BLACK SWAN’ ANALYSIS

‘Black Swan’ is a 2010 psychological American horror directed by Darren Aronofsky. Nina is the main protagonist in ‘Black Swan’. She is obsessed with perfection, and involves herself in spurts of bulimia and self-harms to ensure that she gets to the top within her dancing profession. Her mother, Erica, suffocates Nina in a creepy, controlling manner. Nina is chosen to play the part of the prima ballerina in her dance company’s season of ‘Swan Lake’, in which she will be replacing Beth Macintyre. However Nina has competition - a new dancer, Lily, who also impresses the director, Thomas. Thomas tells Nina that in his new season of Swan Lake he wants his prima ballerina to play both the part of the white and black swan; the white swan being someone who’s graceful and innocent, and the Black Swan, someone who’s seductive and fierce. Nina fits the role of the White Swan perfectly, but lacks sexual drive, the art to rebel and anger to play the Black Swan in which Lily portrays perfectly. Nina and Lily expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship and Lily explores Nina’s ‘dark side’ in both the art of ‘taking drugs at Nina’s first clubbing experience’ and ‘sex’. Nina, in doing whatever it takes to be perfect as both the white swan and the black swan, descends into madness, causing her to lose her grip on reality. As an audience we question ourselves as to whether Lily is actually a real person, or whether Nina has made her up in her warped mind. However, at the end of the movie, Nina gets what she had always striven for, perfection. She gets every single detail of both the Black and the White Swan correct, ending with her dying on stage.


I felt that one of the very first scenes introduced the ‘creepy’ effect of the film straight away. This is when Nina is walking through the alley late at night, and she walks past a girl that for a split second has Nina’s own face. An over the shoulder shot is used as Nina is walking towards the girl, creating a sense that someone is following her, this is an example of Aronofsky’s auteur style which I will expand on later. A medium close up shot is used to capture the stranger’s face, this makes the audience question whether what they saw was correct or not as its only shot for two seconds, and it’s not a close enough shot for us to be sure. This foreshadows the idea that Nina’s mind is corrupt and gives the audience an automatic sense that something isn't right. There is no extra-diegetic music playing while Nina is walking, however when we see Nina’s face on the other character a high pitched violin plays in a sharp, piercing manner. This makes the audience focus on this certain point, and reassures us that although we are not aware of what we just saw, something disturbing had in fact happened.

Another point in ‘Black Swan’ where extra-diegetic music is used to create tension and intensify the moment is when Nina says “I came to ask for the part” in Thomas’s office. Again, this music only plays for a couple of seconds, but instead of a high pitched violin effect, a deep, thrilling, stirring music is used. When Nina says this line a close up is used on her face so the audience can read her facial expressions and sense the atmosphere clearly. Nina’s face is half lit by the motivated lighting coming from the window. The fact that her face it only half lit symbolises her ‘half innocence’ and portrays the idea that something within her is ‘good’ and maybe ‘possessed’ or ‘evil’. The same music is used once more in the same scene when Thomas tries to kiss Nina, resulting on her harshly biting his lip in an attempt to get him off her. Therefore, the first time the music is played it is clear that it’s a foreshadowing moment, representing a ‘bad idea’ for asking for the part – maybe in the sense that it’s unprofessional, or more importantly in the sense that this part will drive her to insanity. 

The very first scene when Nina is waking up in the morning immediately makes the audience feel uncomfortable. Lyrical music is playing, but as a typical horror convention many close ups are used; making the audience feel slightly awkward not relaxed. Canted angles are also used symbolising the weirdness of the character we are meeting and suggests the strangeness within Nina. She ‘cracks’ the bones in her feet as she is sitting at the end of her bed, however load crunching effects are used which although are unrealistically loud they draw the audience in and almost make us cringe. A close up is used on her feet to ensure that as an audience we are focusing on what Aronofsky  wanted us to be focused on– again, this is foreshadowing when Nina’s feet begin to ‘web’ much like a swan, showing us the impact the part of the swan has had on her.

These examples have shown me that typical genre conventions such as extra-diegetic music, canted angles and close ups are used to foreshadow bad things that are yet to happen within the film. I’d like to use this idea within my own trailer as I feel is creates tension and a sense of questioning for the audience as we doubt ourselves into thinking that we are reading into something too much. Another idea that I would like to use in my trailer is the notion portrayed by the character of Beth (the old prima ballerina), sadism. Beth stabs herself in the face with a nail file in front of Nina at the hospital. During this scene loud music is used, and the speed of the montage of shots speeds up increasingly to create a sense of panic and terror. The idea of someone being sadistic is creepy enough, but seeing it on film makes the audience feel incredibly spooked out and vulnerable as we feel like we shouldn't ever see someone enjoying inflicting pain. A hand held camera is also used throughout this scene to again generate a sense of fear and rushed horror. A very quick close up is used on Beth’s face as she punctures her face for the first time, which shocks the audience. There is a sudden change in music too; the juxtaposition of the lyrical music playing, and then as the action begins  thumping music playing and the loudness of the music makes the audience jump which for me is essential for a good horror film. Within this scene the parallel music worked very well.
An idea within this film that I wouldn't like to use is when the face of the black swan is used on the face of a man. The idea of Nina becoming the black swan in the audience’s imagination worked well because each individual can visualize the swan’s face in their own way, but seeing the swan’s face on Thomas’s face in one of Nina’s insane outbursts ruined the visual effect and made it seem slightly silly, and almost laughable.
 
One part of the film that I found particularly enjoyable was when Nina was being driven insane When she enters her mum’s bedroom and all of the paintings of her mums face scream at her, and move as though they are alive, and repeat things that her mother has said to her in the past, a high angle shot is used on Nina portraying her as vulnerable and weak and gives her mother a sense of superiority. Aronofsky uses collision cutting here, when Nina walks in to her mother’s room the cinematography is slow paced, but when the voices start to scream there is a definite increase in pace,  to add suspense and fear. The montage of shots are incredibly quick generating a sense of panic, canted angles are used creating a sense of weirdness and screams from her mother’s paintings, plus the parallel music used (loud, rushing, thrilling music) adds to the tension, horror and strangeness of the scene.

Aronofsky’s writing and film directing always illustrates ‘obsession’ even though they have very different narratives. This factor makes Afronofsky an auteur director. Within ‘Black Swan’ Nina has an intense fear of not being perfect, meaning that she is absolutely obsessed with her role of a dancer. Afronofsky shows the damage it has upon the human psyche. Aronofsky’s films have a claustrophobic nature as all of them are deeply centered on the main characters lives. You only see the film through their eyes, and most of them are extremely lonely characters. This can be seen through the character of Tom with finding the cure of death (‘The Fountain’), Sara with her weight loss that ultimately drives her into insanity (Requiem For a Dream) and Nina and her role as the swan. Aronofsky almost breaks his style within the film ‘The Wrestler’, in which the main character Andy tries to break his obsession but even he fails in his attempt and appears to be about to die in the wrestling ring at the end of the film. Visually, Aronofsky also obsesses over certain camera shots within each film, and although the shot types differ from film to film they are very obvious to notice. In ‘The Fountain’ there is a constant repetition of an above shot, or a ‘bird’s eye view’ shot and in ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘Black Swan’; there is a constant repetition of the ‘followed from behind’, over the shoulder camera shot. I also realised another thing about most of the protagonists of the films. They all have a horrible condition that is either killing them or causing them a lot of pain, within the ‘Black Swan’ it would be Nina’s scratches on her back, in ‘The Wrestler’ its Andy’s chronic heart problems, and in ‘Requiem For A Dream’ it is drug addiction.