BLACK SWAN: PASSION OR PERFECTION?

I used to be a perfectionist. Thank God I’m not anymore. I still place great value on doing good work and my best, but I’m no longer obsessed with having to do everything perfectly. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in the movie Black Swan is obsessed with dancing perfectly.


This film does an excellent job at showing the audience the competitive, and believe it or not, brutal world of ballet. We get a glimpse of the toll it takes on the dancer’s body, especially their feet which often become bloody and torn. We see the diligence the dancer must take with their shoes, their body and their dancing. We also see the competitiveness and rivalry inherent among dancers.

The director of the ballet company Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) bypasses the aging lead ballerina Beth (Winona Ryder) and gives the lead role of Swan Queen in his newer, rawer version of Swan Lake to Nina. The role requires that she play two very diverse parts, the innocent and pure White Swan and the provocative and sexy Black Swan. Nina has the White Swan mastered, but being too young and inexperienced she can’t quite grasp what is needed for the Black Swan. Yet waiting in the wings is another dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), ready to fill Nina’s shoes should she not succeed. We begin to understand Nina’s drive for perfection.

The director, using sexual advances, tries to get Nina in touch with her dark and passionate side, but this would require an abandonment and letting go that just doesn’t fit with her perfectionism. Sex, orgasm, abandonment and passion all require one to totally let go of control and the need for it all to be perfect.

We soon discover that Nina is more than just obsessed with being perfect, she’s psychotic. She is a tortured soul who mutilates her body, or does she? Throughout the film we switch back and forth between reality and Nina’s fantasies, and it becomes as difficult for the viewer, as it is for Nina, to tell the difference between the two.

In the end she not only masters the role, but she literally becomes one with the passionate and dark Swan. Her ending words are “it was perfect.” This film is dark, violent and extremely sexual. It is not for everyone, but I found it to be an excellent, Oscar worthy film.

If I, personally, had to choose between passion and perfection, I would choose passion. I’d rather abandon myself into something I love and not worry about how it all turns out. However, I’m grateful that, unlike Nina, I’m not psychotic and am able to distinguish the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs