The Black Swan: Dancing With Psychosis

The Black Swan is one of the most viewed films of 2010. Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress, despite criticism from her stunt double, who at the time claimed that the actress had danced only minimally. The director, Darren Aronofsky, acknowledged Portman’s work and commitment, making it clear that he only used the stunt double in the most difficult scenes.

Aside from this Oscar-winning controversy, The Black Swan offers a ballet show on the big screen, a psychological thriller on par with Swan Lake . Natalie Portman is simply spectacular, she not only has the role of dancer, hers is a very complex character with mental disorders that will be more and more visible as the staging of the ballet approaches.

Portman’s interpretation is truly convincing, catching attention from the very first scenes of the film. It must be said that the actress graduated in Psychology from Harvard University, so her knowledge and skills on the subject were certainly very useful to play this leading role.

The film tells the story of Nina, a young dancer who lives with her mother and who is part of a dance troupe. The company wants to open the new theater season with a revised version  of Swan Lake . Nina wants to get the lead role, she is a very gifted, disciplined, methodical and demanding dancer, but the character also requires a wilder and more passionate side. The film develops hand in hand with the ballet to introduce us to the personality and disorders of the protagonist.

Nina’s personality

Nina’s personality emerges scene after scene. The mother was also a dancer, but she failed to achieve her daughter’s success, setting aside her career to look after her. Nothing is known about Nina’s father, her mother raised her alone and is extremely protective.

Nina has no friends, she just relates to her colleagues. The only thing that matters in her life is dance. Her bedroom is very childish, decorated with soft colors and an infinity of soft toys, so much so that it looks like a little girl’s room. The room is a reflection of the world of Nina, an addicted girl, controlled by a mother who herself has not reached maturity.

Her mother instilled in her a passion for dance, as well as having projected all her frustrations onto her. Nina will accuse her mother of not having been successful, which will become a source of conflict between the two.

Nina never disobeyed her mother, she never had the ability to decide for herself, she always lived under her control. And this is why the girl has developed a complex personality, a victim of her mother’s frustrations and sense of helplessness: she causes wounds and induces vomiting. The mother is aware of these problems, so she checks her back for scratches, cuts her nails, and makes sure her daughter doesn’t spend too much time in the bathroom.

Nina has never been a happy girl and has not had a healthy development due to her overprotective and frustrated mother. This is why he is emotionally unstable and this instability will be even more evident when he has to play a double role on the stage. Since she is obsessed with perfection, she will do everything she can to achieve it, even at the expense of her health.

The black swan, a dangerous dance

Swan Lake tells the story of Odette, a princess who is transformed into a swan. To break the spell, you need the love of a prince, but he doesn’t come because his rival, the black swan, gets in the way. Nina’s company decides to change the story and have the same person play the role of the white swan and the black swan.

Nina is perfect in the role of the white swan, but she lacks spontaneity when she is the black swan, she is too rigid. As in Tchaikovsky’s opera, Nina has a rival, Lily, an undisciplined and carefree dancer from the company, who perfectly fills the role of the black swan. From this moment, Nina’s personality begins to destabilize: the girl, in fact, is obsessed with her rival and will bring to light her insecure and dark side.

As the ballet continues and we get to know the various characters, Nina’s personality is dissociated, so much so that even she will no longer be able to recognize herself or distinguish reality from dream.

Mirrors play an important role in the film because they reflect Nina’s distortions, her confusion and the film’s most critical moments. Mirrors, therefore, have a powerful symbolic charge, so we can recognize ourselves in the mirror, in the other. The two swans live in Nina and are unable to find a balance, a harmony.

Nina lacks a father figure, she has a too protective mother, therefore she has not had a “normal” development and her fragile personality has too many cracks. The rivalry with Lily and the search for the dark side required by the role she has to play will lead Nina to show the first symptoms of psychosis. She will conduct an inner struggle with the two swans that are part of her, while the relationship with her mother and with the others will become increasingly difficult.

The other side of the ballet

Nina will have to face the less beautiful aspect of dance and the world. She never played an important role like Odette’s and she was never aware of the darkness around which she was surrounded. During a night out with Lily, Nina proves she knows absolutely nothing about nightlife and drugs. Having never been exposed to similar situations, she is totally unable to regulate herself, to decide for herself and to know what is best for her.

On the other hand, relationships within the company are anything but healthy. Dancers are replaced when they reach a certain age, competition reigns supreme enough to be capable of anything to get a role. In addition, the most powerful men, such as the director of the corps de ballet, can abuse and pressure the dancers. All this makes us think of the Me Too movement , now spread all over the world.

The character of Nina is very similar to that of Norman Bates, the protagonist of a series of novels called Psycho , especially as regards the relationship with her mother. The over-protection and obscurity of the entertainment world cause Nina to lose her balance, pushing her towards instability and self-destruction.

The black swan is a reflection of psychosis in a thriller key and embellished by dance, a dangerous pursuit of perfection that fascinates us spectators as we marvel at the staging of the opera, unaware of how it will end. The result is perfect, but the path is full of obstacles.