Explore the hidden imagery and underlying sexuality of the pivotal club scene in BLACK SWAN. An analysis of the scene reveals some fascinating elements.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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A crucial turning point in the film comes when Nina goes out to a club with
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Lily, the night before dress rehearsal. With the pulsing lights and merging
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images of bodies, this undeniably sexual scene acts as a visual climax to the film
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It represents Nina’s liberation from her restrictive White Swan side and embrace
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of the black swan’s primal impulses
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The bursts of light are so brief that it’s difficult to make out what’s happening
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but if you watch carefully you’ll notice that there are several hidden visual
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elements at play
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Nina in the Black Swans makeup
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a frame of the butterfly wallpaper from her bedroom
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several frames of meaning multiplying. The moon from the set of Swan Lake
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The evil Rothbart from the opening dream
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and distorted images of Nina and Lily as one
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Nina has finally unleashed her sexuality, not to pursue Lily like it might seem
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but to awaken the Black Swan within herself
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In Nina’s world sex is sinister, belonging only to the black swan in her eyes
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there is no room for a nuanced view of sensuality. It’s either black or
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white
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“Did you have some sort of lezzie wet dream about me?”
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“Stop!” “Oh my god, you did, you fantasized about me!”
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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