Aronofsky's Next -- Black Swan

[chaseter]

Good movie. My only questions is the interpretation of the last shot of the movie.

Did she actually die from her stomach wound at the end and that is that?

My initial theory was that there is no way she could have been dancing around with a gaping stomach wound. She would have bled every where. So, I think that is her naive/child/white swan side of her personality dying. She is a new adventurous woman, black swan, and she decided it was time to quit being a child and she killed off that side of her, white swan. So, I don't think she really died at the end. I think that was all symbolism and in her head.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

She did most of the dancing hereself though she did use a double at times. Her dancing doesn't have too much to do with her performance in the movie.

Yeah, it's 80% of Natalie that was in the dance sequences.

Good movie. My only questions is the interpretation of the last shot of the movie.

Did she actually die from her stomach wound at the end and that is that?

My initial theory was that there is no way she could have been dancing around with a gaping stomach wound. She would have bled every where. So, I think that is her naive/child/white swan side of her personality dying. She is a new adventurous woman, black swan, and she decided it was time to quit being a child and she killed off that side of her, white swan. So, I don't think she really died at the end. I think that was all symbolism and in her head.

My interpretation of the ending is that [BLACKOUT]she dies in the end just like Odette in Swan Lake. Why I think that's what happens is probably because Nina's story is a parallel to the play Swan Lake.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[DACrowe]

But only loosely so. The parallels are not strong.

I think she died because the whole movie is very allegorical and melodramatic, much like ballet herself. In real life she wouldn't have been able to dance two more acts with a stomach wound (even if the shard of glass was still in it for one of them). However, it is the idea of the artist giving herself completely to her art that I accept. She needed to become "perfect" by killing her child-like self and releasing her inner, dark self that she has been violently trying to reach her whole life (hence the scratching to get at what's underneath. Feathers do GROW out of those wounds later). She is so repressed it comes out violently. But she accepts that as it allows her to master her art. She'd rather be perfect and die than live unsatisfied.

Realistic? No, but satisfying.

 

[Assassin32]

Adrenaline explains away any dancing-while-wounded controversy pretty easily for me.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

My other interpretation of the ending is like what chaseter wrote. Like in the end her innocent self/her white swan side died and she finally matured into a woman.

However, I still prefer the conclusion with Nina dying in the end.

 

[chaseter]

Adrenaline explains away any dancing-while-wounded controversy pretty easily for me.

There would be blood everywhere.

If she is seeing the dead body of a girl she just killed and it is all in her mind then I don't see why she couldn't see or feel a piece of glass in her that her bad side stabbed into her good side.

I see the movie as a transformation for her and like all transformations and of course the actual play Swan Lake, one side has to die, the White Swan, and the Black Swan lives. The title is also called Black Swan so that to me implies the ending that she indeed does become the Black Swan.

I may be wrong but I just don't see her getting stabbed in the belly with a huge piece of glass and dancing through an entire act without a spec of blood or anybody noticing the gaping wound in the front of her costume or the piece of glass sticking out. That to me implied that she was the only one who saw it.

Plus at the end nobody is getting blood on their hands or trying to cover up the wound. I think she just passed out from exhaustion for putting on such an amazing performance.

 

[Mr.Webs]

Wow. Finally got to see this yesterday, and my jaw hit the floor several times. Aronofsky has yet to make a bad film. Hell, he's yet to make an only okay film. But this I say, is possibly his best work to date. Portman really deserved that Oscar, dance double or not. Some incredible work, all around.