Black Swan - What it all Meant 

I don’t know why, but many people don’t talk about the symbolism of the swan. Swans irl, when they die they sing their last song which is considered perfection and Nina when she dances out her her role she then says I’m perfect and dies.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="206">3:26</a> This part really struck a chord with me because I never noticed it before. The broken ballerina figure on the music box is still performing, fulfilling its intended purpose, even though it is damaged beyond recognition.

Natalie Portman best acting ever.She frightened and utterly captivated me.All her other roles pale in comparison. She must have been mentally and psychologically drained after this film. It was a masterpiece of acting by her.

Nina's mother is mentally, not sexually abusive; she's repressive and wants Nina to remain a pure innocent child because the mother had to give up her chance at stardom when she became pregnant with Nina. Sexuality to the mother represents the end of childhood dreams. Mother and M. Leroy represent opposite ends of the sexual spectrum between which Nina is torn and fractured.

I remember seeing the trailer for Black Swan when i was like 11 and thinking it was about demons.

Coming from a ballet dancer, this explanation makes so much sense. As a girl, usually the first activity you get signed up for is ballet. Most girls move on to sports or other things but when you keep dancing it's like you keep that innocence from childhood. I find that I relate to Nina's character a lot.

That movie creeped me out.

I basically took it as... "Striving for perfection fucks us up."

This movie was so depressing. The mother was once a dancer and blamed her unsuccessful life on having her daughter. Also, the mother was using her daughter by trying to live through her. The teacher was using her to perfect his play, of course. Also he was a pervert who should have been exposed and fired. She tried to please them and in the end they broke her, mentally, like how they showed the glass ballerina broken. As a result of her cracking, she took her life, convinced that she is now perfect. The power of intimidating elders that abuse on innocence. This still continues. Like I said, depressing movie.

I'm still seeing people confused, so I'll try to sum the movie up more! The movie is literally about mental illness and being obsessed with perfection. Nina does not actually have a twin; it's all in her head. She became so wrapped up and obsessed with being perfect and jealous over Mila's character's ability to let loose and be passionate as she dances (while Nina herself is very uptight and controlled) that she grew threatened. The encounter in the dressing room? Nina was alone. She was literally battling herself and her own insecurity/worry of being replaced in the Black Swam role/bested, that she raged, fought herself and literally ended up killing herself by mistake. Finally letting herself explore her own being a bit more (built-up sexual tension, social events, etc in hopes to let loose and play a better Black Swan) and letting the paranoia of being replaced by Mila led her to kind of become this "Black Swan" character mentally: a new, messed up version of herself because it was too much at once. Sadly, it was her paranoia and obsession with perfection that ended her. Hope this helps!

This is one of my favorite movies, and it is probably because I got the message the first time I watched it. Unfortunately, had to really learn the message later on the hard way. We all have our "black swan", and trying hold it all the time will kick you in the ass later on, the key is to let them both live in a good balance.

I don't think there is much to look into this movie when you know about ballet. This is about the behind the scenes of something that society perceives as perfection, which is ballet. It's something that happens in this world, the child like way of being, that and the whole aura of it, eating disorders, rape, the act pf doing anything for a role. This is stuff that happens. But The Swan Lake is such of a different ballet. It is not innocent, it isn't about a princess, or a doll that comes to life, it is about jealously and greed, it's definitely the darkest ballet. And in this movie Nina has to become a different dancer, this one is not about perfection alone, it's also about expression, which she hadn't explored before. That's what this movie is about, a girl who had been so worried about being "perfect" her whole life that she forgot how to feel, and she needs to get there so fast that it crashes her.

