“Black Swan”

Movie Review

The psychological horror movie Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2010, was written by Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin, and Andres Heinz and was based on one of his stories. The storyline of the movie, which stars Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder, centers around the New York City Ballet's rendition of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Both the dark and sensuous Black Swan, which is better personified by the new rival Lily, played by Mila Kunis, and the innocent and frail White Swan, which is played by Natalie Portman's committed dancer Nina Sayers, are roles that call for a ballerina. When Nina finds out she has been chosen for the role, she feels tremendous pressure, which makes her lose her tenuous grip on reality and go wild.

In order to create the plot, director Darren Aronofsky connected his Swan Lake viewings with a screenplay that was never made about understudies and the idea of being tormented by a double, comparable to the legend around doppelgängers. The collaboration between him and Portman was first planned in 2000, and Fox Searchlight Pictures developed Black Swan. Before filming, Portman and Kunis spent several months practicing ballet.

On September 1, 2010, Black Swan had its world premiere at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. Upon its release, the movie gained plaudits from critics, who praised Aronofsky's direction as well as Portman and Kunis' performances. Also, it was a financial success. The movie garnered four nominations at the 68th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, where Portman won Best Actress. The movie also received five nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, where Portman won Best Actress. Portman's performance made The New Yorker's list of the top cinematic accomplishments of the twenty-first century in 2021.

Young ballerina Nina Sayers, a member of the New York City Ballet, resides with her overbearing mother, Erica, a former dancer. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake will serve as the company's season opener. Artistic director Thomas Leroy declares he is looking for a new dancer to fill the dual parts of the naive and frail White Swan Odette and the seductive and sinister Black Swan Odile after forcing prima ballerina Elizabeth "Beth" MacIntyre into retirement. Nina performs flawlessly as Odette during her audition for the roles, but she is unable to capture the essence of Odile.

The following day, Nina requests Thomas to reevaluate her position. She bites him when he gives her a forcible kiss, then bolts from his office. The cast list is revealed to Nina later that day, and she learns to her amazement that she has been cast in the starring role. At a banquet honoring the start of the new season, an inebriated Beth accuses Nina of giving Thomas sexual favors in exchange for a promotion. Nina learns Beth was hit by a car the following day, but Thomas thinks she was attempting suicide. When Nina visits an unconscious Beth in the hospital, she is horrified to see that her legs have suffered terrible injuries, making it impossible for her to ever dance ballet again.

Thomas instructs Nina to observe Lily, a newcomer, who shares Nina's physical attributes but also possesses an uninhibited quality that Nina lacks, during rehearsals. Hallucinations plague Nina, and she discovers scratches on her back.

Nina accepts Lily's invitation to go out for drinks one night in spite of Erica's protests. Lily offers Nina an ecstasy capsule, explaining that it will make her feel calmer. Nina first declines, but she ultimately accepts. She rapidly starts acting under the ecstasy's influence after Lily's guarantee that the effects will only endure for a few hours. Lily and the men at the pub are both targets of Nina's flirtation. After dancing at a club, the two go back to Nina's apartment late that night. Nina locks herself in her room after clashing with her mother, where Lily engages in oral sex with her. She wakes up by herself the following morning and discovers she has missed the dress rehearsal.

As Nina gets to Lincoln Center, she confronts Lily about their night together after spotting her performing as Odile. She appears perplexed by Nina's suggestion that they had sex and claims that she went home with one of the bar patrons rather than going with Nina. Especially after finding out that Thomas has designated Lily as her substitute, Nina starts to believe Lily wants to replace her. As Nina's injuries worsen and her hallucinations become more intense, she even starts to imagine that she is Odile. As her mother tells her she phoned the theater and informed them Nina wasn't well enough to perform, Nina yells, "I'm the swan queen, you're the one who never left the corps!" and her mother tries to convince Nina the part has been too much for her. Lily is ready to take Nina's place as she is running late. When Nina confronts Thomas, he is moved by her newly found self-assurance and permits her to reclaim her positions.

Another hallucination causes Nina to become unsteady as Odette toward the end of the ballet's second act. Thomas becomes enraged when the male dancer who is portraying the prince drops her on stage as a result of this. When she enters her dressing room again, Lily is getting ready to play Odile. Lily becomes Nina during an argument. They clash, and the mirror is broken. Using a big shard of mirror glass, Nina stabs her identical twin, killing her. The body changes back to Lily. Nina hides the body in the restroom before entering the stage, dancing brilliantly as Odile and appearing to transform into a black swan with feathered arms. Nina surprises Thomas with a passionate kiss before leaving the stage to a standing ovation from the audience.

Nina receives a knock at her door as she continues to dress up as Odette in her tutu and white swan makeup. When she opens it, Lily is still alive. Before escorting her out, Lily offers her her congratulations and apologizes for the confusion. Nina is perplexed when she discovers that the mirror is still broken but that the towel she used to wipe up the blood is clean and that there is no corpse. She pulls a shard of glass from her belly after looking down and realizing that she had stabbed herself, not Lily.

Nina performs in the ballet's last act, which concludes with Odette jumping off a cliff and Nina landing on a mattress. Thomas, Lily, and the others gather to congratulate Nina, who is still laying on the mattress, while the auditorium erupts in deafening applause. When Thomas notices that her waist is covered in blood, he yells for assistance. He begs Nina to tell him what happened to her. As the screen turns completely white, Nina responds coolly that she was ideal.

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