When you're done watching Black Swan, you'll feel the need to shake your head for a couple of seconds to try and re-arrange the mess inside. While the story is, in fact, very multi-layered and meaningful, the narrative keeps confusing you and throwing you off track. Whether the story was meant to be told in a chaotic manner, one cannot tell but it is quite difficult story for a lay-person to digest.
More important than the structure of the story is the message that the film is trying to give. Let's first go through the story of The Swan Lake, for those of you who don't know. This ballet that Natalie Portman is supposed to perform, is about a princess trapped in the body of a swan. She can only be released by love and this "love" is in the form of a prince. Unfortunately, the evil twin sister of the white swan- the black swan, seduces the prince and he ends up falling for her. Heart-broken, the white swan commits suicide, therefore finding freedom in her death.
Portman (as Nina Sayers), is in pursuit of the black swan inside her. She cannot understand how she may be free with her performance and at the same time, be perfect. Through the rest of the movie, she's torn between meeting the demands of her director to bring out a powerful and natural performance and her own obsession for being perfect. We see how the stress takes a toll on her in a series of schizophrenic delusions, where she visualizes her own body being ripped apart in a gruesome and bloody manner.
When you reflect on the movie, you realize that her delusions are results of preceding events that have caused her stress. She is under the impression that her understudy is out to sabotage her role as Swan Queen. The director mentions in between that it is only she who is standing between herself and the performance. She has another delusion wherein she murders the understudy but sees her own face on her.
Eventually, we see that she's stabbed herself. She has literally eliminated herself as the obstacle on her path to glory. She pays with her blood to achieve her perfection. So what is is this story trying to tell us? That we shouldn't push a person to madness and let them handle things their own way? That you'll end up making a lot of enemies, fight off your own mother and other well-wishers in your pursuit of absolute perfection? Is it a comment on the hardships of show business? Or is it a parallel to Swan Lake itself? We are our own evil twins, capable of destroying ourselves. What brings us down is the lack of confidence in ourselves, our weaknesses and the way we easily give in to societal pressure.
The fact that it is complicated enough to make room for multiple interpretations deems it eligible to be a piece of art. But the drawback is that the complexity of the plot has resulted in a somewhat unclear narration of the story.
In case you're in the mood to introspect and give your mind some work, this movie is worth watching. If you're sensitive to blood, it's not going to be a very pleasant movie to watch!
More important than the structure of the story is the message that the film is trying to give. Let's first go through the story of The Swan Lake, for those of you who don't know. This ballet that Natalie Portman is supposed to perform, is about a princess trapped in the body of a swan. She can only be released by love and this "love" is in the form of a prince. Unfortunately, the evil twin sister of the white swan- the black swan, seduces the prince and he ends up falling for her. Heart-broken, the white swan commits suicide, therefore finding freedom in her death.
Portman (as Nina Sayers), is in pursuit of the black swan inside her. She cannot understand how she may be free with her performance and at the same time, be perfect. Through the rest of the movie, she's torn between meeting the demands of her director to bring out a powerful and natural performance and her own obsession for being perfect. We see how the stress takes a toll on her in a series of schizophrenic delusions, where she visualizes her own body being ripped apart in a gruesome and bloody manner.
When you reflect on the movie, you realize that her delusions are results of preceding events that have caused her stress. She is under the impression that her understudy is out to sabotage her role as Swan Queen. The director mentions in between that it is only she who is standing between herself and the performance. She has another delusion wherein she murders the understudy but sees her own face on her.
Eventually, we see that she's stabbed herself. She has literally eliminated herself as the obstacle on her path to glory. She pays with her blood to achieve her perfection. So what is is this story trying to tell us? That we shouldn't push a person to madness and let them handle things their own way? That you'll end up making a lot of enemies, fight off your own mother and other well-wishers in your pursuit of absolute perfection? Is it a comment on the hardships of show business? Or is it a parallel to Swan Lake itself? We are our own evil twins, capable of destroying ourselves. What brings us down is the lack of confidence in ourselves, our weaknesses and the way we easily give in to societal pressure.
The fact that it is complicated enough to make room for multiple interpretations deems it eligible to be a piece of art. But the drawback is that the complexity of the plot has resulted in a somewhat unclear narration of the story.
In case you're in the mood to introspect and give your mind some work, this movie is worth watching. If you're sensitive to blood, it's not going to be a very pleasant movie to watch!
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