[英语电影赏析]Film Review - Black Swan

A Film Review of “Black Swan”
When I was young, I liked watching films about adventure, action, comedy, which are considered to be for all-ages. However, when time passes, I begin being fond of the psychological films, which are considered to be more difficult and sometimes, cliffhanging, even thrilling.
“Black Swan” is defined as a psychological, thrilling and horrible film, which is exactly what I am inclined to these days. It is, I suppose, because of my constellation --- Scorpio , that I believe everyone is like a coin, that every coin has two sides, and so does human being. This film, “Black Swan” is about a girl, Nina, who is a ballet dancer, trying to get the main character --- Swan Queen, of the drama, “The Swan Lake”. However, she comes to a dilemma that she can perfectly interpret the character of White Swan, which is full of purity and innocence, but not Black Swan, which overflows with anger and hatred. During her process of fathoming the dark side, she starts to have illusion, and that deeply influences her daily life. Eventually, she makes it. She can immediately change from White Swan to Black Swan and embody both of them precisely and beautifully, but, this enormous fame costs her life.
“Black Swan” is undoubtedly an excellent film. Though I am not a professional in this field, technically speaking, it does attract me a lot. The director can precisely catch people’s thinking and feeling, that every scene will make the audience emotion uneasy, especially when it comes to the second half of the film. It is not like other films that there will be some funny parts in the middle of the film. The only atmosphere which lasts and penetrates the whole film is psychological horror.
At the beginning of the film, Nina shows great eagerness to fight for the Swan Queen. She keeps practicing every day, even she gets injured. Yet after she gets it, she does not realise that her life has changed. She does not show great happiness after she is told to have been elected. In this plot, the director delicately films it with a background which is a combination of black and white, which brings out a tragic atmosphere. As a result, people can feel that it is not the beginning to success, but to death.
In the following part of the film, Nina starts to have illusion. She sees the dark side of her inner heart when she meets people. She loses her temper, her sensibility and her norm. She gradually leaves her mother. The director films these plots with “absolute darkness”. Whenever I finish watching this film, I will always be melancholic for a while, for I am still shocked by the extremely wonderful but horrible plots. Most of my friends tell me that they are shocked too after watching it. One more important point is the process of turning into Black Swan. The director does not directly show the audience that Nina is able to interpret Black Swan all of a sudden, but through her hard work, effort, and her illusive thinking, she slowly transforms to it. There are so many tiny details which illustrateher transformation from purity to resentfulness. Every detail makes people fear. At the end of the film, before Nina’s death, she says, “I felt perfect. I was perfect.”Concerning about its tense, I think this sentence contains two meanings. The first one is that she has finished embodying the character, so she uses past tense. The second one is that she knows she will never be perfect again. Perfection exists once in her life only, and then, it no longer appears, since she is dying.
During the whole film, there is never a piece of cheerful music, even the music played for White Swan, the purity. All other pieces of music are related to melancholy, indignation and abomination, in spite of the fact that they are all classical. Personally speaking, it is a wonderful collocation with the theme, and that it controls people’s feeling. When people hear the music, they are apt to have the same feeling of sadness, anger and hatred as well. I believe it is also a factor which makes this film successful.
Overall, “Black Swan” is really a worth-watching film. It deeply describes people’s inner mind and their dark side, that if anyone goes too near to extreme, he or she is supposed to be going to the hell, that he or she will lose his or her mind, thinking, and even life.
Ishan . Chan。