Black Swan

                     Original Art by Sydney Barton, Staff Artist

The first time I saw Black Swan, I walked out of the theatre and immediately said to the person I was with, “Again.”

I was ready for another round (or seven) of what would be for me one of the most influential and heartbreakingly beautiful movies of my life. There’s a lot to be said about Black Swan and there are a million different theories about it and while I’ll focus on the normal review-y things, I also want to focus on how and why this film struck such a strong chord with me.

If you’ve somehow managed to not see this movie, a brief summary:

Nina is a ballerina, dedicated to her craft and seeking perfection.  She lives with her mother, has no friends and a multitude of mental issues including eating disordered behavior and self-mutilation.  Upon being cast as both the White AND Black Swan in her company’s production of Swan Lake, Nina starts down a path of madness from which she may be unable to return.

Visually stunning, Black Swan depends a lot on color scheme and repeating visual cues and tricks to wrap up its plotline.  The most obvious is the light vs. dark schematic that is found in everything from costume choices, lighting choices down to characterization.  Nina tends towards whites and pastels while Lily is most often costumed in black.  Scenes with Nina tend towards being more brightly lit (at least in the beginning) and even her room is bright and fluffy; a little girl’s pastel dream (which becomes jarring as her actions become darker).  Lily is characterized as Nina’s polar opposite – wild and free, uninhibited and wildly sexual – she is everything Nina is not and everything Nina wants to be.  The final and most prominent light versus dark is Nina’s battle with herself, both internal and external, between who she is expected to be, who she should be, who she wants to be and who she actually is.  There are several struggles happening here between Nina’s light and dark selves and her dark self isn’t holding back.

This is also where the movie hit the biggest chord with me.  Everyone has a light and dark self (id, ego, and superego, whatever you want to call them) and while a lot of people have no problem being their best selves, I have always had a constant battle with myself.  As a child, I became aware of exactly who I wasn’t and who I wanted to be and discovered a penchant for self-destruction.  I’ve written stories about good self vs. bad self and discussed it in countless therapy sessions.  Nina could’ve been me minus the ballet and the fact that after 20 years, I managed to pull myself back from the brink.  But for the grace of God, go I.

The second biggest visual aid that stood out to me was the use of mirrors and reflection.  Firstly, Nina is constantly looking in the mirror.  One reason is obviously her career as a ballerina, as they dance in front of mirrors quite a bit.  Another reason?  Her eating disorder.  Eating disorders are tricky things and while the underlying manifestations tend to remain the same (i.e., restricting, binging  purging, etc.), other manifestations differ from person to person.  Some people avoid mirrors and scales while others become obsessed and I place Nina in the obsessed category.  What starts as a severely critical perception of her body leads to looking into mirrors as a reassurance that one is still indeed one’s self.  This aspect of eating disorders (further stated simply as “ED”) can be common because the less you eat, the less your brain works and trust me when I say it can start to lead to mild disassociation.  As ED takes over, it can truly start to feel as though one has been possessed which plays into the theory that Black Swan is merely entirely about ED, a cautionary tale.  Personally, I don’t cotton to that theory as I think there’s so much more going on, but it is there.

Also on show here is the use of reflections (as not pertaining necessarily to mirrors, but in windows or art, etc.).  The first time Nina sees Lily is on a subway train but she only catches a glimpse of her reflection in the subway window – she cannot find the girl on the train which leads one to wonder if Lily is really there at all (and as the film progresses not only Nina but ourselves start to wonder if Lily is really there at all).  The moment is unsettling for Nina, which makes it unsettling for the audience as we don’t know why it’s unsettling for Nina.  Another wonderful example of this is when Nina starts to see herself while she’s walking down the street – not just a reflection in a window but her actual self, passing her by.  She does a double take only to realize it’s (obviously) a completely different girl.  The final best example of the use of reflection is in her mother’s art work.  Mommy’s got more than a few mental issues herself (played wonderfully by the amazing Barbara Hershey) and she has paintings and drawings of her “sweet girl” all around the place.  In one amazing scene, Nina is confronted by these images of herself as seen through her mother’s eyes when they come to life on the pages to taunt her.   To say that it’s chilling would be an understatement.  The problem here is that Nina can’t see herself; she can only see how she is represented by others’ views of her.

And speaking of Mommy Dearest, there’s another theory (though perhaps less common than the allegory for ED) that she sexually abused Nina when Nina was a child.  Mommy Dearest babies Nina, strips her naked at points, accuses her of ruining her life and then there’s that one masturbatory scene that actually will make one shudder, not to mention Hershey’s repeated utterances of “my sweet girl”.  Whether that theory is true or not is really left up to the movie viewer but something in that relationship is terribly off which could more than likely be the catalyst for Nina’s issues.

And the last repeating visual cue/ trick that the filmmakers incorporate?  The Black Swan of course.  Nina is perfect for playing the White Swan because she’s uptight, straitlaced and reserved.  But she can’t play the Black Swan because of those same reasons.  Not only do the filmmakers have her go through a transformation of the mind but they have her go through a physical transformation that leads to her literally becoming a black swan.  While we know that this is all in her mind, the images that are portrayed are disturbing.  Nina starts finding feathers sprouting out of her shoulders and starts pulling them out (scratching, i.e. self-harm).  In one incredible scene, her body physically morphs as her legs turn into swan legs (physical representation of the bodily damage of ED?).  Finally, by the end, Nina is alone on the stage completely covered in feathers and having sprouted wings giving the performance of her life.

I really could go on and on and on about all the amazing layers of this movie but I’ll leave it at this and simply say that I adore this movie and what it represents.  I think it’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking that can be characterized as either psychological thriller or horror.  And dear lord, don’t EVEN get me started on Winona Ryder.  That woman stole my heart when I was a tween and her performance here was beyond phenomenal.  I miss Winona…

by Misty Layne

Artwork by Sydney Barton