akademiskkvarter Volume 03 • 2011 academic quarter

Body Refractions Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan

Steen Christiansen er ph.d. og lektor i litteratur, kultur og medier ved Aalborg Universitet. Anmelder ved Kulturkapellet. Har publiceret artikler om tegneserier, Hollywood, science fiction og det fantastiske. Han arbejder i øjeblikket på en bog om hauntologi.

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010) is a film which blends many different inspirations into one story. It is obvious that Pyotr Tchaik- ovsky’s Swan Lake (1877) stands at the center of the narrative struc- ture, yet Aronofsky himself has also indicated a debt to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Double (1846). In addition to this, there is also a link to Michael Powell’s and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948) and by extension H.C. Andersen’s “De røde sko” (“The Red Shoes”) (1845). What these stories all share, in different variations, is a concern with transformation. The most obvious transformation of the film, is that of Nina Sawyer (Natalie Portman) and her trans- formation into a woman; this transformation is one which is both generational (in that Nina becomes independent of her mother) and sexual (in that Nina finds her own sexuality). There is another transformation, however, which is what this arti- cle will focus on and that is the transformation Nina attempts to undergo between playing the part of the Swan Queen and being the Swan Queen - expressed by herself as being perfect. I take this ques- tion of wanting to be the Swan Queen as a matter of transgressing the boundary between representation and performance. Nina is not satisfied with simply representing the Swan Queen, of appearing to be or pretending to be. Instead she must go beyond appearance and

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- - - 307 Black Swan Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 Black Swan. I take Foucault’s point to be that the non- Doppelgänger motif is concerned, this is established early on in If we start with the mirror motif it is evident throughout the en- My understanding of transgression therefore comes primarily embrace being. Nina’s change into a woman is thus a - transforma transfor a simply not is Queen Swan the becoming Nina while tion, of art. a going beyond the realm mation but instead a transgression, Nina’s most powerful transformation is her therefore transgression unsta- the by highlighted is which transgression a life, into fiction of film. the throughout world Nina’s of level ontological ble tension:of areas immediate two up sets thus motif mirror The face. the Doppelgänger motif and the split personality As motif. far as the and seeing some- the film,when we see Nina looking in the mirror rath- coat black a wearing but hairdo) (same her resembles who one er than Nina’s white. There is even a movement mirrored of fixing the which hair, establishes the similarity between the two, some thing which is played out to its full extreme when Nina gets to the are all and other each resemble there women the All room. dressing transgressive transgressive eye sees the world as image, as a picture which can be controlled and disciplined by the - viewing subject. Transgres and invisible both time same the at is what be therefore would sion beyond the visible; the transgressive eye is what turns inwards in op- the therefore is Transgression image. to than rather be to order position between image and being, - in other between words repre sentation and Being. tire film; there is hardly a scene without one kind ofreflecting sur questions the notion of representation, framing it as a discussion be- discussion a as it framing representation, of notion the questions tween mirror and performance; Nina Sawyer wants to be the Black Swan, not just represent it. This leads us to another transgression, which is that of the morph. The morph is the bridge between the mirror and performance, because when Nina finally performs her role, she physically morphs into the unreal being of swan-woman of representation. hybrid, thus smashing the mirror from Foucault’s reading of Bataille in his “Preface - to Transgres sight and eye the of centrality the out points Foucault where sion,” to Bataille’s notion of the transgression; eye signals inner experi- ence (Foucault, 1998, p. 81) but at the same time the eye is also the to and see To (84). limit” the of being “the experience, of limit very be thus are central concerns for just transgression, as it is a central concern for quarter

