The climactic moment of Swan Lake is also the climax of the film story and the climax of Natalie Portman's performance. Nina overcomes initial failure and not only defeats her demons, she dazzles as the Black Swan.
The film's climax takes place during the premiere of the ballet, where Nina delivers a captivating performance as the White Swan. However, as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that the real challenge lies in her ability to embody the darker, more unrestrained qualities of the Black Swan.
It turns out that Nina hallucinated the fight with (and subsequent murder of) Lily, and actually stabbed herself while in the throes of a psychotic episode. But this doesn't stop Nina from performing the role she's worked so hard to attain.
In the final ballet performance in Black Swan, Nina is flawless and seems to have achieved the perfection that she was striving for so long. But given that her abdomen wound was still open and bleeding, she most likely succumbed to the bleeding as she falls through the air and lands on the mattress.
Nina's disordered relationship with her roommate mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina's psychological breakdown. Erica is narcissistic, spending all of her time painting pictures of herself and completely infringing on Nina's space and well-being.
Lily was the evil twin and the director of the play was the prince, Lily was seducing the director (Thomas) but Nina becomes the black swan and seduces him but ended up killing herself to finally free herself from the constant burden she puts on herself to be perfect all the time.
NOT REAL: Therefore, Lilly and Nina did not have actual sex (we know this because after sex, Lilly said something to Nina about being a ‘Good girl’ and then tried to smother her.
Even with Thomas Leroy's (Vincent Cassell) twisted take on "Swan Lake" in Black Swan, the same basic story is told, with Nina tasked to play the white swan and the seductive black swan. As a result, Nina performs the closing number with a stab wound in her chest, which results in her actually dying at the end.
Thomas notes that Nina clearly came with the intention to change his mind, to try and seduce him, in the mildest sense of the word. Thomas wants Nina to lose herself, that is how she can become the Black Swan. Thomas forcefully kisses Nina and she bits him.
It is, though, far from being the whole truth. The “Black Swan” screenplay has surely been prompted by a number of dancers' memoirs — Gelsey Kirkland's 1986 best seller, “Dancing on My Grave,” is just the most famous — to convey its neurotic version of the internal life of ballet.
The two fight, breaking a mirror. Nina stabs her doppelgänger with a large shard of glass from the mirror, killing her. The body reverts to Lily. Nina hides the corpse in the bathroom and takes the stage, dancing flawlessly as Odile and seemingly turns into a black swan, her arms covered in feathers.
Black Swan signifies an insight about yourself changes your position from one of victim to victor. Black Swan is a graceful reminder to move from any position where you feel powerless and at the mercy of external forces; it is time to reclaim your personal power. Black swan can represent spiritual love and freedom.
Synopsis. The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young ballerina in her mid twenties, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a princess is turned into the White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her.
Thomas also says her self-destructive tendencies made her compelling, and Nina is implied to have an eating disorder and impulsively scratch at herself. Beth is what Nina will become when she gets older: bitter, clingy, and still mentally imbalanced. Nina had sex with Thomas, not Lily.
But speaking as a psychiatrist, Lamberti said the film did not accurately depict schizophrenia, as has been widely speculated, but "does present a reasonable portrait of psychosis." "People tend to be scared of things they don't understand," he said.
Destruction of the body is the basis of all horror, but Black Swan's body horror serves a dual purpose by not only freaking out the viewer but also using symbolism to represent the decline of Nina's mental state. Though it isn't as overt as most other horror films, Black Swan is no less terrifying.
Following another hallucination of seeing her face imposed on someone (Beth), Nina winds up outside of the hospital holding a bloody nail file, which is what Beth used to stab herself with.
While viewers are uncertain of her mother's mental illness status, the genetic factor may be present. This magnitude of stress is a precipitating factor of Nina's symptoms. Nina is in her early twenties and is socially withdrawn, two common elements in patients experiencing their first psychotic episode.
Natalie Portman has transformed herself for many film roles, but nothing was as grueling as her Black Swan makeover. The actress shed an astonishing 20lbs from her already slight frame to play a ballerina in the 2011 film and admitted it put such a toll on her body that she thought she was going to die.
Prince Siegfried tells Von Rothbart that he would rather die with Odette than marry Odile. He then takes Odette's hand and together they jump into the lake. The spell is broken and the remaining swans turn back into humans. They quickly drive Von Rothbart and Odile into the water where they, too, drown.
Taking a solitary walk by the lake, the young Princess Odette encounters the wicked Von Rothbart. Overcome with fear, she turns and runs in the hope of escaping his evil power. However, she is not quick enough, and Von Rothbart casts a spell on Odette, transforming her into a swan.
"I had to look skinny in order to look like a ballerina," she explains. "You fake it. So, the best way to fake it is to unfortunately look like it." The Bad Moms star says she smoked cigarettes and went on a 1,200 calories a day diet to lose the weight.
