Black Swan: Dancing With Psychosis

Black Swan was one of the most acclaimed films of 2010, the film with which Natalie Portman won the Oscar for best actress and which caused strong controversy with her double. Portman’s doppelganger argued that the Oscar was not deserved because she was the one who danced most of the time; director Darren Aronofsky applauded Portman’s work and said she was only replaced in the most difficult scenes.

Leaving aside this controversy, deserved the Oscar or not, Black Swan  gives us a ballet on the big screen, a psychological thriller by the hand of Swan Lake. Natalie Portman dazzles in all aspects, because her role is much more than a dancer, she is a complex character with mental disorders that will become more visible as the ballet’s premiere date approaches. 

Portman achieves a really convincing character, who captivates us from the first moments ; Let’s not forget that the actress graduated from Harvard University with a degree in psychology, and this knowledge probably helped her to prepare the role.

The plot revolves around Nina, a young dancer who lives with her mother and works for a ballet company. The company wants to open the season with a renewed version of Swan Lake , Nina wants to get the role, she is a very disciplined, methodical and demanding dancer, but the character requires a more crazy and wild side. The film will go hand in hand with the ballet and, in a masterful way, it will immerse us in the personality and disorders of the protagonist.

Discovering Nina

Nina’s personality is revealed to us as the film progresses. Her mother had also been a dancer, but she did not achieve the success of her daughter and left everything to take care of her. We know nothing about her father, her mother has raised her alone and is extremely protective of her.

Nina does not have any friends either, she simply interacts with her ballet companions, in her life the only thing that matters is dancing. As we enter her room, we find a very childish space, in pale tones and decorated with countless stuffed animals, it looks like a girl’s room, someone who has not yet grown up. This room is a reflection of the world of Nina, a very dependent young woman, controlled by her mother who has not yet reached maturity.

His mother is the one who has instilled in him a passion for ballet and possibly has also projected all his frustrations on her. In this way, Nina also makes her mother see that she never got anywhere, that she never got that far, something that becomes a source of conflict between the two.

Nina has never disobeyed her mother, she has always lived extremely controlled, she has never had the ability to decide for herself. That is why Nina has developed a complex personality; She pays for her frustrations and helplessness with herself: she injures herself and makes herself vomit. His mother knows these problems well, she controls the scratches on his back, cuts his nails so that he does not hurt himself and watches if he spends too much time in the bathroom.

Nina has not been a happy girl, she has not had a healthy development; her mother has been overprotective, but has also projected her frustrations on her.   All of this has made Nina emotionally unstable; This instability will reach its highest peak when the company offers him a role that will make his own personality falter, unfold. Nina is obsessed with perfection and will do everything possible to achieve it, even if it costs her health.

Black Swan, a dangerous dance

Swan Lake tells the story of Odette, a princess who was turned into a white swan by a spell, in order to break it, she needs the love of a prince; love that finally fails because his rival intervenes: the black swan. Nina’s company decides to reinvent history a bit and that the role of both swans falls on the same person.

Nina seems to fit perfectly in the role of the white swan, but not in the black one, because she lacks spontaneity, she is too disciplined. As in Tchaikovsky’s work, a rival emerges for Nina, Lily, another of the company’s dancers, an undisciplined and carefree young woman who fits perfectly into the role of the black swan. From this moment on, Nina’s personality will gradually destabilize, she will begin to obsess over her rival and bring out her darkest and most unstable face.

As we enter the ballet and meet the main characters, Nina’s personality will dissociate, not even she will be able to recognize herself, or to differentiate the real from the dreamed.

The mirrors will play an important role in the film, presenting us with the distortions that Nina appreciates, the confusions and the most critical moments of the film; Let’s think that mirrors have been seen as a powerful symbolic charge, according to Lacan, we recognize ourselves in the mirror, in the other. Both swans live in Nina and will be unable to achieve a balance, a harmony.

Nina lacks a father figure, her mother is absolutely controlling, it is clear that her development has not been successful and there are many gaps in her fragile personality. The arrival of the rivalry and the search for that dark side that the role requires will make Nina begin to show the first symptoms of psychosis. Nina will engage in an internal struggle with the two swans that live inside her, while her relationship with her mother and her environment will become increasingly difficult.

The other side of ballet

In addition to the demands of the role and the rivalry with Lily, Nina must face a less kind face of ballet and the world. She had never had such an important role as this and, as a consequence, she was unaware of the darkness that surrounded her. In her night out with Lily, we see that Nina has a total ignorance of the night world and drugs. Having never been exposed to these situations and having always been under the protection of her mother, Nina is unable to control herself, to decide for herself and to know what is best for her.

On the other hand, within the company itself, we see that relationships are not entirely healthy either. The dancers are replaced when they reach a certain age, the rivalry is present in each of them and they are capable of anything to get a role. In addition, the most powerful men, such as the director of the company, can abuse and pressure the dancers. Something that reminds us of the Me Too movement that is taking place in the world of cinema today.

The character of Nina also presents a great similarity to Norman Bates, the protagonist of Psycho , especially in his relationship with his mother. The overprotection and darkness of the show business lead Nina to imbalance, instability and self-destruction.

Black Swan is a reflection of psychosis in the key of a thriller and embellished by ballet; a dangerous search for perfection, that perfection that the spectators admire, that those attending the premiere of the play observe in amazement, but of which they are unaware of its path. The result is perfect, but the road was full of thorns.