Nina, who was deeply influenced by her mother's art since she was a child, became a beautiful girl and one of the leading roles of a famous ballet company in new york. And the mother's stubbornness and maverick seem to influence the growth of her little daughter imperceptibly. At present, the youthful Nina is welcoming her first opportunity in her career, that is, participating in and competing for the famous ballet Swan Lake. Director Thomas has seen Nina's potential and given her some timely suggestions. The No.1 female required by Thomas should have both the nobility, purity and kindness of the white swan in ballet and the evil, cunning, passion and lewdness of the black swan. In the competition, Nina unexpectedly showed the beauty and quality of her gifted white swan, and her powerful competitor Lily also performed well in the interpretation of Black Swan, both of whom won the appreciation of directors and peers. Therefore, the competition between Nina and Lily is inevitable, even from the level of artistic expression to the situation of mental distortion, attack and entanglement. Collusion, self-mutilation, and even homosexuality are staged. Nina also embarked on the road of self-destruction step by step.
With great mental pressure and fierce competition, Nina suffers from hallucinations, schizophrenia and kills her competitors in hallucinations. In fact, in order to be perfect, she hurt herself like a white swan and ruined her life.
Aside from artistic appreciation, from the perspective of psychoanalysis, there is a psychoanalytic flavor everywhere in the film:
Nina, the heroine, has a powerful, controlling mother with high expectations. With the absence of her husband and the failure of her career, the mother regards her daughter as a spiritual pillar and a tool to realize her wishes. "I sacrificed my career to give birth to you" is like a spell, which imprisons Nina and can only be a "pro-daughter", controlled by her mother, including being forced to play the piano, how many cakes she eats, dressing, undressing, cutting her nails, controlling her daughter with love and interfering with her privacy. I was forced to learn ballet since I was a child (in the play, my mother said, "If I hadn't followed you to learn ballet, you would have given up"), and when I grew up, I became one of the leading actors of a famous ballet company in new york. Mother's wishes and values have a subtle influence on Nina, internalizing them into her own goals. The relationship between Nina and her mother is that her mother guides or corrects Nina's direction with pressure and expectation. She can't take a fork in the road, can't resist, can't have her own opinions and emotions. Otherwise, she will be as opinionated as letting Nina eat cake after getting the lead dance qualification. Pink pajamas, coats, sheets and plush toys all symbolize Nina, a 28-year-old girl.
With the awakening of self-consciousness in the inner subconscious and the influence of external environment: inspired by the director and imaginary enemy Lily, Nina yelled at the controlling and binding representative mother: Get out and tell her: "Your lovely daughter is dead". When the mother found out that the role of "black swan" swallowed her daughter, it was too late. The mother's values and outlook on life have been deeply implanted in her daughter's heart, and her yearning for success, competitiveness and pursuit of perfection are better than her own. The process of growth is not only happiness, but also pain, confusion and fear, just like the transformation of a snake. It is very painful to find a sharp stone to peel off a layer of skin. There are many desires, many temptations, where to go, how to find yourself-taking drugs, going to bars to indulge, making friends with gay friends, very confused; I am afraid of some inner desires that are not recognized by my mother and suppressed by myself. These aspects have formed Nina's inner conflict.
From the psychological point of view, all the characters in the film can be regarded as Nina's different personality types: 1) mother, which symbolizes the internalized super moral sense and authority; 2) The director, an authoritative and wise old man, guides Nina's growth. "Only by defeating ourselves can the phoenix become nirvana and turn cocoon into butterfly." "I am the fetter of my own performance"; 3) The imaginary enemy Lily is Nina's repressed instinctive desire: sex and freedom.
In order to visualize Nina's inner growth, a lot of metaphorical shots are used in the film:
1. Mom's painting is a picture of the daughter she wants to be. In real life, mothers are also carving their daughters according to their own wishes.
2. I scratched my back again and again, and my fingers bled-the awakening of growth, which symbolizes Nina's autonomy and needs to pay the price;
3. Being cut off from her mother again and again-metaphorically, she is afraid of losing her husband and career again, which hinders Nina's self-development;
Pink pajamas, coats, sheets and plush toys all show that Nina, 28, was brought up by her mother when she was a little girl.
