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

PAPERCLIPS

It is amazing how one little idea can grow into something bigger than you ever dreamed imaginable. I am sure that the students and faculty of Whitwell Middle School never dreamt that their little afterschool project would ever end up receiving worldwide attention and eventually become a movie.

It started when the principal asked an instructor to create a program that would teach the students tolerance and diversity. Whitwell Tennessee was a small rural town with a population that, according to the US Census, was 97.35% white. So a Holocaust Education class was started in the fall of 1998. When told that 6,000,000 Jews had been killed during this time in history, one student, unable to fathom it, asked, “how many is 6,000,000? That set them on a task to see if they could collect 6,000,000 paperclips.

It turns out the paperclip played a role in Holocaust history. Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian, is sometimes mistakenly credited with inventing the paperclip. He did invent a clip, but it is not the same one use today. It seems the people of Norway used to wear the paperclip on their lapels as a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation during the war.

As part of their project, the students developed a webpage and sent out letters to family, friends, celebrities and politicians. Slowly the paperclips started trickling in. Eventually the Press got involved and articles were written about the school project, and it began to pick up momentum. Paperclips starting arriving from all over the world. An old suitcase arrived from a group of students in Germany. Inside the suitcase were notes, written in German, attached to the clips. The notes were apologies to Anne Frank. (yes, this movie will make you cry)

It gets even bigger and better, but I encourage you to watch the movie for yourself….survivors of the Holocaust came and spoke to the students, a memorial was created, and over 29,000,000 paperclips collected….all from a little idea a principal had to help teach her students about diversity.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP15cY3f7UA&feature=related