story originates from the old and new changes of the theater company. The old lead dancer Beth is about to leave. The stage needs a new lead dancer who can play the two corners-the white swan and the black swan to perform the ballet "Swan Lake". Under the strict discipline of a single mother who was also a ballet dancer but gave up her dancing career due to an accidental pregnancy, Nina is exquisite in her dance skills but inherently restrained and weak. Although she hopes to win the coveted lead dancer role, she is considered by the director Thomas during the selection process that there is no black swan. Like charm.
Lost, she returned home, spinning round and round, practicing constantly in the small room, trying to make herself perfect. She also tried to communicate with the director, hoping to let him know what she had done, but she didn't get the satisfactory answer and the encouraging smile as if her mother comforted her, in exchange for a seemingly rude kiss. Just when nothing seemed to be able to change her fate of being eliminated, Nina's name appeared in the lead dancer's position on the final list.
In the following boring rehearsal, Nina was repeatedly asked to release herself in the performance in order to conquer the audience in the black swan performance. At the same time, she also deeply felt the strong sense of intimidation that she was worried about being replaced by others around her. She tried to constantly adjust her mood to make the performance perfect, but she became more and more unable to control the black swan that was actually suppressed in her heart for a long time. His wings shattered his skin time and time again, looming sharp.
Finally, everything was released in the final performance. Nina could see clearly in her abdomen with gurgling blood that she thought that the threat of being replaced was nothing but a phantom in her mirror. The previous fear came from her heart, and at that moment The white swan dared to take up the lens to face the black swan, and already possessed the powerful spiritual power and rebellious bravery of the black swan. Just like in the dance drama, the cowardly white swan only lost the power of the black swan after committing suicide. Real freedom in the field.
The film won the 83rd Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Photography, Best Editing and other 6 nominations, and finally helped Natalie Portman, the young actress, win her career first. An Oscar for the best actress statuette.
The rhythm of the whole movie is tight, and the atmosphere created by the editing and sound effects appropriately reflects the ups and downs of the heroine's mood. The symbolic clothing and the contrasting makeup magnify and externalize Nina’s inner struggle. "The original song or adaptation of the film is more full of the audiovisual impact of the film. Although the subject matter is not novel and unique, but the ingenious detail processing makes the film well-deserved to become the director Darren Aronofsky after the "Wrestling King". A representative masterpiece.
And the application of all these technologies is to support the spiritual text of the film's theme, it is the exploration of the protagonist's heart and situation in the film, seeking balance and breakthrough in the personal world where the boundary between virtual and reality, dream and reality is blurred. It can be said that "Black Swan" provides another typical example for the theoretical research of film psychoanalysis. This article will also comment on the "desire" in the film from the projection of dreams, mirror image theory and sexual psychology, and briefly explore the audience's behavior from the perspective of psychoanalysis and the means of cultural transmission based on this film.
The projection of
dreams Dreams play a pivotal role in psychoanalytic theory. Freud believed that "dreams are the satisfaction of wishes", and the trivial fragments that appear in dreams are usually the condensed, transferred and secondary processing of details that are forgotten or neglected in our daily lives, that is, many subconscious Information is more likely to emerge in dreams.
The film explores the layers of consciousness and subconsciousness. The structure is clear and the context is obvious. The subconsciousness is stimulated and strengthened until it merges with the consciousness. From real dreams to half dreams and half awakenings, to day dreams, from the undetected in the subconscious. Weak heartfelt, to escalating interdependence, to integration and unity.
The opening scene of the movie is based on Nina's dream, and here is the first of many dreams in the whole story. On the dark stage, a beam of pale light hit Nina, who was wearing a knee-length white tutu. A man in black appeared behind her, transformed into a demon and cast magic on the princess to transform it into a swan. Obviously, the dream seems to express Nina's strong desire to become the comprehension of "Swan Lake" straightforwardly. This strong desire appears directly in her dream without modification, which shows that she is at this time. How simple is his wish without any concealment. This desire may have been rooted in her heart very early, from her mother's teaching or her simple desire.