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kvarter akademisk 308 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 Lily is immediately set up as the evil Doppelganger of Nina Central to the film’s psychological dimension is Nina’s evident looking in mirrors and fixing their hair the same way as Nina. With Nina. as way same the hair their fixing and mirrors in looking the arrival of the new member Lily (Mila Kunis), we see that there is indeed a striking resemblance between the This two, physically. only the is Nina while black, wears Lily that fact the by contrasted is one wearing white out of all the ballerinas. Even the wide wearing shot still Nina of outfits, black and gray of blur a is room dance the the only white outfit. effortlessness her for Lily praises director, the Leroy, Thomas and the between up set rivalry The it.” faking “not is she because and two is thus a mirroring of the rivalry between Odette and Odile As a contemporary tale, ballet. Lily as the black in Tchaikovsky’s lead- Nina, swan white for temptress the as more functions swan ing Nina to live out fantasies she has never dared act on before - their primary scene together is when Lily goes out with Nina, where they get drunk, do drugs and fuck guys. Lily’s hedonistic ice no of life controlled Nina’s to contrast sharp in stand pursuits no food, cream, greasy living instead in a state of devel- arrested opment with her surrounded mother, by baby pink pillows and What obvious. too almost glaring, is contrast The animals. stuffed mo- the with in ties it way the is motif Doppelganger the clinches tif of the split personality. get hints of Nina’s state early on, when We she leaves instability. the ballet company the first night and goes home via the subway, her toward coming is woman a Here corridor. dark long, a through and as Nina nervously glances up at the woman as she passes, we chang- face the Immediately, woman. strange the on face Nina’s see es back but face-changing becomes a running motif from here on. end Lily and Nina when motif mirror the to clearly most tied is This up back at Nina’s apartment. As they enter the we door, see their reflections in a emphasizing kaleidoscopic their mirror, drunken state but certainly also hinting at the slow unhinging of Nina’s mind. As they rush into Nina’s room and lock one the of door, the Shot love. make they as occurs film the of scenes controversial more primarily from Nina’s point of view with reaction shots of her en- joyment of Lily’s cunnilingus, we as spectators are drawn into the scene through close-ups of Lily’s face looking at Nina. Just before Nina’s. into flash a for changes face Lily’s however, orgasm, Nina’s quarter

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309 Black Swan Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 The Mirror and the Lamp, The Mirror where the mirror is the poor crafts- . At Black Swan. first, such areading seems evident and natural: The Doppelganger and the split personality is therefore two sides all this talk of doubles mirrors, and With sex, it becomes neces- draws heavily on. Maybe it is precisely the obviousness of the reading which makes me hesitate before it, for just as it is typi- - repre as cinema Hollywood classical in motif mirror the see calto in typical also is it protagonist, the of desires unconscious senting film theory to see as for the a the screen mirror spectator’s identi- fication with the protagonist. Post-coital Nina falls asleep and wakes up alone. Rushing to the Whilenight. the spent having denies who Lily meets she rehearsal, the partying at the club is established by Lily as real, their shared sexual relationship is revealed to be a dream, nothing more than a to Lily. according “lezzie wet dream” of the same coin, or perhaps two sides of the same mirror would be theis she because Doppelganger Nina’s as stands Lily accurate. more mirror image of Nina’s unstable psyche; Lily simply Nina inverted. onlysees Nina so and herself of opposite the as sees Nina what is Lily a reflection of her own innerdesires, of the one she wishes she could be. This is Bataille’s power of the eye, for Foucault, “[t]he eye, in a philosophy of reflection, derives from its capacity to the observe interior to itself.” (Foucault, 1998, p.power of becoming always more - prolif mirrors reflection; of world a as up set is ballet of world The 81) their constitute to mirrors need dancers The everywhere. are and erate forthem need also they but make-up for mirrors the need they selves; their dance routines, where only the mirror can reveal if their moves ballerinas, the for image the of ground the thus are Mirrors correct. are and perfection for Nina is at first achieved through the only mirror, Thomas demands more than simple representation. This artistic no- Abrams M.H. by restating its and Plato to back way the all traces tion in his man’s inferior reflection of the outside world, whereas the true artist an ideal or a lamp of imagination. within, from comes from sary to pause and discuss the notion of a psychoanalytic reading of her Nina, whose father we never even hear of, is trying to resolve play- and them interrogating by drives and desires unconscious which strategy a is This double. mirror-image her with out them ing is well-known in classical Hollywood cinema such as precisely The Red Shoes which I have already pointed out that quarter

