Thursday, January 13, 2011

Black Swan

I saw the movie "Black Swan" the other night, and it really struck a chord with me. Let me start out by saying that it is a very dark, twisted movie, and a bit gratuitously sexually charged. Dancing is sexual, but they went a bit overboard with it instead of focusing more on the main character's metamorphosis/quest for perfection. (I suppose it's how they got guys to show up to a ballet movie.)

So why would such a dark movie strike a chord with me, the seemingly chatty/upbeat/happy girl? One word: perfection. The main character, Nina, is consumed by her quest to be the perfect ballerina, the perfect Swan Queen. She succumbs to the demands of her overbearing mother, creepy/manipulative director, and the competition of other dancers. But what really hit me was that the external pressures were nothing compared to her internal drive for perfection. Her destructive path was all her own, and it's something I can absolutely relate to. I have struggled with trying to be what everyone else wants me to be, only to realize that I'm making myself into something I'm not, hurting myself in the process. I have had to learn to give myself priorities, to keep this perfectionist nature in check.

Watching Nina fall apart was a nightmare, but a cautionary tale for people like me. While the other people who saw the movie with me weren't big fans, I will probably come back to this one to remind myself of what's important, before I become a cautionary tale all my own.

2 comments:

  1. Was Natalie good in it? Sometimes I really dislike her movies, but I think I really want to see this.

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  2. Bonnie, I thought she was really great! I mean, I don't feel like there's a ton of dialogue for her, because it's about her internal battle, but I think she plays the white/black swan parts very well, and her ballet is semi-convincing.

    She lost a scary amount of weight for the role I think though...

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