Black Swan analysis

This film opening is quite vague to the audience and sets the scene that they are on a stage and that Natalie Portman is the main character but doesn’t tell the audience much more. This has been done to keep the audience guessing what will happen which is one of the key conventions for a suspense film.

The location of the first scene of this film is on a stage where the colours are just black and white, they stay this colour throughout the piece which shows the contrast between them. These colours are used to enhance the title ‘Black Swan’ in comparison to a white swan. The costume of the women is a long white tutu which, enhances her innocence and vulnerability to the man that joins her on stage during this scene. This man wears black which, makes him blend in on the stage also this contrast in colours on their costumes make each character stand out from each other so, the dark black verses the pure white. Near the end of this opening scene the costumes of both characters change, the women’s costume changes into a white short horizontal tutu rather than a long flowing tutu. This change of costume makes her look older and that she has lost her innocence and that she has to change and cannot return to the pure ‘white’ swan. The man’s costume changes form black tights and black top to a big bold fringed jacket, tights and horns. He is presented to be a ‘beast’ like character, this could suggest that there might be a psychological twist in the film because ‘beast’ men don’t exist.

The lighting in this scene sets a mysterious feel to the piece as, it is just pitch black with one beam of white light entering from the left top corner at the beginning. Throughout this piece as the dancers start moving around and steps in and out of this beam of light. At the start the beam of light is on the dancers left side but by the end the beam of light is on the right side of the dancer. When the man enters the stage and starts to control the women she keeps reaching for the beam of light but doesn’t succeed which could suggest that she isn’t going to stay innocent and vulnerable for long. The way she is reaching suggests that she isn’t ready to change and she doesn’t want to lose her innocence or purity but, she is being made to.

At the beginning of the film the women is in the centre of the shot and is facing us but, by the end she is facing the opposite way in the centre of the shot enhancing to the audience that something has changed about her, this creates anxiety for the audience because they don’t know what. Also, because she is facing the opposite way it is showing another side to her, a side that contrasts with the innocent and vulnerable side. When the women sits down she has her whole body in the light and this could tell the audience that something bad is going to happen because she is standing out against the black and is at her most vulnerable because the white light makes her look naïve.

When the music changes and when the man’s costumes changes he starts to control her, he pushes and pulls her wherever he wants this is mostly away from the spot light and into the dark. At first the music is all soft and classical because it is just her on stage performing her routine. However, when the man enters the shot and starts to control her the music clashes and big bangs happens. This then happens again at the costumes changes this adds drama to the opening scene which at first looks like a classical ballet. By the end of the scene the music returns to the classical music but it isn’t soft anymore it is big and dramatic which gives the whole scene a more edgy feel and makes the audience feel on edge. As there is no dialogue in this opening scene the music gives the atmosphere of the scene because the dramatic clashes of the music tells the story rather than dialogue.

The cinematography of this piece starts off with a long shot of the women in the centre of the shot so the audience can see her whole body and costume to help them gain an understanding of the

location. As she starts to dance the camera follows where her feet move too with a close up of her feet. Only being able to see her feet creates mystery and tension. These are other key points that this sort of genre has to consider when making thriller/suspense films. Another key shot is the point of view shot of the man walking onto the stage, this means that audience can see him entering but not the women cannot which makes the audience feel anxious for the women. At the end of the scene one other key shot is the close up of the women’s face and then the zoom out from the women with the camera returning to its starting position with the women centre of the long shot so you can see the difference of her stance and costume and the way she is facing.

This opening of the film leaves the audience confused of what will happen next because it doesn’t give them a lot of context of the rest of the film but, this is the whole idea of a suspense film. The audience should not be able to guess what will happen next otherwise there would be no tension, anxiety or excitement. Throughout this film Natalie Portman is on a journey changing from an innocent white swan to a ‘Black Swan’ this sequence sets the scene and explains to the audience that there will be a change in her by the end. This links to the theorist Todorov; his theory is that there is equilibrium then disequilibrium and finally a resolution. This theory is the journey that Natalie Portman will take during this film.