Black Swan: Natalie Portman's Best Performance

Table of Contents

Introduction:

Black Swan is a psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and it was released in 2010. Natalie Portman stars as the leading character Nina. Black Swan was a massive commercial success. It earned $329 million worldwide whereas its budget was only $13 million, with four nominations at the 68th Golden Globe Awards, Best Motion Picture – Drama and Portman won Best Actress.

Importance In Role:

It’s a common practice in the film industry for actresses to be cast in roles purely for their glamour. However, it’s important to acknowledge that a film cannot be produced without them. If given the chance, actresses can prove themselves as great actors, as seen in the movie Black Swan. Natalie portman (Nina Sayers) and Mila Kunis (Lily), both delivered exceptional performances in the film. Their hard work, patience, and dedication to their craft made them unforgettable to audiences worldwide. They trained for several months before starting the film.

Natalie Portman said, “I’m trying to find roles that demand more adulthood from me because you can get stuck in a very awful cute cycle as a woman in the film, especially being such a small person”. Her words highlight the challenges that many actresses face in an industry that often values youth and beauty over talent and experience. Every actor thinks a similar way before starting their carrier in the film industry. But the world forcefully pushes actresses to think the way Portman said. Actresses should have the opportunity to prove themselves and demonstrate their range as performers.

Natalie was very serious and interested in the film when director Aronofsky first discussed it with her. They discussed it about 10 years ago before filming started. Mila was a good friend of Natalie and Natalie suggested director to take Mila for the role of Lily. Natalie and Mila tried their best to be professional dancers. They trained for around six months, five hours a day.

The very beautiful and gorgeous actress Natalie portman turns the film into realism. Her every reaction from a hallucination state to a normal state is eye-catching and thrilling. Acting on specific feelings takes work. And she is perfect and perfectly place her acting on specific feeling like ego or depression. The film is about a dancer or rather says an artist who always finds perfection in her art. The artistic life is always like that. In the entire film, you will always realize, Natalie Portman is a pure and perfect artist, who is desperate to achieve her perfection.

Summary of The Film:

Black Swan is a psychological thriller drama. Aronofsky precisely explains a hallucinatory exploration of the artistic lifestyle. An artist whose intention is perfection and she can sacrifice her life for perfection. The perfection of art is a pure pleasure of an artist. In the film, Nina (Natalie Portman) is desperately looking for perfection in her dancing art. The film starts with Swan Lake where The New York City Ballet company is looking for a ballerina (a female ballet dancer) for the role of a White Swan.

Now it is important to know the history of Swan Lake, White Swan and Black Swan. There is not any precise source from where the story came. This is a Russian and German folk tale, The story of Odette (White Swan) and Odile(Black Swan). An Evil (Rothbart) turned a princess into a Swan(Odette) through his sorceries. She can turn back to the princess again if she finds true love.

Prince (Seigfried) goes to Swan Lake and tries to hunt the swan. Certainly, he realizes that the swan is transforming into a princess (Odette). He falls in love with her and decides to get married. The Balck Swan (Odile) is the daughter of the Evil Rothbart. Rothbart desires for the prince to marry his daughter Odile (Black Swan). As part of his scheme, he transforms Odile into Odette to deceive the prince.

Siegfried promises to marry Odile and then realizes the trick of Rothbart. He returned back to the lake and find his love, Odette. He apologizes for his nonsense, but the curse inflicted by Rothbart will keep Odette transformed into a swan as long as true love remains broken. Then Seigfried and Odette decide to die. This story has been represented in ballet since 1877.

Nina is perfect for performing as White Swan(Odette) but Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) the director of the ballet decides on Black Swan. Niana was excited to perform but here Lily comes as Nina’s best competitor. Now the challenging artistic lifestyle is started.