Ballet is often referred as the “body profession” since it uses the body as its main instrument and this body must adhere to certain qualifications. However, the perfect, fragile and classic ballet dancing is contrasted with the harsh reality behind it. Ballet dancers often live extremely restricted lifestyles and the consequences of it can be alarming. Results from a study carried out by the University of Pittsburg in 2006, shows that 83% of ballet dancers develop eating disorders throughout their careers. The extremely high pressure, long-working hours, and restricted diets these dancers have to endure can cause severe psychological damages.
Black Swan portrays the lifestyle of a ballet dancer and the struggles she goes through as a result of her vocation. This movie came out on 2010 and stars actress Natalie Portman. The film is a psychological thriller that revolves around Nina Sayers, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company, who is chosen to play the main role in the new production of Swan Lake. She loses the grip on reality when she realizes she has competition, which transforms her life into a living nightmare.
The movie poster exposes the Swan Queen, Nina Sayers, and its main purpose is to represent the movie’s genre, which is psychological horror. In a deeper level, the movie as well as the poster, uses this genre to expose the harsh truth behind those fragile, sweet and graceful ballerinas and the dark consequences resulting from their profession. Their obsession to achieve perfection leads them to their ultimate downfall. The poster consists of the face of Nina Sayers. She is dressed up in her swan costume. Her face is completely white, she is wearing a silver-black sharp-pointed tiara, there are black wings painted around her red eyes, and her lips have a burgundy red color. The image has a white background once again to emphasize Nina’s face and thus making her the main focus.
The main focal points of the poster are Nina’s red eyes. The use of direct eye contact serves to engage the audience and make them feel uneasy and scared while looking at her face. One does not usually get red eyes unless it is caused by allergies or irritation thus suggesting that Nina’s eyes have a darker more terrifying meaning. She actually looks like a crazy person. The disturbing feeling this image produces, displays the mental instability of the character in the film and indicates the observer that there is something odd going on with her. The mental instability of Nina is caused as the result of the mortifying pressure she feels in her job as she has to depict perfectly both swans, which are complete opposites, while she fights to keep the role.
Something that is important to note is that in the image, Nina is unreadable. She puts a poker face expression showing no emotions whatsoever. In a broader sense, it portrays the inhuman side of her. As a ballet dancer she has the purpose of being perfect. It is almost as if ballerinas are robots and objects instead of actual people.
The main colors used in the poster are black, white and red. Each of these colors convey a specific meaning. White is the color frequently used to represent innocence and purity. In reference to the movie, white is the color that would represent the flawless White Swan, which is the Nina at the beginning of the story. White is also the color one would use to describe ballet dancers since they seem to be delicate, elegant and classic. At least this would be the first thought that would come to mind when thinking about them.
However, the other two colors, black and red, are probably more important since they represent the dark, corrupted side of Nina. These colors are used in key parts of Nina’s face including the tiara, lips, and eyes. The black color portrays the Black Swan; to which she turns into towards the end of the film. The Black Swan is evil, jealous and murderous since it will do everything in her power to get what she wants which is keeping the role of Swan Queen. The contrast between the black color of her eyes and the white color of the rest of her face shows the good girl gone bad kind of theme. Moreover, tiaras usually have connotations with femininity and princesses, however this tiara is noticeable spikier and black which denotes a rather evil princess figure.
Finally, the burgundy color of her lips is also emphasized and sticks out from her face. This color denotes passion and sensuality perhaps implying the discovery of sexuality of the main character or the use of it for manipulation purposes. Also, the red of her eyes shows the presence of violence and blood which are recurring themes in the film.
Furthermore, the details of her face are extremely clear once again showing her has the main figure. Nonetheless, her ears and the outline of her figure becomes extremely blurred and blends into the white background. This kind of gives her a ghostly effect, which foreshadows what happens in the movie as she becomes completely demented and starts imagining things.
The creator of this Black Swan movie poster uses different colors, face details, focal point and contrasts to portray the psychological horror genre of the movie. Moreover, in a deeper sense it also represent the struggle ballet dancers go through has part of their profession. Ballerinas have to live extremely restricted lifestyle and are not allow to enjoy life at its fullest. This makes them have an inhuman side as they are sacrificing their lives due to their obsession with perfection.
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