But the deeper meaning of this dream was not necessarily realized by Nina herself at that time. She had unknowingly opened Pandora's box, a transformation, a new life had actually appeared in her subconscious. As she described after waking up: it was not the same as what she had seen before. In her mother’s distorted discipline, Nina is still called a little princess even though she is an adult. She is surrounded by plush toys and pink butterfly wallpaper, lace pajamas and the bedside the one who will always play "Swan Lake". Music box. On weekdays, she herself is convinced that she is a little princess. This conviction stems from a kind of unknowingly but her mother has arranged everything, being a ballerina, leading dancer, and performing "Swan Lake"... if it is a mother's The image in her heart is still a kind of imitation of a goal at this time, and the power of this imitation is like a curse, trapping her any side. It can be expected that the mother is a retired ballerina, and she may have an accidental pregnancy just before becoming the lead dancer. The mother naturally transfers this pursuit of success and her own regret to her daughter, hoping that her daughter will become a phoenix, and all her life will be cultivated. The daughter became the center of the leading position she missed back then. In such a single-parent family, how could she open up and make her own choice? From the small room and the messy furnishings, it can be seen that this mother doesn't care about the enjoyment of life, and even he is immersed in regret for the young, ignorant child in the rush of time. Her only hope is that her daughter can realize her dream, so no matter how crowded she is, she has to create a rehearsal space where a mirror can be placed. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to understand the first dream in this way. It is the part of Nina who is growing up looking forward to some kind of new life, but she is suppressed by her mother’s long-term strength in her consciousness. a different feeling.
Then, in the film, there are more illusions that are like dreams and not dreams. The separation between daydreams and dreams blurs the boundary between the protagonist’s strong consciousness and subconscious. Finally, after trying Lily’s pills, Nina has a serious appearance. The hallucinations, until the next day, it is still not clear whether it is a dream or waking up, and it is also true and illusion. We can think of this as the second obvious dream. From the beginning of the illusion, that is, she left the bar alone but thought she was with Lily, to the fantasy/dream to love with Lily, and finally from the early morning awakening. Afterwards, Lily’s different versions of what happened the night before made Nina realize in a daze that the black swan in her heart finally faced her timid and timid herself for the first time. Although this was Nina, she still couldn’t tell the reality. Lily of Lily is not the same as the black swan in her heart, but it makes her feel the undercurrent of her heart for the first time. The obedient girl who has always obeyed her mother actually said no to her mother, knocked medicine, and had sex with a strange man, and returned home not only did not realize what she had done, but also became more violent, collided with her mother, and even died at the door. Clamped his mother's hand deadly. And then her depressed soul that belonged to the black swan was released even more, appearing in the image of Lily, and this fantasy/dream is based on the modification and reprocessing of her previous psychological experience of masturbating many times. The purely carnal experience completely opened up the strong love that was enclosed in Nina's heart. This love did not come from the pure spiritual comfort like a mother's care, but the lust within reach. This kind of fantasy/dream reflects that the black swan in Nina’s heart has grown up, and the eager black swan tattoo on Lily’s shoulders needs to spread its wings and separate from her once innocent and immature body. The fantasy between Lily and Nina reflects the fact that the two parts of Nina's inner struggle are actually so dependent and born. Interestingly, when Nina saw the real Lily the next day, her feelings in her heart were so complicated. She complained why Lily left first in the morning and didn’t wake her up. She was accepting it with a little bit of blame but a coquettish tone. This unity is actually somewhat dependent.
