Déjà vu has been attributed to fatigue of the mind, whereby a synapse fire is perceived twice in rapid succession, leading to the formation of a memory. Accordingly, the event that initiated the synapse triggers the feeling that it has happened before in exactly the same order and under the exact circumstances. What is not considered is that this is not possible in the course of human existence, unless a TARDIS is involved. After a run-in with déjà vu, it might becomes easy to question one’s sanity. I’ve been told on many occasions that if one can question one’s own sanity, one isn’t insane.
SPOILER ALERT!!
This is always a relief to me, but imagine what it might be like to someone who really is insane. That is what Natalie Portman’s character, Nina, experiences as she prepares for the role she has dreamt about since childhood, the Swan Queen. At first, the insanity manifests itself in slight, explainable afflictions. But soon, the sanity takes on a life of its own. Nina is constantly trying to perfect the Black Swan role, one that she has no apparent personal background from which to draw.
Eventually, Nina’s situation devolves into a life that is, trapped, on one end, by an overbearing mother, on the other by the role that slowly begins to take over her every moment of her life. Even as she attempts to gain life-experiences that might lend some breadth into her Black Swan persona, her insanity becomes even more evident. As the role consumes Nina’s life, bit by bit, her situation becomes even more extreme and she is left to ponder the same fate as that of the central Swan Queen character that she is portraying.
Upon realizing that her understudy is the same person who Nina thinks is attempting to harm her in order to get the part, the last strands of sanity leave her. At the climax of the movie, Nina’s performance is halting at first, but becomes flawlessly perfect, by the end, culminating in her perfect performance of the Black Swan- much to the delight and excitement of the director.
The story of the White Swan revolves around a love triangle between the Prince that the Swan Queen falls in love with and the Black Swan who lures the prince into her graces. At the end of the story, unable to decide between the man she fell in love with and a life without him, she commits suicide, jumping from the top of a mountain.
The dancer in the role is, of course, saved from the fate of her character by an air cushion. As the audience becomes drawn into the insanity narrative, it is almost expected that the understudy will kill the star by removing the cushion.
In the end, it was Nina herself, who caused her assumed demise, having finally succumb to the madness of being trapped in a seemingly unrelenting world of unlikely perceptions and demanding emotional pressures.
I loved this movie for the psychological journey into madness that the character took. It was a creative way to tell the story of insanity. The visuals were strikingly similar to Nina’s voyage. At first the film is nothing but pink, prim and proper ballerina, whose dedication to her art is reflected in the structured life of discipline she leads. As her descent into madness begins, the images become more disturbing and creepy. Paintings of portraits by her mother, for example, would shift their gaze.
Some of the most disturbing images were also some of the most hebidyjebidy. Broken bones, peeling cuticles, feathers coming out of the skin, one wacked out moment involving a nail file and someone’s face, gave us goose flesh, if the expression can be excused.
It is recommended, and is best viewed in the dark, with all the lights turned off.
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