The black swan Mise en scene analysis

For this assignment, I chose a scene from the movie, Black Swan, which was directed by Darren Aronofsky and stars Natalie Portman, Barbara Hershey, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. This particular scene marks the first time in the movie where we get an extensive look into Nina’s private world, her bedroom. The mise-en-scène is rich with discernible meaning as well as subtle connotations.

The scene begins with a long shot, which helps establish the complexities of the environment. Her bedroom is that of a young girl’s, not that of a grown woman who has her own life. It’s saturated in various shades of pink. Her small twin-sized bed equipped with headboard gives us a good indication of Nina’s state of mind as she follows her dreams… both as she sleeps at night as well as in her career as a professional ballet dancer. She seems to have the mentality of a naive immature girl. Nina’s smothering mother is cutting her toenails, a job Nina can obviously do on her own. This sets up an array of similar actions that conveys Nina’s incompetence and need for her mother to take care of her. Her mother is dressed in all black as she mourns her failed career as a ballet dancer. The choice of using a dark color can also be representative of her dark intentions of controlling her daughter. Nina, on the other hand, has on a short light-colored nighty, which symbolizes her simplicity and gullibility. The dialogue is the only sound present, which helps accentuate the significance of their verbal exchange.

The following shot is of Nina as she reacts to her mother hurting her as she cuts her toenails. This medium close-up gives us the opportunity to notice the butterfly wallpaper that is draped in the background. The butterflies symbolize the metamorphosis Nina will have to undergo in order to become the Black Swan… the process of her coming out of her cocoon and breaking free from her mother’s control. The close-up of her mother allows us to view the calculating emotion of a person in control. There’s ease both in her facial expressions and the delivery of her dialogue as she delights in the control she has over her daughter. The lighting is intimate, which is suggestive of their too-close-for-comfort connection to each other. In addition, the handheld camera provides a very subtle shakiness, which is reflective of their imbalanced relationship. These delicate nuances add to the dialogue as her mother explains how Nina would have been completely lost if she hadn’t taken her to her first professional ballet class.

As her mother criticizes her, Nina plops on her pillow with discontent hiding the full view of her face from her mother, but at the same time this medium close-up towards the viewers allows us to see her despair. When her mother removes Nina’s earrings, she expresses that she knows what it’s like getting older. The director’s choice to go back to the medium close-up lets us see that her mother’s words makes Nina feel worse as we ironically view the alcohol bottle in the background; a source used to heal.

The next shot is another long shot, which shows us a change in proximity between the two actors. This connotes the distance her mother’s words have created between them. The fluctuation in proximity of these individual shots is indicative of the overall story. It conveys the “pushing toward” and “pulling away” element within this mother and daughter relationship. Her mother reaches for a music box. As she winds it up, the ballerina twirls to the musical chimes. Due to the dialogue being the only sound present thus far, the introduction of the musical chimes has an auditory impact. It reestablishes, in the midst of this tense conversation, Nina’s aspirations. We go back to the medium-close up as she strategically places it by Nina’s bed, sort of like how a baby mobile is placed on or by a crib to console a baby. We see the ballerina twirling in the background as Nina accepts her mother’s soothing words that everything will be better in the morning. Nina turns to her with a half-smile then turns back to rest her head.

The director chose to place three mirrors in this scene. The presence of these mirrors makes a significant contribution to the storytelling and the feel of the piece. The concept of reflecting on oneself while seeing different sides of oneself is evident throughout this film. Nina has no problem being the White Swan, the good girl, but she has yet to get in touch with the defiant side of herself, the Black Swan.

Film opening analysis (Memento)

The credits of the film start with the name of the film company, followed by the film title; Memento and then the actors’ names. This is layered over the top of the start of the film which shows a close-up shot of a man’s hand holding a Polaroid photo in which we can see a dead body with blood spattered on the walls. This immediately tells us that a murder or killing is going to be a pivotal element of the film. The shot remains fixed on the photograph and we gradually see the photo fading to white. We see the hand shaking the photograph and it gradually fading more quickly back to white, it is at this point where the audience starts to realise that the footage has been reversed. The footage being shown in reverse tells us that something has already happened and we are going back to before it to find out what happens, for example it could be starting at the end of the film and then cutting back to earlier on in the narrative.

