The first scene of the play "Swan Lake", when Princess Odette got captured by Rothbart and was cursed to turn into a White Swan every day and to go back to human shape only at nights. This was also the opening scene of the movie. Black, white and the greenish blue part in the middle as a transition appear to be the main color theme of the movie.
This is a scene when Nina was out of the train station to go to work. This photo is to show the overall color palette that was used throughout the movie.
Nina's full-on pink room indicates that she originally is a very sweet, innocent and shy girl, even a little bit too childish for her own age.
The first "meeting" between the good Nina and the bad Nina. This implied her intensity about growing out of her old self to know how to portray Black Swan has started causing her paranoia.
Nina is meeting the art director Thomas in his office. He tells Nina to loosen up, even to make mistakes (as she has never done one mistaken step since she started bale) so she can surprise everyone with Black Swan. She shows her increasing self-doubt and says she just wants to be perfect. Her new red shade of lipstick also shows her need to be considered "mature".
Right after the intense meeting in Thomas's office, the announcement later comes out, as Nina was chosen for Swan Queen (playing both the White and the Black Swan). She doesn't know how to react at first but eventually breaks down, smiling and crying at the same time. We can tell she is overwhelmed and even in happiness, she shows pain and intensity since now she is under just a whole level up of pressure.
Nina starts to see her mom's paintings and photos on the wall moving, crying, staring at her which constantly freaks her out.
Nina makes a beautiful White Swan as always but hardly achieves anything for the part of Black Swan no matter how hard she tried. All she needs to do is loosen up which she can't. All of her dance has always been perfect but also very conservative and insecure.
Nina officially meets the new girl Lily for the first time. Lily has been known for being very freestyle in the way she does bale. She's also cheerful, friendly and flirtatious with everyone, which makes her a perfect candidate for Black Swan. Nina sees her as a rivalry.
Nina has an old habit of scratching herself which comes back during her mental breakdown with the whole Swan Queen thing, her mom helps her undressed and finds out about it and forces her to go to the bathroom. This scene among a lot of other scenes has the same implication of how Nina's mom also obsesses over perfection and has great expectations to her daughter, which Nina tends to live up to.
During the break of the opening night of "Swan Lake", Nina gets into a fight with "Lily" which later turns out to be her dark self, and the Black Nina chokes her before getting knocked out by real Nina.
After winning over herself in the trailer, Nina feels her growing hair all over her body, becoming the actual Black Swan while getting on the stage as Black Swan.
Nina is dancing as the Black Swan which was extremely successful. This green shade in the scene has become a very important part of the color theme at this point.
Nina is at her almost last part of the play, under this beautiful but also bloody shade of red-ish pink, considering the fact that she accidentally stabbed herself before coming out on the stage, during her mental breakdown.
Nina made her last jump as the Black Swan killing herself is the end of the play. She couldn't get up because she must've lost a lot of blood during the play. She was satisfied with herself though, as she told Thomas "I felt it. Perfection." before fainting out.
Nina is a ballerina and she aimed to be the main ballerina in the play "Swan Lake". In order to get the part, she gets to be able to play both parts - the White and the Black Swan. At the beginning of the movie, Nina was shown as a very shy, anxious person, more like an innocent girl than a young lady. According to Nina's characteristics, she could be seen as an image of White Swan, which sort of prevents her from portraying the Black Swan successfully. As the movie goes by, she loosens up, she surrenders to her basic instincts, releasing the Black Swan in order to achieve perfection. But by doing this, she has an internal fight. Her "wild" self is in a war with her "control" self. As a result of this fight, she's destructed. Her mind falls to pieces because of this war inside, and when a winner is finally decided (The Black Swan), her body is destroyed as well (the stab wound). But, she gets what she wanted. She performs a dance both technically (White Swan) and emotionally (Black Swan) perfect. She reaches perfection, even if the cost is her life. "I felt it. Perfection".
The main colors used in this movie include black, white, blueish black, blue-greenish, bloody red, pink. The overall moods - or tones created for the movie are heavy, thrilling suspenseful, dramatic, obsessive, extreme, and intense. Even when it goes with the overall similar recipe of a psychological thriller movie: the overall dull background with pastel colors, as the scenes are close to the climax, and the colors get more and more intense and contrast, the rhythm in Black Swan makes the movie too thrilling and unexpected for anyone not to re-watch it over and over again.
5 words: obsess, change, compulsive, extreme, intense
Thesis Statement: Ballerina Nina Sayers needs to make a huge transition from her once perfect self to such darker sides of her in order to lose herself into the evil Black Swan character - her most important career move.
