The soul of an artist is the passion for art. Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin, had opened the world of professional ballet to the big screen. Modern society, while commonly viewing ballet as the highest art form, believes in the superficial idea of ballet: beauty and grace. However, "the idea of ballet is narrower: obsession, torment, inadequacy, paranoia, delusion," as New York Times writer Alastair Macaulay describes it in his article The Many Faces of 'Black Swan,' Deconstructed. The film depicts the downward spiral that many aspiring artists must go through to achieve greatness, following the life of a 28-year-old dancer from the New York City Ballet Company. As the audience spirals alongside our young female protagonist, they realize that the film centers on one theme: “Absolute perfection requires absolute sacrifice.” (The Anatomy of the Obsessed Artist) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The film takes a dark turn from a film about jealousy and ambition to a psychological thriller. Nina, the protagonist of this 2010 American film, is a perfect, childlike member of the corps who aspires to a leading role in the first ballet of the season. Her naive nature creates the perfect backdrop for her portrayal of the White Swan, but she realizes that her perfectionism prevents her from fully achieving the essence of the Black Swan. Heyman, Heinz and McLaughlin, the film's screenwriters, write this in the script of the film's first act: “Although [Nina's] movements are incredibly precise, there is a certain vulnerability. Exactly how the White Swan should be: fear tinged with melancholy." Nina's foil, Lily, is described as "explosive, oozing sex" by the writers, and specifically establishes the character as the antagonist in Nina's eyes. As the film progresses, the audience sees that Lily was actually a vehicle for Nina's psychological downfall and the true antagonist of the film is Nina's alter ego. As she struggles to keep up with Lily's deception (actually Nina's imagination), Nina discovers that she must first feel broken and damaged to understand and live through the Black Swan, and then become her idea of perfection. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's famous ballet Swan Lake was composed between 1875 and 1876 for the Bolshoi Ballet and premiered on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia on March 4, 1877. Since its premiere, the ballet has been reinvented on a multitude of stages around the world. The plot, based on a Russian folktale, creates the perfect backdrop for the characters and their desires for the Black Swan. In the New York Times article The Many Faces of 'Black Swan,' Deconstructed, Macaulay describes the seemingly stereotypical parallels between the characters of Black Swan and those of Swan Lake: "The rivalries between the alter egos of 'Black Swan' and the visions of the divided ego connect intimately to the good-bad, black-white, active-passive Odette-Odile heroines of the 'Swan Lake.'” It's a story as old as time, the dark force against the light force of good against evil. The film classifies it by placing Nina in mostly white or light pink clothes a bun, light makeup and light jewelry. Her image evokes feelings of innocence, similar to the image of the White Swan. The counterpart, Lily, is mainly dressed in black, dark eyeliner and a large tattoo on her back. His image evokes feelings of rebellion, especially in the background.
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