Film Review: Black Swan

To aid our research, we thought that doing a film review would widen our knowledge and would encourage a deeper study of a psychological thriller:

Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a delicate, overly mothered dancer with the New York City Ballet who goes into a state of mental breakdown when she lands the dual roles of the White and Black Swans, Odette and Odile, in a production of ‘Swan Lake’. Aronofsky has gone for a very unrealistic approach when representing the girls damaged mental state – and the ballet’s own story and themes – in everything from an invasive, swirling camera angles and shots, to the loud and creepy music used in most scenes and dark colours used to contrast the innocence of Natalie when she wears a white tutu.

It is not clear what’s real or not in Black Swan as there is no indication to what is mental thoughts and what is real life. Aronofsky’s approach to psychological drama makes other psychological thrillers that we have evaluated look very timid and unpowerful. He doesn’t go for a gradual reveal of insanity, instead, right from the start, we see Nina tearing off impossible amounts of skin from her fingers and hear awful cracks and snaps as she exercises her feet.

Throughout the film we see Nina's damaged psychological state becoming more and more obvious and aggressive. We see Nina’s legs bending and snapping, just as she hallucinates while looking at the walls of the flat she shares with her ultra-protective mother, played as a witch by Barbara Hershey. Her other nemeses are a newly retired dancer (Winona Ryder) and a pretty new colleague (Mila Kunis). Our view of both is entirely distorted by Nina’s breakdown as she struggles to play both swans and defy Thomas’s (her dance teachers) concerns that she’s too pure to play the more evil role.

The film’s endless pulp elements like the stabbing, drugs, blood and strangling are tempered by the innocence of the story’s context – the classical ballet music, dancing, costumes - and the films strong momentum. Aronofsky has taken a disturbed psychological state and displayed its effects and Nina's feelings visually. He’s more concerned with expressing Nina’s madness and reflecting it in the world about her than in making any sense of her character or the life of a dancer. It is overall a very powerful and disturbing film that displays all the common codes and conventions of a psychological thriller.



We also found this video which further outlines the film and encourages debate about the successes of the film and compares it to other films by the same director, Darren Aronofsky:

Picture Mood Board

Along with our spider diagram mood board we created following a discussion, I created a picture mood board to summarise our ideas and visually represent our thoughts and ideas. We will use this mood board along with the other one to stick to the codes and conventions of a typical psychological thriller and to give us a guideline of what we should includes with reference to shot types, colours and lighting. 

The mood board when looked at uses dark colours with splashes of red and neon green to indicate the sudden electric drama that is found in psychological thrillers. The mood board also displays a number of examples of films we watched for inspiration with our opening. 

Iconic Directors Of a Psychological Thriller

Here I have created a short film which outlines some information on the iconic film directors that have produced some psychological thrillers.

Here are some clips of their work-

Christopher Nolan
Directed the film 'Momento'

Dario Argento
Directed the film 'Trauma'

Alfred Hitchock

Directed the film 'Psycho'

Deciding our Genre: Psychological Thriller

After much deliberation, we decided that we would do  Psychological Thriller film opening. We did also did research on many genres and we concluded that this one would be most fun to film and plan and that we would enjoy creating a psychological thriller the most, as it would challenge us. Firstly, we would have to come up with a thoughtful storyline which would challenge our imaginations, then we had to research all the codes and conventions to try and create a successful and realistic psychological thriller. We were all up for the challenge! 

Genre: Action

Action 

An action film is usually based around a group of people who are facing challenges or an individual. Action films stereotypically involves chase scenes, guns, explosions, fighting, threatening situations and an evil villain. This genre allows the audience to view the storyline through fights and car chases and creates a lot of tension throughout.

An example of an action film is...

This action film has the story line of a detective who has encountered some terrorists, and must take on this group during a heist, whilst they hold his wife hostage.

 

This trailer demonstrates the key signifiers of an action film of guns, explosions, fighting etc. Gender is also represented in this trailer, through the casting of the hero who is seen to have a low voice, tough exterior and a casual dress sense, which implies masculinity. The women's sexuality is implied through the leather one piece as she strips down to only her bra, also presenting vunerability. The music has a lively tempo in high energy situations which contribute to the action and drama.  At the beginning of the trailer there is only the diegetic sound of a helicopter with humming tones and beats throughout,  which raises in pitch giving off tension and anticipation. The diegetic sounds regularly show gun shots, the sound of explosions and helicopters merging the key themes in an action movie. In contrast there is a gospel choir singing which is played loudly and dramatically and speeds up towards the end with an orchestra, emphasising the lively and chaotic atmoshpere. Editing is also seen in sparks, explosions and a smoke which all contribute to the exhilarating and eye catching movement. There is a lot of unsteady movement in the camera work which indicates the fast paced and lively atmosphere of the film. The lighting presents a lot of night time shots and dark surroundings which add to the mystery and contrast the bold and bright explosions of yellow and orange fire. Bold titles are also shown during the trailer which is seen in action films, as it gives a bold entrance to the film.