I think it goes way deeper. A few years ago, I read an analysis of a woman that had been sexually abused by her mother. She recognised a lot of it in the movie. And when I watched it again yesterday, it really made sense and it explaines a lot: There are a lot of hints in the movie. Like how the mother takes off her clothes, and in one scene she even asks "honey, are you ready for me?" In another scene, the girl is hiding a wooden stick in her bedroom, maybe she wants to kill her mother when it happens again? When she's having sex with the other dancer, her face changes into her mothers face and she is shocked. Also when she's touching herslelf and when she is in bath, she sees her mother and it scares her a lot. The mother is a very ill character, every time the girl isn't doing exactly what she wants, she's getting angry. And she's jealous when she's going out with people of her own age, when she's feeling love for somebody and when everybody's watches her being the pretty swan. She's always trying to keep the girl small and right by her side, acting like she's the one who's always there for her and cares for her. But it's not unconditionally like mothers love should be. It also explaines why the girl acts like she does. After a long day, when she needs to rest, she's staying in the studio to practice more and more. She's so obsessed with being perfect because it's her way of dealing with the situation. When she's dancing, she doesn't have to think about the sexual abuse and her mother. And it all works, untill she has to let the darkside in, which she has pushed away for many years. She can't seduce because she has experienced sexuality in a total different way. I think that's why she is crying in the studio when Lily comes in. But she's keeping her secret to herself. She actually needs to talk and get psychological help. But instead, no one knows about it and she's facing her problems under very stressfull conditions where she also has to perform. That's the point where her mental illness gets to the next level and she starts to think everybody is against her, while it's actually just herself.

About the "Loving and oppressive mother" part, when the mother throws the cake in the bin, she's upset that her daughter (who puts ballet in front of anything pleasure related if it comes in the way of perfect fitness, and maybe suffers from a form of anorexia: barely touching food + vomiting) refused to eat the cake, yes, but first and foremost, her mother was also jealous: both putting what she expected for herself and could never achieve on the shoulders of her daughter, and not liking it and acting jealous if her daughter did more than she ever did. I found that this was quite present during all of the movie, showing up from the cake scene until the end. Her mother loves her that way yes, but she's unwell... Nina lived through her expectations and sickening regrets.

I thought it was beautiful. She was void of any kind of experience and her being caged physically and emotionally/sexually, her darkness boiled. Her mother said the scratching happened before and the more she scratched the further we saw the darkness leak it's way out. So that dark part of her, the primal, erotic and passionate side was a benefit to her. However, like you said, it came out rapidly and it wasn't healthy since she didn't know how to manage it. She was going through a radial state of individuation and it was fated for her to either destroy herself or merge.

Is it any wonder she started experiencing schizophrenia with that lecherous dance instructor who was so very full of shit and groping her, living with a control freak mother who tried to live her never-was-career through her daughter and the pressure of being a star?

Good analysis! The story explores Nina’s metamorphosis from a sweet, shy girl (White Swan) to a possessed, thrilling superstar (Black Swan). In playing the Black Swan she was overpowered by the "destructive force", and became a different person. She freed herself by dying. I liked how the director used mirrors to show Nina’s altered perception of reality. Nina's story suggests that living a balanced life is to find harmony between our good side and our bad.

The nail breaking moment is haunting me, the sound of it

Now I want to watch this movie again

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="246">4:06</a> That shot freaks me out every time

I feel this movie is a beautiful depiction of the emotional and psychological stress that unravels from a person who has no sense of self but has to conform to unachievable perfection. The evolution of the black swan at the demise of the white swan is a running theme in many aspects of contemporary life. To achieve excellence in any art form will always make you balance precariously on the beam of insanity. To find yourself you need to realise you are lost. I adore how the binary polar opposites are contrasted but then are meshed in a linear fashion to leave us in a state that questions our own reality. This movie is an epic master piece!!!!!!

Great analysis, but your delivery's a bit dry.

I saw a lot of similarities between this movie and whiplash. Both are about talented young people wanting to become the epitome of their art form, and their respective movies showcase how far they will mentally and emotionally abuse themselves and what they will sacrifice to achieve that. In the case of whiplash, Miles Teller's character(can't remember name) becomes a great drummer, but in doing so sabotages a relationship with a girl and its hinted that he turns his back on his family, becoming that broke, addicted musician who died young but is still talked about at dinner parties. In Nina's case, she literally gives up her life and her sanity, but in doing so captured the kind of both emotional chaos and technical perfection that made her swan queen immortal.

i think this movie explains a lot about Insecurity..comparing yourself to others and desperation for perfection..it is all about the desire to impress people rather than yourself..perfect does not exists in real life so the lesson for this movie is just to be yourself..and the only thing you should compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday...

