Black Swan is not my favorite film, because for as long as I live, I doubt I'll ever grant any movie my "favorite." But it definitely moved me. Natalie Portman was made for Black Swan and Black Swan was made for Natalie Portman. I've always adored the actress for the roles that she chose. But she was particularly exquisite and captured the full transition of a young, innocent girl into a volatile seductress. There are many conflicts in the film; the most driving one of them would arguably be the psychological one within Nina (Natalie Portman) herself, who is constantly trying to borne the character of the black swan while simultaneously resisting it. Everything within her system of dance, home, personality, sexuality (or lack thereof), crashes as the black swan character slowly emerges. And this coexistence of the yin and yang, the white and the black, creates a slow but effective progression into perfection.
This bearing of a second character, the black swan persona, emphasizes a growing of age as a girl transforms into a woman most definitively in terms of sexuality. The girl symbolizing the youth and chastity of the white swan, while the femme fatal, destructive and agile in nature, represents the black swan. The moment by which the black swan begins to form is in the metro when the elderly man spots and stares at Nina, dressed rather modestly embodying innocence and vulnerability in its purest form. He views her prematurity as the object of his sexual appetite and begins to excitedly masturbate in public. It is this defining moment that traces of her sexuality begin to emerge and Nina commences her struggle to fight and suppress her inner sexuality, or what she finds so taboo in the system and lifestyle to which she is accustomed. However, Nina's constant pursuit of perfection, which is defined by her ability to embody both persona of the white swan and black swan, urges for and necessitates an outbreak of her sexually in-tune femme fatal character. Hence, the coexistence that transcends from the volatile forces of white trying to suppress the black while ironically pushing for its emergence that perfection is achieved-- a balanced coexistence of the white swan and the black swan, representative of coveted role, or in Nina's case, a destructive role, of "Swan Queen."
This bearing of a second character, the black swan persona, emphasizes a growing of age as a girl transforms into a woman most definitively in terms of sexuality. The girl symbolizing the youth and chastity of the white swan, while the femme fatal, destructive and agile in nature, represents the black swan. The moment by which the black swan begins to form is in the metro when the elderly man spots and stares at Nina, dressed rather modestly embodying innocence and vulnerability in its purest form. He views her prematurity as the object of his sexual appetite and begins to excitedly masturbate in public. It is this defining moment that traces of her sexuality begin to emerge and Nina commences her struggle to fight and suppress her inner sexuality, or what she finds so taboo in the system and lifestyle to which she is accustomed. However, Nina's constant pursuit of perfection, which is defined by her ability to embody both persona of the white swan and black swan, urges for and necessitates an outbreak of her sexually in-tune femme fatal character. Hence, the coexistence that transcends from the volatile forces of white trying to suppress the black while ironically pushing for its emergence that perfection is achieved-- a balanced coexistence of the white swan and the black swan, representative of coveted role, or in Nina's case, a destructive role, of "Swan Queen."
There are so many supporting roles that I've truly appreciated as well, roles that played a pivotal force in threatening or supporting Nina's struggles to reach perfection. One of those: Nina's mother. She truly captivates the creepy, obsessive, mother of southern hospitality (this I assumed because of the way she calls Nina "sweet child" and her long drawls.) Her obsession in trying to keep her daughter in the sanctuary of innocence and youth is driven by her jealousy and fear in Nina's potential. She lives vicariously through her daughter who represents her; a small difference to note is that her daughter happens to be far more achieved. Nina's mother, too, represents a duality in her role in relation to Nina's struggle for perfection. On one hand, she is threatening, as she tries to keep her as "white swan" as she can be-- controlled, fearful, and weak, never exposing her to anything otherwise. She supports the suppression that Nina fights within herself. However, on the other hand, she fosters an environment perfect for awakening of Nina's extreme opposite. It is important to note that if her mother had not raised Nina in the way that she had, or in secure, purity box, Nina couldn't have reemerged as a libertine fit for the role of the black swan. By living most of her life contained in one extreme, she is able to develop the other end's extreme; the answer to which sex, seduction, and anarchy can play such a clashing impact lies on merely the environment that her mother had created for her, an ideal haven of immaculate celibacy where a hint of sex can significantly make an impact. Hence, in retrospect, her mother also embodies a supporting and a necessary factor to her achievement of perfection.
Though it is a psychological thriller of a girl going "crazy," it is also her success story, a story that reminds us of the rather detrimental cost of success.
