In this essay focusing on mise-en-scene elements, I shall be
studying ‘Black Swan’.
As the opening credits roll on the plain black screen, music
plays in the background. It’s a piece from ‘Swan Lake’, introducing the theme
of ballet straight away to the audience. As the title fades onto the screen, it
is met with the sound of wind and devilish female laughter, disrupting the
peaceful ballet music (potentially foretelling the disruption of the main
character’s career in ballet later on in the film), causing discomfort and
unnerving the audience, creating the origin of this film’s thriller
characteristics.
I would say the music is diegetic, as the film opens with
the main character, Nina Sayers (played by Natalie Portman) dancing to it. Low
key lighting is used uniquely as although this is a dream, it’s not made
obvious (with high key lighting for instance). This could portray that Nina’s
dream is within reach, or perhaps that her dream should be considered a
nightmare. A sense of ambiguity is kept as to where the ballerina dances, but
the floor could be assumed a stage. The use of a spotlight on Nina tells us
that not only is she a key character, but continues to show that performing is
a big part of her life. The use of strong contrast unsettles the audience,
especially as although her body is lit up, a shadow falls across Nina’s face
creating further ambiguity. The juxtaposition of dark and light not only in the
shot of her and her surroundings but just on herself, show she is at conflict
with herself, alongside struggling to understand and get on with the rest of
the world.
The first camera shot used is a long shot. This way, we can
see the whole character, her pose and costume. Straight away, we can assume she
is a dancer, if not from her pose then her movement as her back is straight
whilst her arms are held gracefully in position. Her costume, white against the
black surroundings, perhaps shows her innocence in such a dangerous, sinful
world. Though the costume cannot be used to tell you what era this film is set
(as it is a costume itself), it helps to draw your eyes towards her – the
lighting is so dull it would be difficult to perhaps see any other colour. This
dullness is strange for a dream, but could reinforce the idea that it’s more a
nightmare. The next (medium to close up) shot follows her feet as she dances,
making sure the audience know that she is a dancer, and more specifically, a
ballerina.
When Nina sits down, the camera angle is at eye level to
her, showing that the audience may relate to her. This is helped by the fact
that we can finally see her face, which holds a small warm smile (friendly
towards the audience). Though the lighting causes her skin to appear grey, her
dress is highlighted, perhaps showing the audience that ballet (or the role of
the white swan) is more important to Nina than anything else, including
herself.
A hand held tracking shot is used next, making the audience
feel frightened as it feels as though something is creeping up to the only idea
of light and safety on screen. A character dressed in black (representing evil)
comes out of the darkness, and with a change in tempo, the music becomes much
less graceful and accompanies the action with liveliness itself. Back lighting
is used to show the crisp outlines of the characters whilst the action takes
place. The new character, a white male painted in black, could offend some
audiences (as the character is evil, some may relate it to blackface). A sudden
costume change both confirms that this is a dream/warped vision, and that the
piece Nina is performing is Swan Lake as the costumes are now adorned with
feathers. Several medium to close up shots are used to feature Nina’s face, so
we can see her facial expression as she dances. Towards the end of the scene,
sadness, worry and despair can all be seen on her face, adding to the dance and
story of Swan Lake. As the scene draws to a close, the camera zooms out to a
long shot, showing an entire body shot of Natalie Portman’s lit up silhouette,
once again reminding the audience of her purity, innocence and peacefulness. By
zooming out, she becomes smaller and smaller – this could represent multiple
things to the audience including, becoming a swan in the dance, her dream
coming to a close or how powerless she is in real life as reality draws closer.
Looking back at the opening scene, we can pick out the genre conventions such as the use of unsettling sound effects, unsaturated (almost noir) colouring, creating a dramatic melancholy which radiates around a pure character - soon taken advantage of by a stereotypical evil character represented in black (binary opposites introduced within only minutes of the film), introduced with camera shots that make the audience’s perception of the ‘protagonist’ look like prey. We see the protagonist at the mercy of the antagonist – a classic thriller convention not often able to be pulled off in the opening scene of a film.
The use of having even only a minute of equilibrium shows
the key moment of disruption in Swan Lake, and actually foreshadows the ending
of the movie.
