Duality and Opposites

The visual symbolism in this movie has to do with duality and opposites.  The black swan is the opposite of the white swan in every way.  The black swan is dark and seductive which is epitomized by the character Lily while the white swan is light and innocent.  

Throughout the movie, in most scenes black and white are the primary colors that are used.  This is maybe the most used visual symbolism in the movie.  Obviously black represents darkness and evil while white symbolizes innocence and goodness.  This symbolism is present throughout the movie and shown in many ways.  For instance, the dark, seductive character Lily wears black eyeliner and black clothes to convey her darkness and sexuality.  She is characterized as the black swan in the movie while Nina is the white swan.  During the scene where Nina is auditioning for the swan queen role, she is dressed in all while when she is interrupted abruptly by Lily who is dressed in all black.  Another example of this is during the scene when the director introduces Nina as the swan queen.  Everyone is dressed in black and white.  All the men are dressed in black and white tuxedos and all the women are in either black or white dresses.  This is also the first scene that Lily (the black swan) confronts Nina.   

In many scenes there are mirrors in the room.  The reflections show reflections which are metaphors for duality.  During the first scene that introduces the director of the ballet, he asks, “Which of you can embody both swans? – the white and the black.”  At the end of his question the shot changes to show his face reflected in two mirrors.  His face is literally spilt down the middle to show the two copies.  This shot is a very hard to miss metaphor of two personalities in one.  In addition, during the scene when the director seduces Nina during her rehearsal there are mirrors everywhere and there is a lot of grey in the scene which symbolizes the mixing of black and white. – This scene also coincides with the beginning of Nina’s splitting into both the black swan and white swan. 

Horror and Duality in Black Swan (#10)

It has been a while since I saw Black Swan, but before I get the time to watch it again, I’m jogging my memory with the film’s trailer. The trailer makes one thing clear, this isn’t a fluffy, nice movie about the ballet, it is an intense psychological thriller. I think that immediate contrast of expectations is what makes the film so powerful. It would be easier and much less memorable to make a thrilling, gruesome war film or action flick, than it is to take a subject as light as ballerinas and Swan Lake.

Natalie Portman’s character Nina is set up as the innocent, pink-wearing angel who is caught up and put into conflict between a number of surrounding forces including her controlling mother, her abusive and demanding ballet instructor, and Lily, her competition for the lead role. Lily is set up as Nina’s exact opposite, the yin to her yang, and the dualistic friendship and competition between the two is a central force in the film. Nina finds further inner conflict when she starts questioning the world her mother has been raising her in, when Lily and her instructor push her toward a darker side of her role and her life.

The most powerful element is how these inner and external struggles are paralleled by Nina’s struggle between Princess Odette (White Swan) and Odile (Black Swan). In true thespian style Nina is pushed to become her role, but that role  takes over her life, as well as her reality.

Visually, the film is polarized with a contrasty color sceme of black and white. These values are traditionally tied to symbols of good and evil, especialy in old cinema. Even the trailer and the movie poster show a sharp black and white emphasis that makes Director Aronofsky’s vision all the more stark and intense.

I Just Want to Be Perfect (Blog Entry 10)

I defiantly noticed a lot more visual elements after watching Black Swan for the second time. Throughout the movie there is very little use of any color. The clothing that the actors wear is all neutrals, blacks, or whites. The only time I really saw dramatic color was the lipstick that Nina stole from Beth’s dressing room, or blood. There is also really dramatic lighting throughout the film, which I noticed it mostly in the very beginning. Nina was having a dream that she was the swan queen and the lighting was casting dramatic shadows on her face.

I also noticed that Nina’s character is portrayed as a little girl.  Her bedroom is decorated with pink butterfly wallpaper, stuffed animals, pink bed sheets and she has a ballerina music box that she plays at night, all showing her innocence. Nina is also seen as “mommies little girl” in how her mother helps her get dressed and tucks her in at night. I noticed that Nina’s bedroom does not have a lock on the door, she has to put a wooden rod in the way to prevent her mother from coming in and to get any privacy.