5. Tear off the skin of fingers-Nina tried to change, but it was painful, so she tasted it, but her desire for autonomy and freedom collided with herself from time to time (scratching her back and breaking out of the cocoon);
6. The wings of the black swan-a symbol of transcendence and liberation from a depressed situation.
7. Finger bleeding-means inner conflict and guilt for mother's betrayal.
8. Same-sex love with Lily-the desire to integrate personality: the fusion of simple and lovely, fragile and obedient "white swan" and rebellious and independent, unruly, dare to love and hate. The exchange and growth of black and white swans is in line with Nina's transformation from depressed and controlled personality to open and free personality. It represents desire and struggle, not cowardice, not to hide or suppress all desires.
9. Nina's suicide death-the final result of metaphorical pursuit of perfect personality traits, is a price to pay.
The plot of this film has a psychological background, especially some subconscious things, which are more advanced and popular than other types of movies. Although the story makes people feel heavy, it leaves endless thoughts, especially for parents.
Feeling director Darren? Aaronov is not only a director, but also a psychoanalyst, otherwise he wouldn't have made such a professional psychological film. Appreciate him!
Psychological thriller "Black Swan": Black Swan hidden in my heart
A series of disaster films, such as 20 12, are behind the story of the demise of human beings or the earth, reflecting human fear of death; The psychological thriller "Black Swan" tells that a dancer can't bear excessive pressure, mental breakdown or even death in pursuit of a role, and the fear of nothingness is reflected behind it.
20 10 director Leinoff's new film "Black Swan" is the premiere film of the 67th Venice Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Golden Lion Award. This is a psychological thriller about the ballet Swan Lake, which shows Nina's horrible scenes when she plays the roles of white swan and black swan.
It turns out that there are two important roles in the opera Swan Lake-the white swan and the black swan. White swan is kind and beautiful; Black swan is evil and very attractive. The white swan was originally a beautiful princess. Because of the devil's spell, she became a swan. Only after midnight can she regain her human form. One day, the white swan met the prince who was hunting by the lake. She confided her life to the prince. The prince's deep pity turned into love, and he decided to save Princess Swan. The White Swan told him that only those who really love her and are willing to die for her can break the spell. So the prince prepared to hold a dinner party, invited the white swan to the dinner party, and sincerely proposed to her. However, the lich king asked his daughter to play the role of swan princess, dressed only in black, and went to the banquet to seduce the prince. The prince thought the black swan was a swan princess, so he danced with her and announced his engagement. Outside the window, the white swan gave a desperate cry and flapped its wings and flew away. ...
The movie Black Swan is not a fairy tale of Swan Lake, but a story about the ballerina Nina. Nina is an outstanding ballerina of new york Theatre Company. She has been practicing ballet since she was a child, and her skills are outstanding, and she is smart and beautiful, which is very pleasing. This is largely due to her strict and cold mother. Under the discipline of her mother, Nina has been a particularly obedient and hardworking girl since she was a child. But because of this, Nina lacks an unrestrained passion, and her youth and sexual vitality are not reflected in her. Nina pursues perfection, jumping carefully at every step, suppressing herself and lacking emotional release. Therefore, Nina is the best person to play the white swan when the troupe wants to remake the opera Swan Lake. However, the role of black swan has the characteristics of evil and temptation, and Nina can't complete the role conversion at the moment.
Opera director Thomas asked the new actor to play the roles of black swan and white swan at the same time. As we all know, in Swan Lake, the black and white swan is an extremely important role. The actor who plays this role will not only make his career by going up one flight of stairs, but also become famous in one fell swoop. Nina is eager to play these two roles. So Nina went to the opera director Thomas and expressed her hope to win this opportunity. Thomas finally agreed to let her play these two roles, but asked Nina to learn to release her emotions and show temptation, and has been inducing her in this regard. There is also a dancer in the troupe named Lily, who is bold, lively and full of energy. Her performance of "Black Swan" was not only appreciated by everyone, but also recognized by Thomas. Although Lily is the body double of the Black Swan, it also brings great psychological pressure to Nina.
On the one hand, Nina practices hard, but on the other hand, she is always afraid that someone will compete with her for the role. Working hard all day and being highly nervous made Nina feel exhausted. At first, she accidentally sprained her foot while practicing the black swan dance; Later, due to long-term practice, her toes were almost stuck together because the shoes were tied too tightly. What is even more frightening is that Nina's back is constantly scarred, which should be scratched by her own hand when the pressure is too high; When she was washing her hands or taking a shower, she saw blood oozing from her nails-of course, this was Nina's illusion. Nina has been hallucinating ever since. One night, Lily took her out to play. When she came back, Nina thought she was happy to have an affair with Lily-but Lily didn't go home with her that night. Another time when she was practicing alone, she heard something and went to see the director Thomas and Lily having sex-there was no such thing. At this time, Nina has appeared the dual personality of black swan and white swan.