The credits end once the photo has gone completely blank, then we see the photo going back into the camera, a close-up of the man taking the photograph with the camera followed by a close-up of the man’s face. In this short sequence the audience has been shown lots of things in quick succession, but with the film being reversed we have to piece it all together to try and make sense of it. In this chain of shots we are shown a photo of a dead man, this makes the viewer question who he is, why has he been killed and who killed him? Then we see the person who has taken the photograph and the audience is speculating whether he is the killer.

After this there is an extreme close-up shot of blood running back up the wall, this places the ‘photographer’ at the scene of the killing. Subsequently we see more close-ups of a bullet and another of a pair of glasses strewn on the floor. The audience now begin to build up a picture of the crime scene and with every shot the viewers gain more understanding of what has happened. For example the inverted footage continues to show a gun travelling back into the man’s hand and the bullet casing flying back into the gun and the dead man rises back up before we see the shooting.

The shot of the man just after being shot is a high angle shot, point- of-view shot looking down the barrel of the gun which is pointed towards the victim- this makes the victim look minor and powerless to the killer. This is then followed by a low angle shot of the killer this, similarly to the high angle shot of the victim gives the killer dominance and supremacy.

This then cuts sharply to a black screen which then fades to an extreme close-up of a man’s mouth, the shot then moves upwards to show his nose and eyes. The audience can now recognise the face as that of the killer. A greyscale filter is used on this shot; this coupled with the fade in effect gives us the impression that we are seeing a flashback or some time before he killed the man we saw earlier. A non-diegetic voice-over is used in this shot; this starts to give the audience a narrative and further supports the feeling of it being a flashback as the voice-over is presented as his thoughts.

To conclude, the opening of memento fulfils many expectations of an opening of a thriller film. It gives a glimpse of the genre of the film by showing the killing; it shows the credits and name of the film along with the actors and producers. It presents the key themes that will form the storyline, sets the scene and shows us the main protagonist. However, it still leaves us virtually uncertain as to what will happen in the rest of the film.

Film opening analysis (The woman in black)

Film opening analysis (Drag me to hell)

Film analysis...(The black swan)

Film details

Release Date:December 3, 2010 (Limited)
On DVD:
March 29, 2011
Genre:
Suspense, Drama
Director:
Darren Aronofsky
Writer:
Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin
Cast:
Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder,Barbara Hershey, Sebastian Stan, Kristina Anapau
Studio:
Fox Search light Pictures
Official site:
black swan 2010.com
Running Time:
103 minutes
MPAA Rating:
Rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.



I. Black Swan is a psycho sexual thriller that depicts the unglamorous part of the Ballet world. It is directed by Darren Aronofsky, who is known for his wild creative imagination. The movie is inspired by Swan Lake , a famous ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In the opera, a princess is turned into a White Swan, falls in love with a prince but then commits suicide when the prince accidentally pledges his love to the Black Swan. In the movie, the ballet company the characters are in decides to put a modern twist on the tale. They decided to cast only one person for both the White Swan and Black Swan- with the challenge of being versatile enough to play two opposite roles. In the movie, the main character (Nina, played by Natalie Port man) is casted as the Swan Queen. She has to play both the White Swan and Black Swan. The White Swan comes naturally for Nina. She is fearful, innocent and controlled. However, it is a great challenge for her to become the seductive, dark and mysterious Black Swan. To play the role of the Swan Queen, Nina struggles to become the opposite of who she is, resulting in many hallucinatory episodes that involve bodily horror (such as the ripping of skin and constant appearance of an evil twin or doppelganger). She starts imagining things that are not happening- like a lesbian fling with Lily (who she is obsessed with, due to her effortless embodiment of the Black Swan which Nina desires.) Ultimately, she has psychotic episodes where she truly “becomes” the Black Swan.
Every time she makes a step in her transformation,she has intense hallucinations such as having black feathers come out of her skin. The turning point in her transformation is the night that she goes out with Lily and takes drugs. After this,she dares
to negate her mother’s wishes and her transformation is almost complete. At some point near the end of the film, she develops swan legs, feathers and red eyes. She even hallucinates about killing Lily, her biggest rival-but realizes that she just stabbed herself. The ultimate symbol of Nina’s obsession with perfection is her killing herself (though, basing from the horror in her face as she saw the wound, it was accidental) to truly play the role perfectly. She is so engrossed and trapped in the world of Swan Lake that she forgets about the real world. She really becomes both the White Swan and Black Swan, and in the end, she dies with them. The film shows Nina's metamorphosis into the swan queen, her maddening dance with perfection and her obsession with it.