I'm not very emotional, but invariably cry when I watch the ending. It's the saddest, yet most beautiful thing in the world. Natalie Portman truly deserved that oscar.

Wow. I played with my darkness from such a young age and didn't even realize it till I got older and knew something was wrong and chose to be good after a very hard battle that almost killed me. This is so perfect explaining the evil in one. I think we all have evil in us and we fight it everyday without realizing and it's so important to realize and seek out the goodness of the world to overcome the evil.

One of the details I really like is her choice of colour in clothes She starts off wearing whites and pinks symbolism for her innocence and purity and isolated herself in this sugar coated world with what at first appears to be a long seated duration most likely since toddler age Middle of the film she starts wearing grey which could mean that while Nina's had a few encounters with her "shadow self" she's still trying to retain herself because she's had no guidance or knowledge on how to deal with "her" so she tries to repress it but her world is comprised at this point because she's aware of what she's trying to bury Interestingly enough the only time she wears black if I remember right is when she's at the club with Lily wearing a black top over white which could mean she's being consumed by her inner desires and her shadow self is taking dominance but she then goes back to grey out of shame and fear of what her true unrepressed self is capable of and then there's the white swan dance near the end where she falls and messes up due to the male dancer dropping her this could mean that now that she's not only aware of her shadow self but also let her out by drugs clubbing and hurting her mother after she asks "what happened to my sweet girl huh" only for Nina to reply "SHE'S GONE" she can't ever go back to that innocence which could further be taken to the atmosphere that her wearing white once again doesn't feel appropriate for her no more it could also be a metaphor for her "fall from grace" but the black swan dance feels powerful creepy and alluring only to return to her white swan persona and find out she's fatally wounded that could mean either her innocence that was "holding her back" is dead and fully gone or it could mean that all her efforts at repressing her twin led to her peak of self destruction

Nina in Spanish means “little girl”

I love how thanks to BTS, I get interested to Carl Jung's theories, Black Swan, the Greek gods, the existence of oneself with its multiple faces...

As a ballerina, I see this as an overworked woman’s descent into madness. She works so hard to be perfect that she cannot possibly be truly happy. She cannot ever be happy with who she is, because she always wants more. As Odette, she is her real self, as a virginal, innocent person, with to much want for control. As Odile, she sees a dark side that she never allowed herself to confront. She buckles under the pressure. Edit: I love the idea of a twin because that is what swan lake represents to me. She doesn’t truly know herself.

One can find a lot of parallels between the movie and the story of the ballet. Through upbringing or abuse (or both) Nina was cursed by her mother/the wizard to be the white swan - this gracious, soft, delicate, overly innocent creature. But she's not really free, she's caged in this persona, she craves for something more, to be perfect, she calls it, same as the White Swan craves to be princess again. For both of them it means to be free from the curse of being the white swan (although Nina doesn't quite see the full picture, the curse and the need to break free from it in the beginning). Only true love could turn her into the princess again, into herself. Considering how Thomas was trying to get her out of that "white swan" shell, how they were attracted to each other and how she wanted for him to call her princess, he's the prince. He was the one who could make her free, make her princess again. At the same time, same as the prince falls for the white swan, but ultimately goes for the black swan, who both look the same, so did Thomas fall for the innocent Nina, but want a passionate/darker Nina. On another level Thomas/the prince chose the Black Swan when he asked Lily to dance, while Nina saw her as her opponent, as the black swan. The black swan wins, just like it does in the story, when Nina stands up to her mother and then when she fully takes on the role of the black swan, "letting go" or "loosing herself" as Thomas put it (aka letting go of the white swan) and becoming free and passionate in her dance. However that's also when her hallucinations get the most powerful. This isn't good for her either. During the evening, she changes between the two swans several times and near the end she's in this frantic dance between the white swans, the prince and the dark wizard, which I think symbolizes how hard this whole thing is for her, the chaos in her mind (as well as being an actual part of the ballet). In the end she stands as the white swan giving a look to her mother and taking the jump. I think the close-up after jumping is very important. After a huge culmination in music and emotions, music disappeared and her face became peaceful, everything even slowed down. I believe that is when she felt perfect. After exchanging the look with her mom that expressed all the pain that was created, maybe forgiving her (we don't exactly know what happened in her mind during that look), after being done with all the chaos in her mind, with the show. She broke the curse, she finally felt perfect, free, just like the white swan became free after jumping. Her becoming free of the curse is also showed by Thomas calling her little princess, the thing White Swan would become when breaking the curse. You could interpret it to mean that she became free because she let go of the white swan part of her nature, because she broke the curse, but I think it's largely about finding a balance. She gave amazing performances as both the black and white swan, she embodied both and her prince loves her as both. Yet at the same time in the ballet the princess suffers from both the White Swan as it's the curse and the Black Swan and as she kills herself she's also freed from both of the swans. And after all her goal wasn't to become the black swan, it was to become herself again, a princess. They were both broken and driven to madness (if suicide is a form of madness) just to be who they are.

