Black Swan Analysis - Movie Review Example

Black Swan Movie Analysis Black Swan Movie Analysis Black Swan is a psycho thriller and horror movie whose producer isScott Franklin, Ari Handel, Brian Oliver, Arnold Messer and Mike Medavoy and its director is Darren Aronofsky and released in September 1st, 2010 in Vernice. Later on the film would be released in different locations as limited and nationwide in USA. It was based on the story by Andres Heinz that was started by Natalie Portman acting as Nina and Mila Kunis playing as Lily. The movie almost depicts the same production theme as the previous Swan Lake and the double of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In fact, Aronofsky even cited the above movie plus the wrestler of 2008 as an inspiration for the black swan movie. The actors trained in ballet for several months before the actual filming with the help of notable figures in the ballet community putting their effort into its production in an attempt to smoothen its theme. Nina struggles to play both black and white characters to which she easily succeeds in the character of the white swan but struggles for the black swan. This is probably because the White Swan was almost a reflection of who she really was while the dark and more seductive black swan is almost the opposite of who she really is thereby giving her a hard time passing herself into it. To fit into this opposite character and become the Swan Queen, producers adopts many hallucination episodes involving peeling of skins and constant appearance of the evil double. Nina begins to imagine things that are not happening for real. For example imagining that she killed Lily who has been rivaling her to play the part of the black queen, only to realize later after she went ahead to exemplary perform this role well that Lily was among the crowd that were clapping for her following her excellent performance. It begins by being in a club where Lily offers her a drug that presumably was to make her relax to which she declines to take. Lily then slips it in her drink, and she notices but nevertheless, proceeds to consume the drink. Later on while she sleeps, she imagines having sexual intercourse with Lily and wakes up the following day to find she was late for the audition. Erica had already called Thomas to inform him that Nina would not attend because she was not feeling well. She wakes up rushes to the venue only to find Lily preparing to play the role. She asks her why she never woke her up and to her surprise, Lily informs her that they never spent together and that Lily had spent with a man she met in the club. This is the moment Nina realizes that the previous lesbian fling was imagination. This was probably because she seemed to be obsessed with Lily considering her ability to fit into the requirement of the black swan with ease, something Nina very much desired. The drugs probably initiated the many happenings that would then follow. This is evident by her decision to defy her mother and the lesbian dream she has with Lily. She even hallucinated to kill Lily and in dressing room complete with mirrors that she shatters by pushing Lily against it thereby shattering her image too. The Same phenomenon was portrayed in the besieged ego where mirrors feature a lot where Harry murders a woman after having sex with her."……Harry has sex with Epiphany (Lisa Bonet) (and murders her) he looks at his mirror reflection and punches the glass, shattering his image" (Parker, 1987). The movie has reflected so many characters in its composition going by the way actors played their roles. Different actors portray different personality characters. Nina is depicted initially as a person who lacked courage and a little shy often giving up even without a try. In the auditions, even before trying hard enough to convince Thomas to hire her, she was already walking away just after the initial declining answer. She also seems to change her personality from an initially shy to an aggressive dance obsessed swan queen. Lily character depicts a shadowy character going by the way in which she kept changing. Lily represented the other shadow side of Ninas character. In the scene at the subway, Nina sees Lily from a distance and notices that she looks exactly like her except that the latter wears black. In fact, it is evident from the movie that Nina was a little displeased at the fact that Lily could find it so easy to copy black swan a fact that is made worse by how Thomas referred to Lily as being able to represent the black swan perfectly (Aronofsky, 2010). The aging ballerina (Beth Maclntye) too is seen to portray the shadow character. Her dark personality is seen to catch Nina as she struggles to become the black swan. Nina is obsessed with perfection that she struggles to be whoever she sees as perfect in an area. She even steals Beths stuff in an attempt to look like her. The mother of Nina depicted the characteristics of a bad mother as well as a shadow character. She controls Nina a lot by continuously monitoring her life through her body. This is evident by her behavior to call Thomas to persuade him not to consider Nina for the role of the Swan Queen (Aronofsky, 2010). Mise-en-Scene This is one of another important input in any film. This is a fact that was well acknowledged by Arronofsky in the movie. The movie donned black, white and gray colors although red was also used. White and light gray depicts well while dark and red depicts evil. This is something that was well manifested with the costume design as a proper symbolism. This effect just as stated above was to portray Nina as pure but surrounded by evil especially in the opening scene at around 4:59 which shows Nina being in almost light pink coat and the rest in black to compliment the above effect. Her double as well is always dressed in black making the audience curious about her intentions thereby improving the view of the audience about Nina the innocent and right. The use of black and white in costume design also goes well in portraying the swan lake. This film is developed in a way in that makes it well related to the ballet life going by the actions in it. Sound System in the Movie. The movie begins with the original soundtrack of swan lake disappears with a sound that sounded like a speeding wind. The soundtrack is however maintained throughout the film but also embraced non-original music by Tchaikovsy with a featured on screen performance by people playing violins. There was also the soundtrack of electronic dance of the duo chemical brothers. There were radical changes to the music making the music not to be nominated for an original music award. The chemical brothers song is played in most bar scenes. At around 1:20 when Nina feels like something