II. Nina is depicted as naïve, fearful and frigid. She is pressured by her controlling mother (Barbara Hershey) who gave up dancing to have her. Rick Instrell’s analysis of Black Swan mentions how we can use Jungian archetypes, or Storytelling archetypes to describe the roles of the other characters in the film. According to Instrell, the archetypes we can find in the filmare:a.) The Bad Mother (known to hinder development)b.) The Shadow (often seen in the villain/s, shows dark, undeveloped side of personality)c.) The Wise Old Man (a mentor)d.) The Shape shifter (symbolic of the self, always changing)*Descriptions are copied from his analysis.
Nina’s mother embodies both the Bad Mother and Shadow archetype. Nina is not very assertive because mother controls her by constantly monitoring her body and her life. She livesher dreams through Nina, whose passion for dancing does not show as much as her drive for perfection. Her sense of assertion and control comes in short bursts- the first instance being when she asks her mentor, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) to reconsider her for the role of the
Swan Queen. In the end of her metamorphosis, Nina shows her controlling side by “killing” Lily in her hallucination.

Beth MacIntrye (Winona Ryder), the aging ballerina is also seen as a Shadow because of her dark, destructive personality (which Nina eventually finds in herself when she becomes the Black Swan). Nina looks up to Beth because she sees her as “perfect”. She even steals Beth’s things, hoping to become more like her. Beth’s appearance in the film is short but crucial.She appears before Nina’s transformation (at the party where Thomas announces Nina’s role as Swan Queen) and before Nina’s transformation is complete. (Nina visits her in the hospital the day before the premier of Swan Lake).
 Lily can be both a Shadow and Shape shifter character, as she represents the darker side of Nina’s personality as well as the fact that it is still changing. In many instances, Nina
transforms from her normal, White Swan self to her dark, Black Swan sister. In one of the first scenes of the movie (the scene in the subway) Nina sees Lily from afar and she looks like her,
except she’s wearing black. Nina is frustrated by the fact that it’s so easy for Lily to emulate the Black Swan. She becomes even more frustrated when Thomas mentions how “perfect” Lily can
be without even trying.Notice how all of the characters surrounding Nina are wearing black. The idea is always that Nina seems to be surrounded or engulfed by dark forces that consume her. The plot supports this too. She is sexually exploited by her mentor, pressured and controlled by her mother, Beth(her idol) accuses he
r of using sex to get her role and Lily’s presence just frustrates her by effortlessly being what she (Nina) wants to be and by giving her extra competition. (James,2010) Her doppelganger or “evil twin” is also seen in black.

