My Black Swan Analysis
The magnificent "obsession" can be one of two things. It can be a thing of beauty, a gifted ballet dancer gracefully contorting their body to a harmonious pace. But it can also be a thing of darkness, a face of white like Bergman's vision of Death with red, piercing eyes included. Director Darren Aronofsky is no stranger to telling tales of obsession. In fact, most of his films deal with the dueling sides of that fiery driven coin. With Black Swan, his latest film, he once again delves into the mental state of one who is obsessed, and, once again, he creates a thing of visionary brilliance. Black Swan, slow burn though it may be in the former half, quickly transcends both its lead character and her story
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The same goes for Black Swan, as he, as well as the screenwriters involved, gives us Nina, an innocent girl with a determination. However, the obsession in Black Swan is not directly linked to Nina's desire for celebrity. She doesn't necessarily want to be a dancer but rather is living out a delegated fantasy from her mother, played here with solid enthusiasm by Barbara Hershey. This disconnect—the buffer that is created between Nina and the black swan role—causes you to feel for her even more than any of Aronofky's previous characters. This is her obsession, but it's a means of giving her mother happiness, of finding a balance between what she wants for herself and what will please the person whose fantasy is really being pursued. This relationship, as well as all the relationships in Black Swan, is created with forceful pursuance. It's both in the way Aronofsky shoots his characters as well as the highly gifted actors he incorporates into them. Natalie Portman, always on top of her game, pulls out everything for Nina here. Innocent to edged, mousy to fearless, light to dark, she bulls through the range in performance required of her, but it is pulled off with the absolute grace that is appreciative of the character involved. In this dark masterpiece, she brings the light, and it becomes all the more heart-wrenching when her light begins to fade. This dichotomy and the volatility that
Cleaning up down South: supermarkets, ethical trade and African horticulture is a piece by Susanne Freidberg published in Social and Cultural Geography journal in 2003 (Freidberg, 2003). Susanne Friedberg holds PhD from UC Berkely and is a Professor of Geography in Darmouth College, New Hampshire (“Susanne Freidberg,” n.d.). In the article the author argues that the ethical standards have become fetishised. The UK supermarkets compliance with such standards edges on paranoia. It does not mean that the supermarkets care about these standards from moral point of view but that the compliance is driven by fear of bad
Romeo and Juliet’s actions may seem rushed and immature, but Baz Luhrmann’s movie offers a compelling insight into their decisions. By setting this Elizabethan era play in the present day, the viewer can see past the differences in scenery and clothing compared to those of their lives, to analyze the unique characteristics of the lovers’ society and upbringing that may have led to their hasty love affair and violent end. Luhrmann creates a culture of violence and speed through careful decisions regarding cinematography, editing, and sound.
Depression placed a dark brooding shadow over my mind. I was weighed down, oppressed by the burden of having to carry on with life. In my mind, there was a crushing sense of hopelessness that I have never felt before. The only therapy I found was taking that beautiful, freshly sharpened razor to my left arm. A sigh of relief departed me as I watched the bright red blood drip from my vein. The only burden I had was going to school and hiding my war scars. Each day, the darkness spread through me like cancer. My body withering away, I needed an escape route from this crucial disease. This all continued until the day I saw a light and the darkness began to fade
Love is an unpredictable emotion—to the brink that it drives someone to take a bullet for someone else. It suffocates the intelligent neurons in a person's mind, shutting them down and letting their heart’s beatings control their actions. In Junot Diaz's book The Brief Wondorous Life of Oscar Wao, love blinds the characters, impacting life-threatening decisions which leads them towards a long road of suffering.
This paper is about how did “Shadow Banking” precipitate the financial Crises. Then discusses the impacts of the crisis on the major financial institutions.
