Black Swan is released in 2010 and it’s directed by Darren Aronofsky. It’s a psychological thriller. Black Swan has won many awards, for example Natalie Portman won the Best Actress award for the film. Black Swan is a story about a ballet dancer Nina who is so hard trying to be perfect but who slowly loses her mind.

The plot
The ballet studio, where Nina is dancing, is about to prepare a new version of the very famous ballet: Swan Lake. Of course there is a lot of jealousy among the dancers; everyone wants to be the Swan Queen. However, Nina gets the leading role. It would be her first big role in her career.
Gradually, Nina finds out that it’s really hard to play the fragile White Swan and the seductive Black Swan at the same time. Even though Nina is training like crazy, she isn’t satisfied with her dancing. The pressure increases all the time and Nina is having very hard times. Nina starts to have different kinds of symptoms. For example, she imagines seeing things around her. A couple of times she even thinks to have seen herself walking by or just staring at her. Also her skin starts to behave weirdly: inexplicable scratches, cuts and rush.
Nina becomes all the time more and more withdrawn. She won’t speak with her mother anymore. She wants to be alone and she spends all her time by training. Only perfection is good enough for Nina. Eventually, Nina is really paranoid. She thinks that other girls are trying to steal her role and she sees enemies all around her.
In the end Nina’s paranoia has become enormous. Nina wants so badly dance the role of the Swan Queen that she kills her biggest competitor – or thinks to have killed her. Nevertheless, soon Nina finds out the horrible truth: the one who is dying is Nina by herself. Despite the fact that she is about to die, Nina still wants to dance her role and gets up on the stage. In the very end Nina finally reaches the perfection. In the movie’s final scene Nina lies smiling on the ground after the perfect performance, unfortunately dying.

Characters
Nina Sayers is a young, dedicated ballet dancer. Nina lives with her mother, who has also been a dancer in the past. Nina practices all day long and aims to be perfect. It could even be said that Nina is a perfectionist. She has a very strict diet and her self-control is extremely high. Gradually it points out that it’s also her biggest problem. Nina doesn’t dare to let go which isn’t a good thing when the dance is concerned. I think that Nina’s character is psychologically very interesting. Nina’s symptoms refer to schizophrenia: she sees things which don’t exist, she hears voices and her sense of reality is failing.
Lily has just moved from San Francisco to New York. She is full of life and has a lot of passion that Nina doesn’t have even though her dancing isn’t technically as perfect as Nina’s. Nina never likes Lily very much and she sees her as a competitor.
The director of the ballet, Thomas Leroy, is a really demanding man. No matter how much Nina practices, nothing is good enough for him. Leroy thinks only the performance, not the dancers.

Casting
I think that Natalie Portman is a really good choice to act Nina. She brings all the character’s feelings up perfectly. Natalie Portman is also a delicate and graceful enough to act a ballet dancer. Natalie Portman just looks like an actual ballerina. Portman is a great success as the Swan Queen.
Mila Kunis as Lily is Nina’s biggest competitor. Kunis manages to reach just the right attitude, on the other hand as a nice “friend” but then again on the other hand as a wily competitor.

Soundtrack
Because Black Swan is all about dancing, of course music plays a huge role in this movie. Music makes everything seem more dramatic. I think that some scenes have even become quite scary and oppressive because of the certain music. Music has a great power in this movie. Soundtrack is composed by a British classical composer Clint Mansell.

Black Swan is absolutely the most upsetting movie I have ever seen but at the same time Black Swan is absolutely the best movie I have ever seen. There is something inexplicably addictive in this movie. I would recommend Black Swan especially for girls. If you want to watch a little bit different movie instead of one of those typical movies with happy ever after, you should definitely watch Black Swan.