III. Analyzed scene: 00:35-6:38 (Around 6 minutes)
The film opens with the original soundtrack of Swan Lake, with the sound of a dark laugh fading in with gushes of wind as the words “Black Swan” appear on the screen. This soundtrack
style is used throughout the film. The Classical Tchaikovsky compositions are given a modern, eerie twist by inserting sound effects that are usually used in suspense/psycho thriller films. The
first shot is of Nina (with her back facing the audience) dressed in white, with the spotlight on her. (Later on, we find out that this is a dream.) Other than this spotlight, she is surrounded by darkness. (2:37) This is from the last part of Nina’s dream, after she becomes the White Swan. (This scene dissolves into black, engulfing the White Swan. After this, it fades in to Nina, waking up
from her dream).
This first shot is important because it embodies the “Black and White” symbolism that Aronofsky uses in the movie. He has also used the same technique in some of his other films.
(Instrell, 2011) We can compare this technique to Steven Spielberg’s in Schindler’s List, where a little girl in red walks through a monochrome crowd. This dramatic symbolism gives viewers the idea of danger and feelings of fear. (Kenny, 2010)The next few seconds involve the camera following the movements of her feet. The movement is flowing and serene, you can imagine curvy lines being drawn by the feet. The music is dramatic yet peaceful, balanced and controlled. The camera follows the movements of the feet, achieving something like a medium close up shot. Nina’s feet are also shown in close up shots in many parts of the film, including during the start when she wakes up. This brings us into her intimate/personal space, and since Nina is a dancer, her feet are a very personal and important part of her.
At around 1:11, her face is finally revealed. At 1:16, we take on the point of view of what seems like a predator, ready to attack Nina. Based on the story of Swan Lake, this is probably the sorcerer who decides to curse her and turn her (the princess) into a swan. This is probably one of the very few scenes in the film where a POV other than that of Nina’s is shown.
Nina’s back is turned from us, stressing that this cannot be her POV because she can’t see what’s coming behind her. This is the first of many instances that illustrates Nina’s feeling of
“being followed”. To emphasize this, Aronofsky uses a Follow Shot- a technique he uses a lot in this movie. The camera, also appearing to demonstrate a “handheld” effect or Handheld shot,
follows the dark figure while it walks towards Nina. In the first few minutes of the film, there are already many shots where the camera seems to “pursue” or follow Nina. The same style can be
seen in around 0:45-1:06 (where the camera follows the movements of Nina’s feet), which was mentioned earlier. All of these shots involve the camera following the movement of different
things- like the feet, the dark figure, etc. However, the effect is different when Nina is being followed from behind.
The same technique is also used in all of Nina’s dancing scenes. (2) In one of Natalie Portman’s interviews, she describes how she has to “dance with the camera”. The camera turns and blurs in one scene where she is doing multiple pirouettes or fouettes (which are like pirouettes except your foot extends in and out) for her auditions. This technique gives the audience more involvement even during the dancing scenes. For most of the film, we feel what
Nina feels. The exhilaration she feels when dancing cannot be captured by just placing the camera in a stationary angle in front of her.
The “unknown figure” (probably the Sorcerer from the story) that is following Nina appears at around 1:20. It’s a man clad in black, moving right behind her. She is now a little scared, feeling that something is following her yet she cannot see it. The suspense/horror-like sound effects, as well as her facial expression, show this. The music now becomes more violent
and rushed. She starts dancing with the dark figure and soon enough, it transforms into a monster that tries to engulf her in its maddening dance. (1:44) Again, this is one of the scenes
where they “dance with the camera.” This is also the first instance of Black and White Symbolism in clothes that Aronofsky uses in the film.
At around 2:09, the black figure leaves Nina and she appears as the White Swan, with her feathers all over the place. The idea of her becoming a swan is emphasized by the sound
effects- as she dances to “flap her wings”, there are also sounds of wings flapping in the background. At 2:44, the scene fades in to Nina waking up with a smile. It’s a MCU (Medium Closeup) shot. Somebody opens her door and light comes in (probably her mother). There are footsteps in the background (probably her mother too). She then sits up and stretches her neck and feet. Her feet are seen in close-up, emphasizing their importance to Nina (and dancers, in general) and bringing us closer to her personal space.
An interesting thing that we can observe in 3:07 is the black figure that moves past the camera very fast, in a fleeting movement. That dark figure is accompanied by a “whooshing” or
“swooping” sound effect similar to that used with the Sorcerer in Nina’s dream. The same eerie sound effect is used whenever Nina’s evil sister/doppelganger passes by. At 3:20, Nina starts
talking about her dream. Initially, she seems like she is talking to either the audience or herself (since she’s not really looking at anyone). My first impression of this scene was that I thought