During Nina’s practice for the Black Swan, Thomas notices what an effective white swan she is, but for her to become the black swan will be a major challenge. However, soon she observes and figures that her peer Lily is dancing with passion and is more adequate for the seductive and impulsive role of the black swan. And when Thomas notes that she is not faking it and knows how to express herself, Nina becomes suspicious of Lily to the point of apparent paranoia. But as a viewer it is challenging to determine whether Lily is really out to take away Nina’s role or if this is Nina’s paranoid delusion.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was the economic event of the 20th century. The Great Depression began in 1929 when the entire world suffered an enormous drop in output and an unprecedented rise in unemployment. World economic output continued to decline until 1932 when it clinked bottom at 50% of its 1929 level. Unemployment soared, in the United States it peaked at 24.9% in 1933. Real economic output (real GDP) fell by 29% from 1929 to 1933 and the US stock market lost 89.5% of its value. Another unusual aspect of the Great Depression was deflation. Prices fell 25%, 30%, 30%, and 40% in the UK, Germany, the US, and France respectively from 1929 to 1933. These were the four largest economies in
A bleak, stark white scene opens Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty. The protagonist, Lucy, enters the frame and blends in perfectly. Her pale skin, light hair, and rustled white top are in perfect unison with the monochromatic scene catching her stuff a tube down her throat as a research subject. The audience is compelled to watch this unsettling scene for several minutes, setting the pace for the remainder of the movie. The film explores a character whose lacking personality allows the viewer to perceive her as they choose. In particular, Lucy’s friend’s, Birdman’s, funeral is a compelling scene that reflects on her past; it allows the viewer to realize that her sleeping emotions are caused by her missed opportunity to be
The directors Darren Aronofsky and David Fincher key concern in Black Swan and Gone Girl are to convey how destructive, unhealthy relationships can be to women. Women have become dependent on the peoples in their lives for their sense of purpose. Both films depict women in a negative way. In fact, each film suggests that women can be adversely impacted by the relationships they have with others. In each film, the women characters are dependent on a strong character whom they rely on mentally and emotionally. Therefore, this allows the directors to expand the stereotype people have around on a mental illness. These methods are created by the use of cinematography, which communicate the dependent roles and non- diegetic music which convey
In the film, Black Swan, the plot centers on Nina Sayers, a ballerina whose only goal is to play the role of the Black and White Swan in her company’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. While she easily embodies into the innocence and grace of the White Swan, her shy and fragile personality does not fit the seductiveness and mysteriousness of the Black Swan. As a result, she struggles to become the opposite of who she is, worsening her issues with depression and anorexia.
The main character in the film Black Swan, twenty-eight year old female Nina Sayers, displays signs of numerous disorders through her abnormal behavior. Nina’s life is consumed by her occupation: professional ballerina/dancer. Nina resides with her mother and rarely socializes with others. She has difficulty concentrating, is restless, irritable, suffers from muscle tension, and sleep disturbances from nightmares. Nina also feels very uncomfortable in social and intimate situations. She appears to be unable to successfully interact with those around her. The interaction that Nina has with her fellow dancers appears to be strained and superficial. Nina exhibits behavior that indicates she views all other dancers as competition instead of
Emily Bronte’s novel captures and portrays the essence of damaging passion through illustrative writing to ultimately exemplify details of her character's inner feelings and reality. The 2010 interpretation is embellished in artistic camera angles as its focuses on the novels connection to nature. Although both mediums are an expression of Bronte’s imagination, Arnold individually articulates her version creatively and expressively. However both narratives manipulate diverse devices to produce a haunting result. The film adaptation and the book exploit the devices that the other cant as they offer audiences with unique approaches of the same events.
It was 1929, and in the United States things could not be better for those smart enough, or for that matter, brave enough, to gamble on the Stock Market. All of the big stocks were paying off handsomely, the little ones too. However, as much as analysis tried to tell the people that this period of great wealth would last, no one could imagine what would come of the United States economy in the next decade. The reasons for this catastrophic event in American 20th century history are numerous, and in his book, The Great Crash, John Kenneth Galbraith covers the period and events which lead up to the downward spiral in the fall of 1929 and the people behind the scenes on Wall Street who helped this fire spread.
Black Swan is a psycho thriller film that narrates the life of a ballerina called Nina Sayers (played by Natalie Portman). She is a young, ambitious dancer working for a prestigious NYC ballet company. According to the movie, she was around twenty-some year old when the story begins. Even though the main point of the movie is how bad Nina wanted the lead role for a theater production called Swan Lake, the dark drama around the movie is built by the psychological illness of its protagonist. Nina’s disordered relationship with her roommate/mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina’s psychological breakdown. In the movie, the role that Nina always wanted requires her to play both the black and white swans. Her innocent, almost child-like personality makes her a perfect hite swan; however, she was having trouble getting into the character of the white swan’s dark and seductive counterpart. This film brilliantly captures the brutal physical and emotional demands that ballerinas face in their short-lived career span.
Despite this, however, some have since suggested that their model is pure economics, and is only valid in a theoretical world that doesn’t reflect some of the frictions that actual financial markets do.