly and this has her so frazzled that she starts to see odd things at every turn, she is plagued by weird odd visions. And at one point thinks that Lily is trying to steal the role from her. She also has an overbearing mother played by Barbara Hershey, who is also a has been dancer who never quite reached her potential as a dancer, and who is obviously living vicariously through her daughter Nina. One wonders why Nina gives her mother so much control over her life, because at her age she is still living at home with her mother and it is obvious that her mother has issues, as in one scene she has a cake for Nina and when Nina doesn't want to eat it, she freaks out and totally over reacts.....very strange.

Nina is so stressed out about her visions, about her role as the swan queen, and about her overbearing mother that she is extremely overwhelmed, and this plays a big part in what happens next. I don’t want to spoil the movie for those that want to see it, so I will not reveal too much more but everyone that I have talked to that have seen the movie has a different interpretation of the film. I guess Aronofsky wants to keep people guessing as he obviously did not fully explain the film in any shape or form. He is leaving it up to the audience to make their own conclusions.

My Interpretation

I personally think that Nina is suffering from some sort of mental illness that makes her see visions and makes her paranoid that stems from the stress that she is under. I think its also kind of weird that you hardly see anyone else talking to Lily, which makes me think that maybe Lily doesn’t even exist. There are some sexual scenes between Lily and Nina that are very explicit but I believe in Nina’s desire to get in touch with her sensuality, she hallucinates the sex between her and Lily. She secretly wants to be like Lily, who is very free spirited and in touch with her sensuality, which Nina obviously isn’t and uses that energy to morph herself into becoming the black swan. Which she does play to perfection or does she?

See the movie for yourself and see if your interpretation comes anywhere near mine. There are plenty of other ways that this movie could be explained. I mean just the relationship between Nina and her mother is kind of a weird, overbearing, over controlling type of relationship. I mean Nina is a full grown woman and her mother still dresses her and clips her fingernails, I think their relationship could be explained better in the movie and there has to be some kind of weird story there as well. Either way I did enjoy the movie, it was fun trying to analyze the movie and trying to understand it, as some odd things are at every turn throughout the film. Mainly, just watching Natalie Portman dancing as a ballerina was well worth the time because she is very graceful in this film, and really stretches her acting abilities to their limits. She won the Golden Globe for this role, so that usually means she may get nominated for an Academy Award, which I completely agree with. It would be nice if she won the Oscar and then explained the movie, but I doubt that happens.

For its artistic flair and great, creative, bold moves, I highly recommend this movie. But keep in mind that you have to also have an open mind when it comes to this movie, as it is very explicit, with scenes that are very odd and graphic.