After this fantasy/dream, almost all dreams have become daydreams. Nina can easily see the appearance of phantoms without the protection of sleep. Lily's intercourse with the director in the background, the feathers on her back, and The broken legs like a swan, the black swan in the dressing room that wanted to replace her and what she thought was the death of the black swan... The black swan in Nina's heart was finally strengthened to appear in her real life as an ideology. Confused with her normal thinking, there was a fierce scene in the dressing room. The white swan picked up the broken lens and pierced the black swan. The white swan is no longer the white swan of the past, just as she picked up the lenses to bravely and even recklessly defended her position, the white swan was already flowing with the blood of the black swan that resisted the charm and evil. The scene before this was very interesting. Nina made a major mistake. If it were the prudent White Swan Princess before, she would definitely blame her for her carelessness, but Nina shouted that it was someone else's mistake that day.
So far, the black and white swans have merged into one.
If the sober, depressive chaos makes Nina at a loss, then the sensation of understanding in the three dreams/fantasy allows her to gradually dig out her inner passion, adjust it in the new life, and finally achieve the perfection she pursues.
Sexual instinct
Why the heroine accumulates such a large potential reverse energy in her heart, the fundamental reason should be due to her childhood experience. In psychoanalytic theory, the suppression of sexual desire is the most important factor that causes many psychological problems, and we can also get a good proof from the movie.
First of all, Nina grew up in a single-parent family. The lack of paternal love since childhood has undoubtedly had a huge impact on her psychological development, and the mother's excessive protection and meticulous management made Nina seem to completely lose contact with the outside world. In the film, for the first audition, she obviously did not understand what the director meant by "sexy seduction". After hearing the guidance, her expression did not show feminine charm, but was more cautious and at a loss. When asked about her love experience, Nina’s awkward expression and the lack of pleasure between her eyebrows on the topic of sex proved that she had to rely on her mother when she was a child because of her lack of father’s love, plus her mother’s excessive protection. , Nina's sexual instinct was suppressed in her heart for a long time, and she showed the cautious and timid personality of stagnant anal personality.
Compared with the lack of paternal love, the mother's abnormal education makes Nina have a slightly hostile view of sex. This may mainly come from the mother's pregnancy and the mother's attitude towards her infancy. Imagine that a graceful ballerina in her twenties suddenly found out that she was pregnant one day. How should she endure the image of having a baby with a belly in October, with markings on her face, her career is almost completely impossible, and she even needs a final farewell to ballet. Then her attitude towards the child will definitely be hostile for a period of time. Even if she finally turns this hostility into a strict requirement for the child and hopes that she will become a talent and fulfill her ideals of the year, it is still an unforgivable mistake to leave the leading position for pregnancy. When a mother uses her own experience to demonstrate what a failed ballerina is, Nina easily traces the root cause and puts hostile emotions on sexual rejection and resistance.
When Lily talked to the bartender, Nina watched carefully, studying hard. It was true that when she was drunk and had sex with a strange man, when she was half awake, she pushed the man away, dreaming of bringing Lily back home. In the latter dream, it can be seen that the object of Nina's sexual fantasy is Lily, which proves that Nina's concept of male symbols is confused or even never clear, and a same-sex sexual fantasy object may be more in line with her understanding.
At this moment, Lily is like another woman in the world, but when facing this self who seems more attractive and full of power, the depressed Nina needs to be released. As the director guided her, she gradually accepted and tried to experience the spiritual pleasure brought by the pleasure of the body. As her sexual desire gradually loosened, the black swan in her heart was also revealed little by little. The war gradually became evenly matched, until the white swan pierced the broken lens at the black swan, and the released jealousy and gloom ended. The accumulated energy is finally like the bright red wounds printed on the body of the snow-white swan, turning into a rose, to experience perfection.
In addition, a large number of mirror images are used in the film. Many of Lily’s appearances are introduced by mirror images. In Lacan’s theory, mirror images express the subject’s understanding of himself, including the grasp of each time in the mirror. The mark, the image in the mirror that does not change with herself, reflects Nina's arduous exploration of her inner world and her unremitting efforts to finally reach perfection.
The swan was born, and the swan was destroyed. Maybe we got a perfect swan queen, but we really cannot perfect our entire life.
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