I had avoided any sort of press release, critiques or social banter surrounding Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and wanted to limit my expectations following his highly acclaimed film The Wrestler.
Wow…… is one way of describing it, the next creepy… and finally was that really Winona Ryder.
Aronofsky creates an uncomfortable atmosphere through a behind the scenes look into the world of a Ballerina. Through the use of camera angles much like The Wrestler (2008), initially hand held, he makes the whole experience a gritty rendition as his camera stalk’s both Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) and Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman). Both films create a physical and emotional effect with their use of uncomfortable close ups and bodily sound effects. As for one suffering for their art, Portman herself sustained a rib injury during the filming which works as an underlining metaphor to her character Nina. Portman is treated in a particular scene, inviting the audience to experience the uncomfortable pushes and pokes of a real physician as we develop an understanding of the their physical side effects.
Black Swan follows Nina’s home life with her mum Erica Sayers (Barbara Hershey) also, once a ballerina. Building on its narrative with tension through Erica’s strict, and rather creepy parenting, is done accordingly after we witness that Nina is still being tucked into bed . The cinematography captures her imprisonment through narrow shots, creating a claustrophobic mise-en-scène with fluffy toys and ballerina memorabilia. Their home is painted in sickly pink tones and resembles a place of innocence, but the narrative provokes uncertainty as it begins to focus on the physiological effects this world has on Nina. Outside of this, the film follows Nina at a New York Ballet academy auditioning for the school’s production of Swan Lake where the lead is required to have both the innocence of the White Swan and the sensuality of the Black Swan.
The narrative continues to explore Nina’s personality from a physical and physiological point of view when her director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassell) only sees Nina as the White Swan and instead her understudy Lily (Mila Kunis) as the Black Swan, the atmosphere of the film then becomes heavily built upon Nina’s personality. Not knowing if you feel sorry or unsure of Nina’s motivation is almost structured through episodic and clever use of cinematography; fairy floss innocence contrasted with a disciplined ballet institution which uses darker tones adding to the stages of becoming the Black Swan.
The constant use of mirrors add to its psychological depth, perhaps playing on psychoanalytical theorist Jacques Lacan’s notion of the ‘mirror stage’, a fundamental stage which involves a dual relationship between the real and the imaginary. This could be seen to be explored in Nina’s process of becoming the Black Swan. Leaving emotional uncertainly in the viewer as we piece together the reality, which is without doubt, that Nina suffered greatly for her art.
As for the character Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder), although she makes brief appearances, they are just enough to enhance the dual layers of the narrative and make you reevaluate much during the final stages of this surreal masterpiece.