The director threw out the movie drops hints that Nina was sexually molested by her mother. I also think Nina's psychosis lends itself to this theory. The trauma of being molested by her mother might contribute to the onslaught of her paranoid schizophrenia, and her desire to be perfect and in control of everything. Getting the role of the Black Swan gives Nina the courage to deny her mother's advances for the first time, but it also pressures her to the point of a complete mental breakdown....

There was a theory that her mom was sexually abusive towards her.Like the part where her and Mila's character were having oral and she called her "sweet girl," it was actually her mom calling her that, that her mom was actually there not Mila. Well, they broke the whole movie down, but can't remember where I read it. This was a great explanation tho! Because when I first watched Black Swan I didn't understand it

Another thing I observed. If the mirror is a representation of her inner "Dark" self reflected, then her cause of death can be taken as a metaphor, too. She stabs herself with the very object that reflects her dark side. Her innocence dies--her "White Swan." Killed by her own reflection.

I've read quite a few points where people believe mother daughter sexual abuse is a huge underlying theme. perhaps it's something you could look into?

I allways think the movie is about shizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. Its just obvious.

I couldn't pay attention the narrative was so monotone😑

This whole time I thought she became schizophrenic and she usually gets these episodes of when she sees herself is due to her stress, because that's mainly the case with other schizophrenic people.

Lilly is ninas shadow ego. Hence the shadows and the faces she sees and general paranoia. Nina has CPTSD due to an overbearing mother and stress from her career. She is codependent and narcissistically abused.

This move took me two days to finish, I had to stop multiple times because it was so intense. It’s psychological horror. So disturbing and beautiful, I’ll never see ballet the same way.

your voice is so soothing..

There are plenty of ways to interpret this movie. That's why it's so good.

I felt so identified with this movie when I first watched it that I almost had a panic attack. I did ballet for 10 years until I got out at 15 and I remember the pressure and constant strive to perfection and the competitiveness that pit girls against each other. I didn't even know what it was like to go out with friends until I was 17 because the world of ballet is a lifestyle. You have to train every day and get out of the academy so tired you just want to go to sleep. You are constantly worried about your weight, your body mass, your legs getting too fat or belly not being flat. The world of ballet is beautiful, but it is in fact pure blood sweat and tears behind the curtain. Somehow in that world you are not allowed to emotionally mature. Maybe that was just my experience, but it's so similar to Nina's that it made me feel like I was a part of that movie.

My theory is, that she begins to live the story of the Swan. How she was young and beautiful and naive and the black Swan steals her love and imprisons the swan. I think, because of the role and her way of life, she manifested the malicious character from the story onto an actual living person, that person being Milas character. The difference being that Milas character was not actually all that present in (Natalie) her life. All of their interactions were her delusional manifestation of the Black Swan. She only defeats the Black Swan when she completes the best performance of her life and the character. which inevitably takes her life, because the manifestation was actually just the darker side of her, which she 'killed.' Just my theory. Because if you look at it metaphorically, the dance instructor/molestor dude, tells a brief description of the Swan story which has mild relation to the situations she faces.

