What makes Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan remarkable is that it is a mix of the best elements from his four previous movies: the complexity in Pi, the gore and horror in Requiem for a Dream, the perplexity in The Fountain, and the emotional rawness in The Wrestler. And with all those elements combined, Aronofsky has come up with what can perhaps be considered his best movie to date.
In Black Swan, Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) wins the coveted role of the Swan Queen in a production of Swan Lake by a prestigious ballet company in New York. Required of the Swan Queen role are both the exquisiteness of the White Swan and the dark sensuality of the Black Swan. However, Nina is much too exquisite, that while she is perfect as the White Swan, she has trouble transforming into the Black Swan. In comes Lily (Mila Kunis), who seems threatening enough to take away the role because of her imperfect but effortless technique.
Odd things start happening to Nina. Aside from the unexplained patch of scratched skin on her left shoulder blade, she sees on a few occasions someone who looks exactly like her on the subway, something threadlike grows on her finger, a night of drinking and drug use ends in a sleepover that may or may not have happened, and these things intensify further to shocking extents--much like how David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. went, but certainly not as confusing. By the end of the movie, everything wraps up clearly to a beautiful climax; you do not have to scratch your head and hate yourself for being stupid.
Throughout the movie, Lead Character noticed that Aronofsky employed a handful of foreshadowing and possible symbolisms in the movie--most notably the reflection shots and Nina taking off her earrings. The shots showing the characters' reflection in the mirror get fully explained towards the end, but Lead Character still cannot fully wrap his head around the earrings. Several times throughout the movie, there's apparent emphasis on Nina taking off her earrings. Is it some sort of symbolism for women transforming into something else? When a girl takes off her earrings, is she suddenly a different person on some level?
Lead Character has a friend who, after an hour's commute to visit another friend, realized that an earlobe was missing an earring. Afraid that her earrings might have been ripped from her ears along the way, she frantically reached up and felt her ears. Only then did she realize that she put on both earrings in one ear. Could this piece of true-to-life anecdote possibly be relevant to Black Swan? Do earrings really represent something to a woman?
If you have the answers, please feel free to share.
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Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Written by: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
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Other movies by Darren Aronofsy:
Hmmm...haven't seen the Wrestler but I've seen the Fountain and in the end I couldn't get the entire gist of it. As for Requiem, haven't seen it either. Will try to look it up since you tagged it as a gore film.
ReplyDeleteAbout the earrings thing, it's an enhancement for me. But I do feel weird if I'm not wearing it when I'm out. Got a pair snatched once and I really missed that pair badly coz it matches just about anything. Some people feel quite naked without their watches on, so I guess the same goes for earrings. You could consider it as a female privilege coz females can easily wear it without question. Coz if a guy has piercings and he donates blood, one of the questions would be when was it done and where.
The earrings symbolism, to me, felt like a reminder of Nina's child-like, virginal status. I know, I know. Bear with me. The first few times I noticed the earrings emphasis was because her mother was taking them off at night, i.e., controlling the body of a child, taking responsibility and agency from Nina. Earrings literally are literally penetrating the flesh of the earlobe, but in this location, above the waist and away from any obvious sexual place, it's a reminder of little girl purity. She's only been 'pierced' where people can see.
ReplyDeleteAs Nina starts to move away from the insanity that is her mother, we see her putting the earrings in and taking them out, the beginnings of independence that ultimately don't go over so well, but the beginnings, nonetheless.
And there's my film analysis 101 :)