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kvarter akademisk - - - 310 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 How, then, do How, we identify with Nina as female protagonist? It is find indeed do we scopophilia, of issue the to turn instead we If For these reasons, I see the sex scene as emblematic of the film’s - unreli the to due part large in appear, first at may it as simple as not - Oedi no certainly is there all, of First view. of point Nina’s of ability to attempt does Nina though even for on, rely to us for trajectory pal break free from her mother by embracing her own sexuality - (bisex ual, it appears), she also herself realigns with her mother’s expecta- sits mother Nina’s how see We performance. final the in her of tions crying in the audience at Nina’s perfect performance, achieving what the mother herself never managed and so symbolically we might argue that Nina becomes what the mother always wanted to be. Hardly the overcoming of the parent which the Oedipal trajec- we left with a stable world as the film ends. tory signifies, nor are a male sexual fantasy represented on the screen in the sex scene between Nina and Lily; the lesbian sex triggers the desire of the at is and scene the in party third the be to wants who viewer male problem a is there But participant. voyeuristic a as in allowed least with the scopophilic pleasure taken in the sex scene, for as it un- folds Lily’s face changes into Nina’s in a few flashes, which cer tainly distantiates us the we from pleasure might be taking in the the disrupts also certainly it reflection upon and unfolding images ease with which we may see the scene as part of our male scopo philic drive. And of course, the tryst is revealed to be precisely a fantasy - it only happened in Nina’s drunken mind and the het- erosexual sex which evidently took place is not shown, only the disruption of it. When Nina tells her mother that she fucked two men but we never saw that happen, is Nina lying or did we sim- ply not Nina see? is Clearly, at this point a highly unreliable nar rator so we cannot actually know and the pleasure we might de- transformation uncanny the by disrupted is scene sex the from rive of Lily into Nina, refusing a stable character identification and a stable plot. larger structure as a house of mirrors. I have already pointed out how mirrors and reflecting surfaces occupyalmost all the mise-en- Nina. of images two see we that so positioned often film, the of scene Not only does this indicate in the mise-en-scene the running theme of the entire film, but combinedwith the morphing faces (the girl’s face in the subway corridor changing into Nina’s, Lily’s face chang- quarter

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kvarter akademisk 311 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 as an illusion, deludes; and it works only if we Certainly the scene fulfills these tworequirements, but like the One might argue, however, that what I have outlined above still above outlined have I what that however, argue, might One can see that it is an illusion, that we were deluded. The gap be- tween the two moments, Lacan proposes, is the location of de- 1994, p. 155) (Belsey, sire.” of the rest film it also insists fantasy. on than something mere more for her desire Nina is not satisfied with thefantasy of sex withLily, Lily is in essence a metaphoric substitution for Nina’s desire to be the Black Swan and so Nina’s desire is not based around the psy- choanalytic logic of desire as lack or longing. Instead, Nina’s con- cept of desire is a Deleuzian desire, which is founded in ascesis. Nina is nothing if not self-disciplined and locates her sense of au- thenticity in that very self-discipline. It is this self-discipline which the be to representation, beyond go to ability an desire to her drives Black Swan rather than a mere illusion of the Black Swan. If we Mitchell’s un- brieflyW.J.T. contrast illusion with thatrealism of in derstanding illusion where as is a power matter over of thepower, spectator and is realism power over the world (Mitchell, 1994, p. 325), this becomes a way for bringing us back to the question of ing into Nina’s, Nina’s face changing into Beth’s and so forth), we to face forced the fact are is possibility that no for there real identifi- cation in this film. Our aligning ourselves with Nina turns out to be just as disturbing and false as taking pleasure in Lily’s and Nina’s sex scene. It is both necessary and impossible at the same time. The demanding of move transgressive this from comes film the of power and disrupting identification at the same time. The presence of the as seen be must a less, no film the into minutes 69 located scene, sex what them giving audience, male the of desires the on joke knowing they want but at the same time making it disturbing, uncanny and only an embarrassing wet dream. if even that and desire of understanding psychoanalytic a follows the sex scene is narratively cast as false and only a dream, this denial still depends on the heightened significance of the scene and the spectator desire which necessarily arises, despite its am- biguous and uncanny overtones. This remains an erotic spectacle meant to convince us of the necessary sex appeal which Thomas Yet, stage. on it present to order in feel must Nina insists constantly as a false spectacle the scene remains an illusion, and “it works only if it persuades quarter

