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REVIEW OF BLACK SWAN

If the devil drives I hope you will scull far out to the wide ocean and find your fortune, and beware of teeth.

Robinson Jeffers



Those poor girls standing on their toes. I don't know how they can stand the pain. Why don't they just get taller girls?

Henny Youngman (On ballet)



Dirrector Darrien Aronofsky, up until "Black Swan", was known for "The Wrestler". Both movies have as their background a physical world that is indifferent to human ambition. Aside from that, "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler" are two very opposite movies. "Thje Wrestler" had at its core a human who could love others and shed real tears. "Black Swan", on the other hand, is filled with humans who have the compassion and indifference of malignant tumors.



For myself, when I first view "Black Swan", I found the movie repellant. But a work of art can be, and more often than that, has to be repellent to reflect the world. The world reflected here is one where childhood innocence is replaced by paranoia, nightmares, obscessive compulsions, and primordial fears. That world centers around the dreams of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), whose one ambiton in life is to become both the white swan and the black swan in an upcoming production of "Swan Lake".



Up until the moment when Nina is given a chance to audition for "Swan Lake", her world is very limited to ballet; it is a world controlled by her overprotective mother, Erica, campily played by Barbara Hershey. Erica is manipulative, controlling, and her only reason for existence is to live out her dreams through her daughter. At one time, Nina's mother was one of the immortals. Now she is a bitter, angry spinster. She makes sure that Nina has no life outside ballet. Without Nina, Erica would have no dreams, nor reason for existence.



There are two scenes which for me summed up Nina's existence. The first is Nina's bedroom, which is filled with with stuffed animals, hundreds of them. Nina is a twenty eight year old woman, forced by her mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) to live the life of a six year old child. Also, none of the animals are new. They all look as if they had been purchased at a thrift store. As for the apartment, there are no windows anywhere, and the door to the apartment has three dead bolts. Keep Nina from the world, center her life around ballet, don't allow her to have friends or relationships, and Nina will metamorphize into one of the immortals. But outside that door, the world is filled with creatures who think nothing about tearing open and destroying dreams with their talons. Erica's eyes are the eyes of a creature who exists in nightmares. But for Nina, they are the eyes of the only person in her life she has ever trusted. In another scene, Nina is traveling alone in a subway car. She gets on at 127th street, and is heading towards Times Square. Anyone who knows anything about New York knows that the train should be filled with people, for Times Square is the busiest station on the line. Sitting across from Nina is an elderly man self pleasuring himself. When he smiles at Nina, there is underlying threat he is pleasuring himself just to shock her. . .as if he can sense her complete lack of knowledge of anything sexual.



Then there is the manipulative artistic director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). From his viewpoint, Nina's White Swan possesses the elements of self control and innocence (but is it really innocence. . .could the reality be that Nina is living is a world that is far more sinister than anything mortals can visualize?). But her black swan needs some working on. Nina will need to experience the world of primordial ooze. . .sex just for pleasure, drugs, rebellion, freedom. He gives her the adivce that she needs to go home and pleasure herself, which she does (this is the one erotic scene in the movie. . .there are no others). Even though Nina doesn't remove her panties, the scene feels pornographic, as if one is looking through a keyhole into a claustrophobic cell. In the next scene, Nina is taking all of her stuffed animals and thowing them into the apartment's incinerator.



If there is one thing that came through to me is that Nina has never learned to live in a world of predators, a world where creatures, "sail over and eat each other" (Jeffer's Ocean). She does achieve greatness. But the closer she comes to greatness, the more paranoid and delusional she becomes. Half way through the movie, the black swan has taken over every aspect of Nina's soul. She is Icarius flying too close to the sun. She is living in a dark world where there is no sun, no seasons. As she appears on the stage, her physical body has become an icon of physical perfection. The wings grow forth from the body, as the body becomes a spinning top floating above the stage. Nina has become not only a swan, but an angel. She is no longer of this world.



One final note. Tchaikovsky was homosexual. Almost no one realized it during his lifetime, because to be homosexual was to be a aberition in the eyes of God. It was only after his suicide that the world became aware of his sexuality. One can only wonder if, like Nina, he reached for immortality, only to have his wings of wax melt as he flew too near the sun.



After you finish the movie, try to look at the world through the eyes of Nina's mother. Look at the gothic hardness of Erica's skin, the manipulation and coldness of her voice. Erica's face is the face of someone who had touched the heavens, only to spiral back to earth. But whatever you do, don't judge her too harshly.

The Yodeling Existentialist