Mise En Scene in 'Black Swan'

Mise En SceneMise en Scene in the film is very important; it is highly stylized and very aesthetic. Almost everything in the film is black white or grey, and sometimes even red. This idea is particularly evident in the convention costume. Arronofsky uses costume as symbolism in a pretty conspicuous way. White and light grey clothes meaning the character is good, and black and dark grey clothes meaning bad. This idea is present in one of the opening scene, where Nina is riding a subway to the dance studio. The scene occurs at 4:59, in it, Nina is dressed in a pale pink coat, while everyone else on the train and on the street is dressed in black. It symbolises Nina being surrounded by darkness, she is constantly being swayed by the ways of those around her. It emphasise Nina, as she is isolated from the rest of the people in the scene, to reiterate the idea that Nina is pure, good and right. Her doppelganger in the film is always dressed in black. This shows her as an dark reflection of Nina, as the ‘evil force that is pulling’ her towards insanity. Her enemy in film, Lily, is dressed in black the whole film, which juxtaposes Lily and Nina. Not only are her clothes black, but Nina’s makeup, hair and skin are all darker than Nina. This depiction makes the audience suspicious of her as character, they suspect she is somehow evil or trying to get Nina; which is much how Nina feels about Lily. The audience is able to relate more to Nina through costume.  Nina goes from wearing all white at the start of the film and gradually she starts to wear more greys, then dark greys, until finally when she performs as the black swan dressed in all black. This progressive change represents Nina’s change in character; she goes from being a stressed, pure, meek girl into the paranoid, insane, forward and independent black swan. When she is wearing black, the audience can see Nina’s new similarities to the black-clad Lily.  As Nina is seduced and sabotaged by Lily, we see Lily on her downward spiral to insanity. The similarities between the two characters are reinforced at the end of the film when the colour of their costumes is the same. The audience is able to see these changes, not just through performance, but through the costume. The use of black being good and black being bad is relevant to the film because it also used in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which is performed in the film. This symbolism is classic and is used across many films. But the use of it in Black Swan is immediately connected to swan lake. The costume builds on the idea that whole film is a ballet. That the drama of Nina’s life is the same as that of a ballet, this idea is drawn with of the use of Tchaikovsky’s music and it is developed through costume. The correlation between the use of costume in the ballet being performed, Swan Lake, and in the rest of the film, ties the film together and unifies it as a whole piece.

A monochrome colour scheme is also used in the setting for Black Swan. Almost all of the film’s setting a done in grey scale, with a few exceptions. All of the sets not only used greyscale, but put light and dark tones right next to each other to create contrast. The striking juxtaposition of the tones creates a highly dramatic effect and makes for a very aesthetically pleasing look. The inclusion of this look in almost all of the setting makes the look highly stylised. Using this look across the board gives the film a very dark look. The sets are very creepy; they make the audience feel unnerved because of their dark and conflicting tones. One such example is at 34:37, where Nina visits Thomas’s apartment. His apartment is decorated with black furniture and ornaments, contrasting with the white walls of his apartment. The decorations of the apartments are interesting, there is an abstract statue of a tree, whose thin spindly leafless branches and their long shadow look very creepy. The sinister look comes from the branches seeming to creep into the white space gradually; in a similar way to Nina’s gradual fall into insanity and blackness. This menacing object, shown at the start of the scene set the mood for the scene. It lets the audience now the nature of the scene as Thomas probes unwelcomely into Nina’s sex life. The scene also contains a Rorschach painting hung on his wall. The Rorschach painting, as well as creating a dramatic effect with conflicting tones, relates to the film thematically because it is, essentially psychoanalysis of the main character. The inclusion of this piece makes the audience increasingly suspicious of Nina’s mental state. In the scene, being at the start of the film, the audience doesn’t know the extent of her craziness, but it is hinted at through the painting. The many blacks used in the sets of the film represent the hostile environment Nina is in, or rather the hostile environment that she feels she is in. She is a consistently anxious girl, and she feels she is constantly in danger. The film follows her perspective; it is built through Nina’s eyes, so it follows that the outer world would be portrayed as dark, scary and dramatic because that is how Nina sees it.

The lighting in the film is mostly fairly standard, naturalistic lighting, somewhat diffused with no real effect for most of the film. However, it is broken occasionally, specifically when they are performing on stage. An instance of interesting lighting is in the opening scene at 1:14. This scene is Nina’s dream, it is the first example of the film blurring reality and imagination; It is a hint at the hallucinations to come. The lighting in this scene is from a single consistent spotlight, non-naturalistic lighting. The single light source protruding the otherwise jet black space creates a highly dramatic effect. The audience is completely arrested by the stark white ballerina dancing in a totally black space. The juxtaposition grabs a hold of the audience’s attention, which is important as this is the opening scene. It also sets the tone for the film as a dark, moody, dramatic production. The lighting is also symbolic; the white light represents Nina being a pure, gentle, timid girl. While the complete blackness surrounding her represents the danger she thinks she is in. Her over protective mother has made Nina a paranoid person, she is always worried about her surrounding and lighting is a metaphor for that.