Can you make one for sucker punch?

HANG ON A FUCKING SECOND, NINA'S MOTHER IS THE SAME ACTRESS OF CORA IN OUAT RIGHT? RIGHT?!

this video is more complicated than the movie

my favorite quote is still "what hapened to my sweet girl?" "She's gone!"

As a dancer, I can relate to the struggle of trying to find that one little thing inside that fits the character I'm playing, and letting this little thing take control of who I am, completely. *My English is not perfect, sorry about that

The mother is definitely living vicariously through Nina. All this perfection and never feeling freedom, living for her mother and up to her standards, her own and everyone else's, it was just too much. She's so afraid to fail. She definitely has some mental health issues, and the mother didn't help that. She was overprotective and constantly watching her, therefore Nina felt she could never misstep or fail. I think the mother was genuinely concerned for Nina, that's why she at one point said either way she'll shine and at the end locked Nina in her room. Even though she wants the best for her, she was allowing her room to step back and then put her health first, because she knew the pressure was too much. She was genuinely concerned and put Nina's mental state before perfection. Yes, she expected Nina to do well, but that makes sense. All parents think their child is the best, and especially because Nina was talented, her mother was a dancer and they have a history with the company. Clipping her nails, wanting to see her back, the doors without locks, wanting to know what she's doing in the bathroom, her concern for Nina mental state and her self harming habits, that was because Nina had obviously done these things before and her mother thought this was the way to handle it. She gave Nina little to no privacy because she didn't trust her. I think the mother constantly watching her and Nina's childlike behaviour really contributed to the audience seeing the mother negatively, but Nina is mentally unstable and we see the pressure on her, her hallucinations, paranoia and her self harming behaviour enough to know she's an unreliable narrator. She paints lily a certain way. We don't even know if the tattoo was real. If Nina represents the white Swan, Lily represents the black swan/odile. When Nina leaves the bathroom stall and "whore" is written in red lipstick, that's the lipstick she stole from Beth. In her mind to be a "whore" is wrong, that's her opposite and she's afraid that's perception of her, but she's the one who wrote it. She hallucinates about Lily/Odile many times. She also hallucinates about her reflection or a second violent, daring, sneaky "Nina", one that's taunting her. This is her inner Odile, an opposition to her own White Swan. This represents the transition and metamorphosis in Nina. We start with a Nina who wears pinks, is very close and dependent on her mother, childlike, naive, controlled then her self destructive inner black swan starts attacking that version. Nina purposefully hurts herself and gradually it gets worse, finally ending with the black swan killing the white. This final version of Nina wears blacks, let's down her hair, she's violent, daring, flirtatious, uncontrolled, sexual, doesn't listen to whispering around her nor does she care what people think, she goes for what she wants and feels freedom. The film uses those around Nina, who lacks personality, to aid the audience in making ideas about her. Her mother represents the childlike, repressed, controlled, scared, mentally unwell and perfection obsessed Nina. Thomas represents a desire for maturity, to be what a man might want, the Nina who's trying to "grow up" and be free. Beth represents Nina's fears and desires about her future, a once perfect ballerina who's now an aged, washed up, used, mentally unstable, needy, violent, "whore", who got to wear she is by doing what men wanted. Lily/odile/the hallucinations represents Nina's feared darker side, the side that she's trying to repress, the side that she's afraid to submit to, but wants to be. She imprints all of this onto lily and forms ideas about her, based on her fears and paranoia. Lily is wild, flirtatious, uncontrolled, free of perfection, doesn't care what people think about her. Nina chooses to believe this newcomer is opposition, the same way she sees the scarier repressed parts of herself as her opposition. When she believes she's killed lily, but it's turns out she's stabbed herself, we see it represents killing her white Swan self, the old version of herself. She frees herself

ugh I still don't get it

if you look at this side of the many thing that get into this movie. is that this supression mostly happened due to the mother. she kept her in she didn't let her grow up. many children need to grow up fast because their parents aren't being the adults and they now need to be the adult for themself. but in this movie its the oppesite the mother never let her go and kept her away from all that is adult. she's 28 and just the bedroom itself already give that hint of her still being a child. (no direspect to anyone with this kind of bedroom) also her mother manipulating her when she sais no to the food is a way of her mother to keep her in her control. you don't see much of this in the movie but just those small details just gives the watcher more hints of her mother wanting her to keep being a child her little child that does her dream.

