A fascinating analysis unpacking the meaning of the final scenes of Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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Nina’s delusions culminate at the opening night of Swan Lake and in the
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final contrast of the film, her artistic success is paired with her ultimate downfall.
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[How about I dance the Black Swan for you?]
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[Leave me alone!]
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In a delusional state, she stabs her understudy, Lily, with a shard from the mirror in her dressing room.
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[It’s my child.]
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But in actuality, she has stabbed herself. This is one of the final
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mirror shots that we see in the film — a literal manifestation of the idea that
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Nina’s warped perception is killing her. When she takes the stage as the Black
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Swan, all of the hints of feathers and red eyes and stretched necks that we’ve
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seen thus far come together, and Nina’s metamorphosis is complete.
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Although the visuals here are quite disturbing, it’s satisfying to see Nina
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fully embrace her hallucinations, and achieve creative transcendence. She loses
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herself on stage.
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But in order to embody the Black Swan, she had to extinguish the white swan, the
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person she was before.
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[The only person standing in your way is you.
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It’s time to let her go. Lose yourself.]
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[Devastated, the White Swan leaps off a cliff, killing herself. And in death finds
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freedom.]
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As the blood from her self-inflicted wounds spills out, we
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remain in Nina’s perspective. And the final act of the ballet and her life ends
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in triumph, not tragedy.
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[I was perfect.]
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The camera fades to a blissful, blinding white, and Nina dies as the White Swan.
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But to her it was worth it
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video