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kvarter akademisk - - 312 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 . If we return to return we If Black Swan. Black Swan Black to be the - argu Black Swan is located therefore in desire but this Identification in which image affective the call can we what of subjection this is It Foucault’s and Bataille’s notion of transgression, we see that it the through breaks transgression that argument the from comes image to reveal what is behind it, what is truly at stake. I will ar representation representation and performance. Nina’s Deleuzian desire comes the discipline from to have power over the world, to move beyond mere illusion as the pretense of “this is the way things looks” and assert “this is the way things are.” instead be able to desire is not that of lack or longing. It is instead a relationship of power; Nina’s desire for power over the world, the spectator’s de- con- to urge scopophilic the on based screen the over power for sire trol the images but which becomes frustrated by the mirror motif male into lure easy the us, of front in images the of banality the and fantasy which only works as means to take power over the naive Classical spectator (male) identificationspectator. becomes a trap which does not enable us to understand or properly explain the way the film structures its affect and through thisaffect takes con- genre body a as function its exactly is which spectator, the over trol film as Steven Shaviro points out As (Shaviro, body 2011). genre, spectator’s the at jerks film the overpower to intends and emotions which in essence is the very opposite of the classical spectator, film identification’s powerful spectator in control of the images. Identi- with subjection. fication in Black Swan is replaced of moment transgressive the as regard I gue that we can take this in the case of ment of fantasy versus experience, where the sexual fantasy of expe- actual the of representation weak a is it enough, not is Nina rience of desire which is what Nina has when she is transformed trans- undergoes body very Nina’s why is This Swan. Black the into final her during explicitly most but film the throughout formations over Nina where performance this in is It Swan. Black the as scene and mere representation fantasy and steps instead becomes the meant also moment a desire, affective of moment a in Swan Black as to transgress the boundary We between screen and spectator. startled and shocked simply not be to meant clearly are spectators by Nina’s physical transformation but also to be elated by Nina’s the in mistake the transcends clearly which performance virtuoso to meant are we Furthermore, floor. the to falls she where act, first quarter

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kvarter akademisk 313 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 takes shape.” (Bukat- , the morph the Black Swan, becoming, a matter of being rather becomes that; it Morphing is thereby the ontological basis which enables this It is not an accident that Nina smashes the mirror and kills the man, 2000, p. 240) because transgression the enables image; the beyond transgression morphing always undoes its own performance. The ontological paradoxical a therefore is morph the for claiming am I which basis instead but structured or stable not is which ontology an ontology, constantly altered and in the process of becoming. It is this onto- logical becoming of the image which goes beyond representation in morphing and is exactly a than appearing Nina or smashes resemblance. in the an mirror act phys- it morphing, as expressed is becoming this and becoming of ically alters and transforms Nina from imperfect image-fantasy to perfect image-being. The image of Nina goes beyond - mere repre senation and achieves (ideally) affect in the It spectator. is this af- illusionism mere beyond extends which image morphing fective into “a breakdown of the spatial boundaries that separate us and theatri- the collapsing perceptually representation, the from reality cal frame of the stage.” (Ndalianis, 2000, p. 265) Morphing insists be jubilantly heartbroken that Nina reaches a perfect performance perfect a reaches Nina that heartbroken jubilantly be performance. this very only to die from phantasmatic Lily with a shard of the Not mirror. only is it sym- bolic of the way Nina rejects being bullied by her peers but it is also shows Nina’s desire to smash the mirror of representation and the mirror-boundary between screen and Nina’s spectator. rather image, affect an into transformed completely be to is desire touch and out reach to wants she representation, of image an than her audience in the hall and by extension us. That is why this is the emotional high point of the film, visualized by one of the mo- morph to order in effects digital to transitions film the when ments the image beyond its representational means, to go beyond what we as spectators know is possible. There is no attempt made to explain Nina’s transformation, nor any attempts made to make the clearly visual appear effects Nina realistic; looks like more a monster or a hybrid than anything like a swan or a human. The in mirror the of opposite the is then, morph, clas- by up set logic mirror the rejects and resists which logic the is as literalism, of kind new a it with brings instead and cinema sical Scott Bukatman “this argues, quarter