This movie is absolutely fascinating and to me it's meaning is all about this duality of Evil and good that we all have inside us! Nature and nurture will shape the way that we handle good and evil but this internal battle will never end. I absolutely love the way Nina let her dark side to break free in such a tragic and yet beautiful way!

this movie is SUPER claustrophobic. I've never watched a movie with more close up shots

Black Swan is one of the best movies I've seen.

I think it was all a dream. movie starts with her saying I had the craziest dream last night and there is constant reference to dream and fantasy and then it fades out to white at the end of the movie, like a dream

Watched this movie over 100 times and this explanation really helped a lot. Nice job 👍

I think that most of her scenes with Lily are in her head. Like when she comes to her place to pick her up, she doesn't interact with the mom at all or at least we don't see it, the mom keeps saying that "nobody" was at the door and when they come back drunk they ignore each other completely as well (the mom and lily), so Lily was never there with her which she confirms the next day. That's also why the mom was so concerned, because she just went out alone. Plus it happens right after they argue and the first time she manages to say "no" to her mom, rather agressively, it's like she manifested her dark persona and that's why Lily "rang" at the door. It gets more obvious during the fight scene. She's so jealous of Lily that she blames her for everything bad happening when it's just her.

My grandma had me watch this when I was 6. I was terrified of the hallucinations. The end scared me

"Acts like a little girl" "Whines like a little girl" Its because of her abuse, she cannot be or do ANYTHING for herself because literally EVERYONE around her is abusive.

Those last 30 seconds blew my mind 😧 I never thought of the similarities between Nina's story and Swan Lake

Another thing I noticed is that there are motifs and clues of swans and ballet all around her house, which signify how obsessed she is with that role. Even her phone ring tone is the tune of Swan Lake, although anyone else would be tired of hearing it everywhere. It's like her heartbeat.

If we talk in Jungian terms, she didn't acknowledge her shadow throughout her life and when confronted with it, the shadow swallowed her completely.

This is a great analysis. It’s been on my “watch later” list for years and I finally got to it tonight.

There was a lot of abuse from her mom, caused ALOT of her sheltered, repressed, and anxious moments in the film

I dance and love the film...I came to the conclusion that the mother isn't alive. Except in Nina's head. The inappropriate closeness (dressing her and cutting her nails, no lock on the bathroom) seem to imply this. I think she sees her mother as the ultimate failure in dance...and her second as the ideal. And by trying express them independently (not integrated) it affects her delusions at home too. Just a thought. Am a total bunhead myself!

I still didn't get it.. oh well.. some things we'll never know **sigh**

Nina's mental condition is what bothers her mother, and she.s dedicated her life since to Nina, watching her, protecting her, making sure it didn't come back. She might have her imperfect moments but she wasn't the cause of her condition, though she might have had an affect on what followed...

It's alleged that a lot of Black Swan was taken from an anime about an actress losing her mind. Apparently there are scenes that are similar as well.

I just want to say i haven't seen some one analyze to such a dope and considerable degree. Very satisfying watching your vids.

Yo this connects so well with Jung's Map of the Soul and bts

Legit just watched BTS's Black Swan before this

The premise I believe was that she entered into the adult world unprepared and succumbed to it. I believe such solution to this damning situation should be that one ought to build their house (their morale, world view, beliefs) on a solid rock rather than on shady sand. Because when that wind of problems that world huffs at our house, if the house be build on a weak foundation like said, our house and us included will sink.

