Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky (2010)

Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky (2010) tells a story about a ballet dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in a pursuit for perfection to perform both the white and black swan in the production Swan Lake. The film is very claustrophobic and suffocating. Nina’s mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) is a very controlling over her daughter, seeing as she had Nina and sacrificed her career as a dancer Erica it seem to have throws Nina into the world of ballet. The camera angles also play a vital role in the film with lots of over the shoulder views behind Nina. Which creating claustrophobia and suggesting that Nina is only getting in the way of herself.

Nina is a pure innocent woman and fits the role of the white swan perfectly, but struggles to portray the black swan, the film looks on what ballet dancers need to reflect on to perform a specific role. Nina desperately strives to get the lead role of the Swan Queen, Lily (Mila Kunis) who is a new dancer impresses Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) the director, and performs the black swan very well. This is where Nina’s paranoia

sets in as she becomes convinced Lily is trying to steal her role.

Mirrors are very important through this film, it shows Nina’s darker side, it symbolises Nina’s other side that she doesn’t want to embrace she always has to be in control and is afraid of letting go. Throughout the film we see Nina slowly become more rebellious and start to embrace her other side.

This film also shows the dedication required to becoming a ballet dancer and what affects it has on the body. Nina is on the pursuit of perfection to become the best ballet dancer and to be able to perform both the black and white swan. There are various scenes where it shows the slow transformation of the black swan consuming Nina. These are painful and quite grotesque to watch and highlights what sacrifices must be made to become prefect.

The end scene before the final performance Nina is really fighting with herself. It shows her struggling with Lily and Nina over comes it by killing her. When she goes on stage to perform the black swan she just lets go and it consumes here, and by the end its clear she has only been fighting herself in the pursuit of perfection.