that this was going to be a documentary-style movie where the character would narrate her feelings and the events. At 3:32, however, she turns her head to someone and as this happens,
sounds of tea/coffee being stirred and prepared are heard. The dark figure from earlier happened to be her mother, who was preparing food. This is established by 3:40, when her mom places a slice of grapefruit in front of her for breakfast. The grapefruit is somewhat
emphasized, it appears more magnified/bigger than it really is. At this point, we are seeing Nina’s point of view already. This is how she sees the small slice of grapefruit. Perhaps this scene is a foreshadowing of the “bulimic” or vomiting scenes that follow in the film. (In one scene, Nina throws up after eating the slice of cake that her mom feeds her.) Instead of saying something like “Wow, that looks delicious”, Nina simply states that the grapefruit is pink and pretty.
At around 4:03, we see the early use of mirrors and glass. Mirrors and glass seem to be a recurring theme in the film. They appear a lot in the ballet studio, Nina has a lot of hallucinations when looking at mirrors or anything that can reflect things.
At 4:09, Nina’s mother goes behind her to dress her up, and they are both seen in the mirror. Her mother notices scratches on her back (which are shown/emphasized by a close-up shot.) As her mother says “What’s that?” and stares at her in the mirror, there is a very subtle, slightly metallic (and again, horror/suspense-like) sound effect playing. It’s a bass-heavy, almost ambient sound effect so it isn’t very distinct. Its effect is felt when juxtaposed to the
creepy expression in the mother’s face. I was using large headphones when I watched this, so I really felt like something was crawling up my spine. After this, however, her mother became her
sweet self again. From here on, we notice the tension in their relationship.
The entry of the next scene at 4:25 is not your typical transition. Most online reviewers and critics of Aronofsky would say that he is not known for following the classic Continuity method of editing. He is anything but conformist and it shows in his films. The scene enters with the blaring sound of the train, with Nina staring at her reflection in the glass. Brooding piano music starts playing at around 4:40, when she sees a woman who seems to have the same
silhouette with her, except she’s in black. We see this woman in Medium shot- at this point, we see her only from a public/social distance.
Everyone in the train seems to be wearing black, except for Nina who is dressed in white. At around 4:58-4:59, Nina’s gaze follows the mysterious woman and we can observe that everyone outside is also in black. At 5:05, Nina walks out of the subway and the camera follows her from behind, using the Handheld effect. As she walks into daylight, we see her face again and the things and people behind her are black. There is a big black poster and people walking in black coats all over. While she is walking to the building, the people in front of her are in black. At 5:24, she notices 2 identical posters of a woman and she stares for a while. (Later on,
we realize that this is Beth, her idol.) Right before she walks into the door, we see the word “Stage” written in white. Whether this is a symbolism or not, we can’t be too sure. Since the word was on the left side of the screen and was white, in contrast to the black, the director would probably expect our eyes to be drawn to it- as eyes of people from cultures who read from left to right automatically look to the left and this is more comfortable for them than looking to the right. (Kenny, 2010) Or maybe we are reading into it too much, and this is simply to establish where Nina is going.
The next scene is of Nina in the dressing room with other dancers. They are talking about Beth, the woman in the poster. Again, we see the dominance of black (except in Nina) and the mirrors that surround her and the other dancers. The girls say negative things about Beth, and that she’s growing old. Nina defends her, but is interrupted by the arrival of another girl. This girl appears to be new, since nobody in the room knows her. Nina could not stop
staring at her, and later on realizes that this was the woman from the subway. In the last few moments of the scene (6:30-6:32), there is a shot of Nina staring at the woman (Lily) in the
mirror. Though we are not quite drawn to Lily’s personal space, it is obvious from here on that she is one of the Main characters in the film.

IV.
Overall, I found the film very beautiful. I was never a fan of psychological thrillers or any films that seem a little eccentric or macabre. By juxtaposing the dreadful with the beautiful, Aronofsky’s Black Swan is striking even in its darkest moments. Instead of being overcome by the fear, you become so enthralled by the beauty that you forget the violent or psychotic ideas behind it. Though many critics would say that all the skin peeling and
doppelganger horror was unnecessary, I think they added an element of surprise to the film. The last scene of the movie, where Nina dances with red eyes and swan-like features, is the best. This is also one of the only movies where I actually like the ending. I felt that the ending was very smart, and that it justified the overall thought of the film. In her quest to portray the role perfectly, Nina becomes both swans, lives through them but also dies through them.
Her dying together with the white swan symbolizes the absurdity of her obsession for perfection.