is following her, the horror effect is complimented by the horror-like sound effects together with her facial appearance. By around 1:42, the sound effect was portrayed in terms of a violent and rushed music at the scene where Nina dances with the dark image that proceeds to submerge her. At about 2:10, Nina converts back to a white swan with feathers. This is emphasized by the sound effects that even become clearer when she dances, the sound resonates like wings flapping. By 2:45, Nina wakes up wearing a smile with sounds of footsteps in the background. Sound effects were also used to represent the fast moving object that passed through the screen. The dark figure produces a sound similar to the sound of the sorcerer in Ninas dream (whooshing and swooping sound). A similar sound is used to represent Ninas evil sisters passage (Aronofsky, 2010). At about 3:33, she changes her direction towards somebody and the sound of spoon rubbing against a glass cup can be heard and later on her mother puts a breakfast of grapefruit before her confirming that the previous passing dark image was for her mother. Another distinct sound effect almost portraying horror effect was played at the time when her mother went to dress her up but realizes some scratches on Ninas back. The sound is a little deep and can be felt with devices with quality sound. The sound was a little terrifying. The next scene at around 4: 25 depicts another sound effect with a train coming in with blaring sound, but Nina looking at her image in the mirror. This changes to welcome the sound of a piano music playing, the point at which Nina notices another woman with a similar silhouette even though she was black just like everybody else on the train. Color Use The films major colors of importance were black and white representing the different personalities of Nina (black swan and white swan). Black and white colors also represented the real Nina and her darker evil half. At the beginning of the movie, Nina is shown with her back facing the audience and is surrounded by darkness as can be seen at around 2:36. This turns out to be one of Ninas dreams. The color use was to create a dark surrounding when she turns to white swan and white surrounding when she turns to a black swan. The fading of colors whether white or black was also used to represent another scene as evidenced by the fading of the white color to show Nina waking up from her dreams at around 2:40. The use of black and white symbolism was most common in the first short. The use of color was also done to make Nina unique going by the way Nina was always in a contrasting color from the one people were wearing. This is evident in the train where everybody is dressed in black except Nina. Also, during the stage dance performance when she suddenly transformed into the black swan from a white swan. The figure was black with surrounding lights reflecting a white surround. The dominance of color black was everywhere from the train to the walkway and the dressing room. Everybody was black except for Nina, who was white. Black color is also used in the film to represent episodes when the sorcerer in the story trails her at around 1: 20. The same black color represented the image of the figure she was dancing with during the time she was purported to be dancing with the camera, an image that attempted to engulf her. When this black figure departs her at around 2:09, the producer shows this to the audience by the change of the personality of Nina to white swan. Black color was as well used to represent the image of Ninas mother in the fast moving dark image at 3:07 and which later on served her breakfast. In general, by making everybody around Nina is wearing black except her, was to symbolize the idea that Nina was always surrounded and submerged by dark forces that chew her up. This is additionally supported by characters like Thomas, who is supposed to be her mentor but ends up sexually exploiting her. Lighting Just like color, lighting was also used to symbolize different scenes of white and black swan. The same technique is seen by the reflection that mirrors provided about different personalities of Nina. Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror, Nina developed different and fearful expression at the notice of the other half of her. Lighting was so exploited at the scene on the stage when Nina changed from the white swan into the black swan on stage. This effect was complimented by the lighting that provided a bright surrounding revealing a dark figure which was Nina but now as a black swan. As the film begins, Nina is dressed in white and has her back facing the audience with a clear spotlight on her. This effect is achieved by making the surrounding dark and focusing a spot on her. The next scene involves camera following the movements of Ninas feet with light focused only at Nina. To portray the effect of being followed, the producer adopts the technique of follow-shot where the light of the camera seems to follow the dark figure that advances towards Nina. Editing Editing is one of the less noticed factors in most films. However, that does not underscore its importance. The whole film is based on the editing of some previous releases. An example is the 2008 wrestler movie produced by the same Arronofsky. The black swan was an edited version of the wrestler. Even the music that plays at the opening is not original, but a more digitized and customized version of the original probably to suit the theme of the movie. Cinematography This movie employed cinematography in different instances. Some of the outstanding instances where the scenes when Nina had a feeling of somebody stalking her and then the camera is focused on her double advancing towards her with lights made to have effects of somebody walking with it. Also the scene where Nina changes to the black swan, she was undergoing metamorphosis, and this did not just make the audience feel she was becoming a monster but just becoming the black swan. This process was achieved by putting cameras at angles that made it possible to see the other side of her leaving the changed Nina to focus on the other Nina in a way that even the audience could not realize. Conclusion In conclusion, the movie in terms of clothing/costumes was well done with Nina being given a different clothing unique from other dancers probably to distinguish her role. The use of cinematography, sound, lighting, and another effect really came out well making the movie lovable by many. By employing thrilling scenes, dancing, sex, and psychotic scenes just made it capture different audiences. Reference Aronofsky, D. (Director). (2010). Black Swan [Motion Picture]. Parker, A. (Director). (1987). Besieged Ego [Motion Picture]. Read More