Nina becomes the black swan but has lost with reality, she becomes crazed and obsessed with achieving perfection, the movie ends with her performing live, perfectly, then dying.
Nina's mom is super controling, and treats her like she's a baby, she kind of lives vicariously through Nina.
Nina is obsessive, competitive, and jealous of Lily. at some point in the movie they hangout and Lily tries to get Nina to stop being so innocent (sex, drugs, partying)
The director of the ballet tells Nina that she is too innocent to play the role of the black swan, he sexually manipulates her and kisses her but she bites him, that is the reason that he gives her the role.
As the movie progresses, Nina begins to hallucinate more, eventually imagining herself becoming the black swan (growing legs, wings, eye color changing)
Nina achieves the perfect performance after hallucinating a fight with herself as the black swan, before performing she stabs the black swan version of herself with a shard of a broken mirror, at the end of her performance we see she really stabbed herself, she dies.
After being told she is too sweet and innocent to be the black swan, Nina goes partying with Lily experiencing drugs, and sex, it is a stepping stone in her transition into the black swan.
The Black Swan is a psychological thriller based around Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet. The plot is set in New York City with the main character, Nina is a very innocent young adult with an overbearing, protective mother. Nina is a ballet dancer at a prestigious company that had just announced they were putting on the production of swan lake. They required a ballerina to be the white and black swan which each have polar opposite qualities, the white swan being innocent and pure, while the black swan is sensual, confident, and twisted. Nina is set on becoming the lead in the ballet, and becomes obsessed with having the perfect performance. Lily, the new arrival at the ballet company is everything that the black swan represents, and Nina wants to be her, idolizing and obsessing over her, she is Nina’s biggest competition. Nina loses her touch with reality and begins to spiral when she devotes her entire life to trying to achieve artistic perfection with the Swan Lake performance.
A few important themes throughout the movie are mirrors, Nina’s childhood, and hallucinations. Mirrors are used often representing the outer image a ballerina has to maintain, Nina is very critical of herself and always feels the need to look perfect, her diet and workouts are extensive. The mirror also eludes to Nina’s death at the end of the movie where she battles with the black swan version of herself and ends up stabbing herself with a shard of a broken mirror. Nina is very childlike, the opening scene shows her waking up from a bad dream in her all pink, stuff animal covered room and running to her mother for comfort. Her childlike innocence is an important factor in the movie because it is what keeps her from embodying the personality of the black swan. Eventually she becomes less innocent after fighting with her mother for control of her own life and partying with her competition, Lily. Lily introduces her to sex, drugs, and partying. Hallucinations are another big theme in this movie, Nina has a history of mental illness and self mutilation, which is partly why her mother is so overbearing and trying to protect her from a full mental breakdown, but her mental illness also stems from her mother's obsession with controlling Ninas life, and living vicariously through her. As the plot thickens, Nina starts to hallucinate herself becoming the black swan in the mirror, growing wings and feathers. She also hallucinates Lily having sex with the ballet director, and herself stabbing the former black swan ballet dancer Beth.
The movie in all is representing the consequences of trying to achieve artistic perfection, what it is like mentally to be a ballerina, and the pressures and struggles that come with it. Nina loses herself and her mind more and more as she begins to take on the role of the black swan.
Black Swan is a psychological thriller film in which a ballet dancer faces her biggest competition and goes psycho attempting to achieve artistic perfection while dancing the black swan in swan lake.
Key words:
Duality
Dark
Psychotic
Chaotic
Innocence
Perfection
Obsession
Control
Instability
Moodboard
Type Research