In the final performance, Nina accidentally made a mistake at first, which made Thomas furious. Later, Nina came to the dressing room, found Lily in the dressing room, and sarcastically said that it was better to give her the role of black swan, so they had a heated argument, and Nina accidentally stabbed Lily with a piece of glass-of course, this lily was also Nina herself. Nina dragged Lily's body into the bathroom. When she entered the dressing room again, blood flowed out of the door, and Nina blocked the door with a towel. Just then, Lily knocked on the door to congratulate Nina and praised her for her good behavior. Nina was too surprised to say a word. When she went to check the towel again, there was no blood under it and no body in the bathroom. Then she found that she was stabbing herself and the glass was still in her stomach. Nina left tears sadly. ...
While Nina was crying, my heart kept shaking-a person committed suicide like this, she just pursued playing a role. Is it worth it? On second thought, Nina's behavior may reflect the fear of nothingness-what is terrible about death-as Odin's legend in Nordic mythology wrote: "The rich will die, their relatives will die, and you will die, but I know that one thing will not die, and that is everyone's evaluation of the dead." Immortal fame has become everyone's goal. In real life, there are not a few people who "commit suicide" in pursuit of fame and fortune. The film only shows this phenomenon with exaggerated artistic techniques. You see, how many of us sit in front of the computer for more than ten hours a day and work hard; How many people drink coffee in the middle of the night to refresh themselves, smoke to stimulate their nerves and work overtime? In modern society, more and more people die of chronic fatigue and overwork, but they just can't resist the nothingness in life.
Of course, life needs work and hard work, otherwise it is empty and meaningless. However, the essence of life is not work, let alone success or fame through work. Life is a natural process, it is to live your own life well, and everything else is auxiliary. We can pursue success, have goals and challenge ourselves, but we should remember that these are all for making life more meaningful, not for killing life and gaining fame. As Zhuangzi, a health care master, said, "My life is limited, but so is my knowledge. It is almost impossible to chase the limit with the limit. It's almost enough for people who already know! ..... "To understand this passage of Zhuangzi, we must not intercept the first two sentences. Zhuangzi's real view is that it is dangerous to pursue infinite knowledge with limited life! I know. It's really dangerous to go on like this!
It seems that Zhuangzi has the most thorough understanding of life. Zhuangzi believes that life is a major event in life, and people should think rationally. When thinking about life, human beings should turn their thinking direction to themselves, don't regard the process of life as an appendage of social goals, don't pursue worldly things, and keep the needs of life itself. Zhuangzi's second half sentence is, "Good has no near name, and evil has no near punishment. The governor thinks that classics can protect you, you can live all your life, you can support your relatives, and you can spend all your years. " This is Zhuangzi's philosophy of existence. The so-called "preserving our health" refers to protecting ourselves from social irrationality in social life. "Whole life" refers to taking life itself as the goal of life activities, and people should maintain a complete life in order to survive; "Nurturing" refers to caring and caring for one's own health; "Do your best" means "going home at the end of your life". This is the understanding of the essence of life-not all white swans have to be able to play black swans, and it is good to be their own white swans!
Once we understand that life is natural, we will not be so afraid of nothingness. Because life is nothing. Words Zhuangzi wife died, he drum basin and sing, is to understand this truth. Zhuangzi said: "However, life has no beginning; There is no life, but it is invisible; It is invisible, but it is lifeless. Between hetero-fluorenes, it turns into gas, gasifies into tangible, and becomes deformed and alive. Now it's changed and dead. Four o'clock is the same as spring, summer, autumn and winter. ..... "Zhuangzi's wife died, he was very sad at first, but then think about it, people are lifeless, not only lifeless, but also lifeless. Everything starts from chaos and ends in life. People's life and death are like the replacement of spring, summer, autumn and winter. So there is nothing to be sad about when people die, and there is nothing to be afraid of. Because we all come from nothingness, we'd better all go to nothingness.
I hope Nina's death is in nothingness and out of nothingness; I hope that all mankind can enter and exit nothingness without fear.