Nina always appears very nervous. Her personality is described as frigid and uptight. The viewer can see this in Nina’s facial features and how she is obsessed as becoming perfect. Any comment that is said to her in a mean tone, she takes it really personal and becomes very emotional. She practices her dance moves excessively, trying to make every move to be perfection. This obsessive personality defiantly gives a view into Nina’s crazy side. There are subtle hints, such as that she sees her face in other people, which reveals her madness.

Chasing Perfection and a Crazy Ballerina

Black Swan is about the dark world of ballerinas: the harsh training, the strenuous physical strain, and the struggle to keep form. It was high up on a lot of lists of awards, so it must have been good. The one image that comes to mind is the main poster shot of one ballerina standing in intense pose in the shadows onstage. With the dark poster, the dark title, and the little I know about the movie, I expect the movie to have a lot of dark scenes. I expect the shadows and the shading to always be obscure. Looking up the movie cover, which was actually differs for what I thought, there is a white faced ballerina in a tiara.  The woman has an evil, witch like look to her, and adds to my dark expectations. The pale-faced woman stands in scary contrast to the dark background of the stage behind her. Another movie poster that I see is more of a drawing, and not an actual scene from the movie. On the poster there is the white outline of a woman’s face, covered by a black swan with a red beak.  The whole poster, with the title also in red, has an eerie, ominous feel to it. There are white feathers floating around the background, implying the death or struggle of the swan.  The swan and the woman are superimposed together, so we are left thinking that the woman is the swan and that the outcome will not be good.  Knowing what I know about performances like this, the stress and constant belief that perfection is required can drive a person crazy and send them to dark places. I believe this movie will follow the struggle of this ballerina in this dark place.

A Black and White Split (10)

 

“The only thing holding you back is yourself,” said by artistic director Thomas Leroy to Nina Sayers in the dressing room prior to going on stage to perform Black Swan for the first time, and is a quote that can potentially sum up the film Black Swan. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan is a psychological thriller that has the viewer thrown for loops multiple times while getting to know the character Nina Sayers, the main role in the ballet. Good and evil, represented through the colors black and white, is a consistent pattern displayed through the set and costume design, and can be seen through the psychological stages Nina Sayers is working through while achieving the role of Black Swan in the ballet.

From early on, the viewer is informed of the background story of Swan Lake that will be performed later. A girl is stuck in the body of a white swan and only true loves kiss from a prince will break the spell. The evil sister, the black swan, seduces the prince and the white swan commits suicide to set herself free. One dancer in the ballet plays these characters and both characters must be embodied. When the viewer is informed of the part being played by one dancer, told by artistic director Thomas Leroy, a close-up shot of his face through a separated mirror splits his head into two, indicating a two-part role. This two-part role must embrace the spirit of good and evil, good shown with white details in set and costume design, and evil in black.

Fierce competition for the main role creates tension and rivalry between the ballerinas, and can be shown through the use of black and white. While Nina is trying out for role as the Swan, Lily wearing all black interrupts walking through the doors and Nina loses focus. None the less, Nina wearing usually white, is picked first to be the main role for the Swan but Leroy wants to bring out her darker side and use it for her counterpart character the black swan. Slowly through out the movie, tones shift from white to black in a complete incarnation of the Black Swan. Outward gazes through the subway trains windows only emit a dark reflection of Nina and her transformation. Nina’s clothing begins to change from white to gray as Lily tries to sabotage Nina for the role taking her out clubbing and drugging her. After rebelling against her obsessive mother, Nina begins to wear black and personifies the role of Black Swan.

Things start to get really shocking when black feathers begin to poke out of Nina’s scratches on her back and her legs crumble into birds legs. Blood shot eyes water as she screams at her mother to not come into her room. After waking up, from what seems to be a nightmare of some sort, Nina storms out late for her show. White powder covers the White Swans face representing innocence and grace, while dark black eyeliner covers the eyes of the Black Swan representing guile and sensuality. After literally embodying both parts perfectly of the Black and White Swan during the performance, Nina ultimately kills herself from psychologically acting and living as the characters in struggle.