By Thomas Hogge, Y12
Black Swan is a psychological thriller which stars Natalie Portman as fictional ballerina Nina Sayers who gets cast to play the starring role in her company’s production of Swan Lake. The film follows Nina’s subsequent journey as she prepares for the most important role of her young career; a journey that we the audience are able to experience alongside Nina, and join her on her gradual descent into complete madness.
I have been meaning to watch Black Swan for quite some time, and whilst browsing through Netflix and being harassed to watch The Queen’s Gambit multiple times in the process I stumbled across it. And very lucky I did, because Black Swan is an amazingly thrilling film that I highly recommend to those who haven’t seen it already.
The film starts off normally enough, and if you knew nothing about the film you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s the story of how mummy’s little princess gets the lead role in Swan Lake and becomes an international superstar. This forgiveness will soon disappear however, as not long into the film, Black Swan presents the viewer with some unsettling and dark imagery as well as introduce us to the manipulative and power abusing ballet master Thomas, played concerningly well by Vincent Cassel.
Without wanting to go into too much detail to spoil the film for others, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between reality and fantasy as Black Swan progresses. This has a profound psychological effect on the viewer and is the main reason why the movie is so exciting and gripping, as you have no real idea what is going to happen next. The cinematography and framing also helps to enhance the feeling of paranoia present in the film as the camera is always close to the characters, making the film feel very claustrophobic and as though Nina, along with the audience, can’t escape from whatever will happen next.
One last thing to mention is the extremely effective way in which Black Swan is able to make the viewer feel the physical pressure of being a ballerina and show how being a professional ballerina is a horror film in and of itself. The shots of the injuries Nina sustains as well as the countless close ups of ballerinas standing on their toes really makes you feel the lengths to which the dancers push themselves to and had me physically wincing at certain moments in the film. Therefore this in combination with the psychological effect of the film makes for a very intense and visceral viewing experience that is unmatched except for only a handful of movies.
Check this film out if you haven’t already.