Some more examples of action films are...

From the first glance of these films the audience can see the different codes and conventions typical to an action movie. A main theme colour which is presented in most action films are black and red, signifying danger, death and destruction.

In this film clip we can see masculinity plays a major role in action films, as heroes are presented to be muscular and attractive. It is seen that they wear leather jackets which presents dominance and vests to draw the attention to their body. It is also portrayed through them having a deep and low voice, and taking control of the situations. Women are also contrasted in this film clip through what they are wearing in one scene, compromising of shorts skirts and strappy tops, again exposing vulnerable sexuality, further implying women as 'sex objects'.





The Feminist Theory

The feminist film theory has been used to analyse action movies. The separation between the physical male, who controls the scene and the gaze, and the female, who is almost always the object of the gaze, is very clear in most such films. Although female characters in most action films are nothing more than objects, a prize for the winner, hostages and the loving wives. There has been a move towards stronger female characters such as those in works by James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, moving towards "girl power"-style feminine empowerment (e.g. Charlie's Angels), in place of the traditional "damsel in distress".

(For example, Ghost Rider and Doomsday)







(For example, Dumb & Dumber and Big Momma's House)






(For example, The Matrix and District 9)










Due to the development of technology, the audience can view special effects which are common in a lot of action movies. An example of these special effects is in 'Death Race'  

(Trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU4TUCh-HwE)

These special effects create an illusion for the audience which grips their attention and creates tension in the way it is presented. 

Genre: Horror and Thriller

Horror and Thriller are examples of a genre of film, these genres aim to create fear and panic for the audiences by portraying their worst fears and nightmares on screen. A lot of horrors are based around an evil force or being or involve a mythical creature such as zombies or vampires.

A lot of horror films use the feature of sound to create suspense or an eerie atmosphere, this can be done with a squeaky door a loud bang or even silence can be very effective in creating a tense atmosphere.

Another typical feature of horror films is the use of symbolism and imagery for example a haunted house, chainsaws, blood, and graveyards. All of these images are commonly used in horror films and aid in creating a scary atmosphere. Setting is also created using certain objects and locations to create vulnerable situations such as night time and abandoned warehouses.

A common feature of horror films is the use of point of view shots, showing the scene through the killer or the victims eyes, putting you in their shoes and bringing the audience into the action, this aids in creating fear and panic in the audience.

The following clip is from "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and shows the opening scene. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"  is a thriller and is rated 18 by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). This film contains sexual abuse and is based around an unlikely pair uncovering a serial rapist and murderer. This opening scene is very different to other film openings as it uses a realistic animation style rather than actual actors. This is very effective in creating a tense atmosphere and along with the music overlay and mis-en-scene makes it clear to the audience that this is a thriller. I chose to show this clip as it shows an un-typical feature used in horror movie openings and shows a contrasting idea and technique.

In contrast this opening scene from "The Women in Black" uses actors. However much like the previous clip it uses a music overlay that is non-diegetic that juxtaposes the mis-en-scene of little girls having a tea party to create and eerie atmosphere and create the suspense of something bad that might happen. This music overlay shows the viewer that this is a horror movie. The use of getting the girls to do things in sync creates the idea that they have been possessed which adds to the scary atmosphere and helps to create fear in the audience. 

Genre: Romance and Romantic Comedies

The Different Types of Genres

Genres

The definition of a genre is ‘the category under which a certain film has been classified, which primarily depends on the content of a film. Films within a certain genre have usually similar narrative elements that include setting, theme, topic, and the type of mood that is associated with the movie.’

There are many types of genres which serve different purposes in films. They bring out different reactions and emotional responses when viewing something and appeal towards different tastes.

Genres are abstract conceptions and ‘any theme may appear in any genre’ (Bordwell 1989,

147).

The main types of genres are…

Sub-genres stem off all the different genres in order to give more variation in media to target different audiences. It is another way of categorizing films in to themes that may seem more appealing to different viewers and audiences.

For example, using the genre in a film of comedy can be broken down into the following sub-genres:

• Alternative comedy
• American sitcom
• British sitcom
• Satire
• Stand-up

Iconography

Within a genre you will find specific signs associated with that genre. This is called iconography.

For example, iconography can be related through:

• particular tools of the trade (fast cars, guns) 
• dress codes of actors
• physical attributes
• settings
• mannerisms

Overtime, genres and subgenres have become more varied and have been exposed through the media in a more advanced way. This is due to political reasons, having more technology, and a change in different cultures.