Black Swan...

To begin with this is very unlike any of my other works as yet. I suppose it is a film review of sorts more than anything else. As the title suggests... the movie in question is “Black Swan”.

The reason I say that it is only a sort of a review is that this composition is highly inflected with my personal evaluations of the movie and what I thought of it. If you have not watched it please do not read ahead before doing so. If you have, feel free to leave your opinion… on my opinion.

The primary concept of “Black Swan”, as far as I could see it was the tragic fall of a ballerina in a desperate quest to meet her other self. The impact of the film, I found, was frankly very disturbing.

Let us consider the White and the Black swans as the two faces of an individual. The former being that he or she is in her life… the latter of course being a collage of her innermost untamed emotions.

According to the very words of the script, the White swan is all about “control” of self. In other words what we see as the White Swan in the movie is a replica of who we make ourselves appear to be every day.

It is a forced persona… a mask, so to speak… that we watch and alter as per our need… continuously as long as we live.

Poor Nina, as she finds herself oppressed by this ever present burden to be “perfect”, seeks to connect with her alter ego… the Black Swan.

The Black Swan has been described as the “wicked” and “lustful” twin of the White Swan. The reasons for these rather strong adjectives to be applied is simple… the Black Swan is unpredictable and listens only to her instincts.

And there stands the first diabolical flaw of the story. Why does this other self have to be categorized as the embodiment of the evil that resides in us? Why is not merely our release from all the pent up emotional angst that takes root from leading lives, in which we have to suppress our nature every single day?

To be perfectly honest with you, I sincerely hope that the director desperately wished to have some form of evil in his movie and so came up with this notion… rather than being told that he actually finds this to be true.

The next oddity of the story is the heat of the transition between the two alters.

Speaking from personal experience, and to the best of my meager knowledge… the said change, almost always occurs with a subtlety that might even take the host unawares. Very rarely are there incidents that may be described as unruly… let alone violent. The change of an individual’s personality is a slow gradual process affected by his or her surroundings, experiences and maturity… and occurs at a snail’s pace over an extended duration. Yet in this case for the starry eyed Natalie Portman, she is plagued with the never ending conflict between her two selves… the one she cultivated, and the other she is.

Again let us assume that the director wished to infuse additional drama in his script and so incorporated this, as opposed to believing that state is possible in anyone except a sufferer from a severe case of multiple personality disorder.

Now, more than these, glitches, in the weakly held up fabric that is used here for a storyline… there is also a pretty major wrong that the story supports.

The film almost wholly propagates the concept, that being what we truly are causes our end.

At the beginning Nina is perfect, and she slowly falls from her position as she gets closer and closer to her other side. In the end it is all over due to this very fact… that is what the film says.

I cannot agree to it. Nina chases her true self, the one filled with passion rather than cold white makeup, to achieve her dream. Is everything acceptable so far? So when she does reach her destination… she is met with astounding success. Her last words show what she feels about it all… a sense of accomplishment instead of regret.

Her subsequent demise is not at all, a result of her proximity to her inner wild being… but the war that her civilized self wages on it.

Either way, no matter how you interpret it, the only clear indication is that, ‘to be governed by your instincts and desires will lead to your downfall after a moment of glory’.

What we are advised by the movie is to abide by our miserable formless lives shaped by our fears of society, unless we are prepared to accept tragedy as a very plausible… nay inevitable outcome.

In other words to connect to what you really desire, to chase something you long to have, is folly.

And I… simply speaking… hate the very idea of that statement, and hope... that to any individual with half a brain cell capable of processing the most basic of logic… I shall not need to explain why.

Now people, what I have written are my reactions to what I felt was a gruesome idea that is gaining a huge success with a sickening rapidity. Feel free to disagree, but then leave your opinions… either way go easy on this would be film critique.