There are some that say life imitates art, and others who say that art imitates life. The recent Academy Award-winning psychological thriller, “Black Swan”, provides fodder for both schools of thought, without necessarily championing one over the other.When Nina (Natalie Portman) is selected to dance the part of both the White & Black swans in the famous ballet, Swan Lake, her life and sense of reality literally begin to fall apart. Her perfectionist, ‘Type A’ personality, overbearing mother, and a critical director who is constantly trying to push her out of her comfort zone (both as a dancer and as a sexual being) all begin ato take a toll on her physical and mental state of mind. In addition, Nina already suffers from bulimia and occasional hallucinations, and feels threatened by her understudy, Lily - another talented dancer who fits the role of the Black Swan to a T.
As rehearsals progress, Nina’s condition worsens. Her inability to passionately portray the Black Swan frustrates her director, and drives her to start exploring her ‘dark’ side. She experiments with sex and drugs, and rebels against her overprotective mother. Her hallucinations become more intense; she is haunted by a doppelganger of herself, as the Black Swan within takes hold and begins to emerge from deep within her psyche.
(I’ll not spoil the entire movie for you by continuing to summarize - instead, see it for yourself, you won’t be disappointed!)
I would think that in most cases, the idea that ‘art imitates life’ would be the most widely accepted interpretation. An artist is usually inspired by something in his or her own life - whether it be a natural phenomenon, an interpersonal relationship, or an internal sense of joy or despair - which is then filtered through the imagination and brought into creation as art. In Black Swan, this is certainly true - Nina’s life is reflected in her art. Her frigid dance style is indicative of her own personal struggles and her attempts to keep them hidden behind a facade of perfection.
Conversely, the concept of ‘life imitating art’ is a theme that permeates the dark and sometimes frightening film. The Black Swan archetype is in polar opposition to Nina’s White Swan temperament of sheltered innocence and naivety. The emergence of the Black Swan in Nina’s personality is directly related to her deep desire to not only play the part, but to be the part. This internal transformation is cinematically portrayed by the physical changes (albeit hallucinatory) that occur to Nina as she dances the part of the Black Swan. Her eyes turn red; her skin fills with goose pimples and soon splits to make way for sleek, glossy black feathers; her dancer’s arms become wings and her pirouetting legs buckle sickeningly into those of a swan. In short, her art becomes her.
It could be that neither philosophy can truly stand alone. Perhaps the two must be taken as a whole - while “Art imitates life, life also imitates art”. We each have a Black and a White swan within - the trick is to maintain a healthy balance.