Watching this actually made me realize that's why she couldn't be the black swan at first. She was 'perfect', innocent, and docile, like the white swan. I didn't realize it was the emotion she was lacking that didn't make her the black swan at first. Like look at Lily when her and Thomas watch her, she isn't docile or neutral looking, there's a certain bouncyness to her movements and she looks happy like she's having fun. Part of me wonders if her mother forced the idea of being a ballerina on her

Interesting... I think the problem with the movie was that it depicted the artist's journey, the journey that all artists, be them dancers, painters, novelists or actors, make to create... we all let the work obsess us, overwhelm us, devour us metaphorically... the ending of the movie tossed this away by externalizing the internal process (her death)... because it is this death that every creator goes through to be reborn. Instead it turned her into a crazy person. Had they shown the process as transformative it would have been more honest.

"Crying like a little girl"? That was sexist.

I absolutely adored this beautiful film. This analysis I believe was spot on. I love this channel! I believed that Nina's blood at the end signified menstruation and finally becoming a "full woman" with her dark and purity sides both dancing.

I saw this movie for the first time recently, I never thought that a movie about ballet would be the scariest movie I'd ever see

I was 13yo when i watched for the first this movie, i also thought that it was a demon film. Now that i grew up, it all makes sense actually and i can relate to this... Oppressive father, stressed about my studies, dealing with mental and emotional instabilities and most of all this constant desire to reach perfection whatever it may cost, that's so obsessing and overwhelming, the strange fact is that you feel that it bad for you and who surrounds you, but at the same time you find a kind of in it and start liking it... This movie is by far the best one I've ever watch, really...

That's an Interesting and plausible interpretation. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie but from what I recall it was all of that and a little more. A portrayal of a young girl's mind suffering with an undiagnosed and treated mental illness, schizophrenia in particular. A great depiction of how delusions and hallucinations are in fact a scary reality in her world. How dysfunctional relationships feed (and dare I say cause) her internal and real life nightmare. The viewer gets an opportunity to view her world from her perspective so we also think everything is really happening with no obvious logic or reason causing much confusion & fear. Her focus on her craft helps her make sense of her world but increasing stresses force her to confront the demons she has always suppressed with no life experience to deal with them. Everyone around her are so preoccupied with their own agendas that no one thinks that she may need help, protection, guidance and support.

You should do silence of the lambs!

i would love it if a director of some ballet company would go super meta and create a ballet based on this movie it would be so epic

This was one of the most confusing movies I've ever watched. Maybe because I didn't understand it since I was younger at the time I watched it.

what black swan meant: Natalie Portman stars in a crappy movie about a boring subject and does PG 13 lesbos scenes

still havent seen it but it terrifies me badly. great vid

I never saw the tie between swan lake and her life. I understood the child and maturity etc but not that deeply. Wow, I'm gonna have to watch that movie again!

watching this after watching the Lessons from the Screenplay comparison to whiplash (because of my obsessive tendencies to understand everything about every movie I ever watch) just gives this movie a whole new level of depth. Once you do this to enough movies it increases your movie going experience in total because you begin to form your own in depth analysis and theories about films, incorporating things you would have never thought of in the past.... long story short, I love films.

this is the passion of the performance artist.