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kvarter akademisk 314 Body Refractions Body Steen Christiansen Steen Volume 03 which is transformed through through transformed is which Black Swan Black Swan Black joins a growing line of post-cinematic films We must We of course keep in mind here that the cinematic images which may be indicative of a new emerging cinema to take its placewhich may be indicative of a new emerging maywe image an time-image; the and movement-image the to next begin to call the morph-image. - transgres film’s the allows which morphing this is it and morph the sive move beyond representation and beyond the image-fantasy of the that accident no also is it Therefore, cinema. Hollywood classical as the stable morphing which on takes the place body, is centered body has generally been the basis for a continuous sense of self. Nina, far a from stable self, is also physically fluid and- sorepre the down, sentational something image-body we breaks can identify as iden- been have which films the all much pretty in motif dominant a tified as post-cinematic by scholars such as Shaviro, Matt Hanson bound- the representational and David Rodowick. By transgressing aries and recognizing that such an issue is deeply problematic in a digital age, that we must - accept that as realistic which perceptually is referen p. 264) (Ndalianis, 2000, tially unreal No are. effects digital the realistic how matter no illusions, are see we one believes or is expected to believe that Natalie Portman physi- cally transformed, only that the character Nina within the diegesis - affec the on all of first insist I why is That transform. physically does images the that out point all of second and images the of nature tive transform from celluloid to digital. In the first instance of the- affec tive images, it that is affect the through boundaries between specta- tor/reality and are collapsed representation moving beyond the di- vision which representation itself implies. That is why the affective we here because images, digital the in fore the to most comes image move beyond the idea of sign and referent because there is no - pro filmic event (everything in front of the camera), which allows us to realize what Deleuze and Guattari point out, that “representations are bodies, too!” (Deleuze and Guattari, 2008, p. 95) It is the - repre of image-body sentational quarter

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kvarter akademisk - 315 Body Refractions Body Meta-Morphing: Meta-Morphing: Aesthetics, Meth- Steen Christiansen Steen Volume A Thousand Plateaus: A 03 Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation Meta-Morphing: Transformation Visual , London: Penguin Books, 1998. . Oxford & Oxford . Culture Love Stories in Western Desire: - Represen and Visual Essays on Verbal Theory: Picture Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1994. Cambridge: Blackwell Self.” In Sobchack. Vivian Univer London: & Minneapolis . Quick-Change of Culture the and sity of Minnesota Press, 2000. sity of Minnesota Press, . Translated by Brian Massumi (1987). Massumi Brian by Translated . Capitalism and Schizophrenia Continuum. York: London & New od, and Epistemology Minneapo- . Quick-Change of Culture the and Transformation Visual 2000. Press, lis & London: University of Minnesota 2011]. September, [Accessed 11th shaviro.com/Blog/?p=975 . Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. Press, Chicago of University The London: & Chicago tation. Cinema of Attractions.” In Vivian Sobchack. References . Catherine Belsey, . “Taking Shape: Morphing and the Performance of Performance the and Morphing Shape: “Taking . Bukatman, Scott , 2008/1980. , Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix . “Preface to Transgression.” In Foucault, Michel. “Preface to Transgression.” Mitchell, W.J.T. http://www. at Available [online] Swan.” “Black Shaviro, Steven. . “Special Effects, Morphing Magic, and the 1990s the and Magic, Morphing Effects, “Special Ndalianis, Angela. quarter

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