English 131. Artistic Perfection in the Face of Good and Evil. Black Swam Reflection

English 131
Jan 27 2020
Artistic Perfection in the Face of Good and Evil
“Black Swan” is a 2010 film that was directed by Darren Aronofsky. The main character in the psychological horror movie is Natalie Portman, who plays Nina Sayers and Mila Kunis, who plays Lily. Other characters include Vincent Cassel (Thomas), Winona Ryder (Beth), and Barbara Hershey (Nina’s mother). The film focuses on a young ballerina who is sexually naïve, vulnerable, beautiful, and also susceptible to mental sickness. Mr. Aronofsky’s skill provides a metaphorical and magical play of good versus evil as the characters Nina and Lily portray some of the issues that the protagonist has to encounter to attain artistic perfection.
The film revolves around the 20-year-old Nina, who is a ballerina. She undergoes many challenges even though she is very passionate about dancing, which impacts all aspects of her life. In the film, the company’s artistic director, Thomas Leroy, decides to change the prima ballerina, and Nina is selected. She also faces competition from Lily. Nina personifies the White Swan while Lily is used in depicting the Black Swan. The two dancers develop an intense rivalry that results in a complicated relationship, and in the process, Nina’s dark side begins to emerge. She begins to have hallucinations, and negative thoughts about Lily, especially after Thomas makes Lily her replacement. On opening night of the performance, Nina gets a hallucination whereby she believes that she has stabbed Lily after a fight with a shard of glass. In reality, she stabbed herself, but still, she participates in the final act. She passes out right after the performance, and the film ends.
“Black Swan” is a complex movie whose badness makes it even more appealing. Focusing on a lonely protagonist while keeping the camera close to her, the film suggests a certain amount of claustrophobia and paranoia. The central theme is that perfection has to be achieved at any cost, and the tug of war between good versus evil. Nina stays with her mother, who takes care of her obsessively. Beth also enhances the film's ante of tension and paranoia and also influences Nina’s worsening mental condition. Nina is self-destructive and mutilates herself to release emptiness, fear, and pain. She is infantilized by her mother, who coaches her relentlessly as a means of channeling her disappointment and rage after she was forced to stop her ballet career after becoming pregnant with Nina. During the entire film, her mother continually violates her boundaries. Nina’s relationship with her mother can be described as codependent, and this has made it harder for her to establish a clear boundary. For instance, in one scene, her mother forcefully strips Nina’s clothes off to check if she was scratching her back, and from her actions, it is clear that this is something she often does. Her mother symbolically represents an egg since a scene depicts her sitting on a green egg-shaped chai that is located in Nina’s room. She watches her sleep and always reminds Nina that she is the reason for her failed career. Nina if affected by the pressure from her mother and develops the phycological or menta...