They sell a dual DVD pack of Black Swan and The Fountain (Aronofsky's earlier work). These two movies (although seemingly different) have massive overlaps. Black Swan is a Russian doll. It is about the ballet of Swan Lake, while the character's play out swan lake, while she hallucinated a story of swan lake, while she mentally progresses through Swan Lake, while she physically endures a story of Swan Lake, while the entire movie is presented in the format of a ballet of Swan Lake. This is my #3 movie of all time (behind Magnolia and 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the Russian doll style (or Rubik's cube as Aronofsky puts it) is perfected in Black Swan but also used in the Fountain. At the end of the day both movies are metaphors for Buddhist Enlightenment. The Fountain is about enlightenment by overcoming fear of mortality, where Black Swan is about the necessity of Suffering to reach enlightenment. These are both central to Buddhism and can be attributed to Siddhartha's journey from innocent prince, to suffering, to enlightenment. (Bigger Spoiler coming) I disagree with the video's use of the word "evil". The Black Swan represents "suffering", "self-destruction" and sometimes "doing the wrong or selfish thing". Evil is not the word I would use to describe the Black Swan inside of ourselves. I've heard some say this has an open ending as Nina may have been saved after the closing of the film. This is false. She dies, how do I know? Because that is the fate of the Swan. Another element that is sometimes said to be left open is whether Lily is really trying to take her role and sleep with the director or if it was simply paranoid hallucination. It is not open, we just don't get to see it. How do I know? Again, it is the fate of the Black Swan and the only indication that Lily was being manipulative is that she was awarded the role of the alternate dancer and almost did usurp her role. As Kurt Cobain said, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you." He did not leave these elements out to leave anything open, he did so because they didn't need to be shown once you understand the equations of this move and Swan Lake.

I've always wanted to see this, never got around to it. Now I really need to check it out.

Part 3: but not before dancing flawlessly, her transformation into the black swan that is happening within shown visually on stage. her final words are: I felt it. I was perfect. Perfect way to conclude a breathtakingly beautiful and thought-provoking movie, with many different ways of interpreting it too!

BTS brought me here so I can understand the actually meaning to their new song release

It's the pressure of her company not her studio it's set in a New York ballet company.

I agree with everything you said. I actually believe that it was nonsensical for Thomas to give her that part anyway. Especially with what you said about neglecting her dark side. Everyone else around her was in touch with their darkness; Lily, Veronica, and even Thomas and her mother. But Thomas picked her to play the role even though he knew she was too one sided. I think Thomas was trying to push her to self destruction.

Nobody has mentioned that the stabbing happens after she shifts her weight on a lift and gets dropped while playing Odette. I think that was when she had her full psychotic break. The "perfect" Odette was no longer perfect, and since Odette could no longer be perfect she was destroyed and Nina was free to become Odile rather than remaining perfect. It happens specifically when she faces herself in the mirror and sees her rival. She only realizes Odette's destruction after fully embodying Odile, but she had to put on the persona of Odette one last time. The whole stabbing was in her mind. It was very possible she broke the mirror, but Odile's dance is extremely vigorous and involves lifts. That shard in her stomach would have been ripping apart stuff in there, she would have been bleeding everywhere and at the very least her partner would have felt the blood. I think she did hurt herself when she fell onto the mattress, possibly falling badly on purpose so that she ended her career with her perceived perfection. Her twisted body was what Lily and Thomas were reacting to, not blood.

I can't say it was an easy movie to get through, the tension all through the scenes made it quite clear we are not here for pleasant emotions. But somehow when she stabbed herself in the end it felt like a happy ending. Physical pain is nothing to her, she is used to it, but the symbolism of piercing herself and letting go of her darker side is so much more important for Nina. The music did wonders, it built up, it helped ease pain, it hid behind the images or was blasting right in our faces, in our minds. Those who didn't see the symbolism of everything in the movie and couldn't interpret metaphors - read more. Make your brains work.

The Last line "I felt it, it was perfect" was unnecesary in my opinion. You could see how she was "feeling it" and transforming herself into her repressed shadow and that line spoiled so much de moment. Great movie, amazing performances, and good vid, I enjoyed your analysis

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="97">1:37</a> it looks like the scene of Jin in BST!!

Nina is definitely the most fascinating female character on screen. Her psychotic transformation of the obedient perfect little girl in to a dangerous self centered diva is brilliant! She makes me wonder who Im hiding underneath my socially trained self

i'm writing this before i see the video because i'm a jibber jabber, but to me the theme of the movie was her choosing perfection in her life over everything else... including her life. at the end she has to choose between telling someone she was bleeding out, and finishing the ballet because she's in the zone and doing a perfect job, which is all she ever wanted. on some level we are told this about her character in an obvious way, like her eating disorder and overall ocd personality, but the ending of the film really hits home that point for me. okay going to watch this now, can't wait to see what you have to say!