Black Swan (2010)

Nina Sayers is a talented but shy dancer in a New York ballet company. She lives with her mother Erica, a former dancer who gave up her career when she had Nina and now controls every part of her life. The company's director, Thomas Leroy, forces out his ageing star, Beth MacIntyre, and plans a new Swan Lake. The lead must play both the pure White Swan and her evil twin, the seductive Black Swan.

Nina is perfect as the White Swan but too controlled to be the Black Swan. When she goes to Thomas's office to ask for the role, he forcefully kisses her and she bites him, which surprises him enough to cast her. At a gala, he names her the new star. A drunk, bitter Beth accuses Nina of sleeping with Thomas to get the part, and is later hit by a car and badly injured.

Under enormous pressure, Nina starts to fall apart. She scratches her back until it bleeds, sees her own face on strangers, and imagines that her skin is turning into feathers. Thomas tells her to loosen up and explore her desires. A new dancer, Lily, who is relaxed and sensual, seems to be everything Nina is not. Nina sees her as a rival who wants her role.

Lily takes Nina out to a club, and Nina takes a pill, possibly ecstasy. Back home, Nina has a sexual encounter with Lily, but the next day Lily says she spent the night with another man, so it was a fantasy. Nina's hallucinations get worse: paintings whisper, her mother's room comes alive, and she sees Beth stab her own face in hospital.

On opening night, her mother tries to stop her from going, but Nina forces her way to the theatre. During the first act, she sees things and falls during a lift. In her dressing room, she finds Lily dressed as the Black Swan. Lily turns into Nina's double, and Nina stabs her with a shard of a broken mirror and hides the body. Nina then dances the Black Swan perfectly, and seems to grow huge black wings.

Back in her dressing room, Lily knocks on the door to congratulate her, alive and well. There is no body. Nina realises she stabbed herself. She dances the final act as the White Swan, who throws herself to her death, and falls onto the mattress. As the audience cheers, Thomas and the dancers see blood spreading across her costume. Nina whispers, "I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect," and the screen fades to white.

Does Nina die at the end of Black Swan? The film strongly suggests yes, though it never shows it. She has stabbed herself deeply in the stomach with a shard of glass and is bleeding heavily as the screen goes white. Like the White Swan in the ballet, she dies at the moment of her triumph.

Was Lily real? Lily is a real person, but much of what Nina thinks Lily does is in her head. Lily never tried to steal her role, the night of sex never happened, and the fight in the dressing room was with herself.

Why did Nina stab herself? To become the Black Swan, Nina has to kill the part of herself that is innocent and controlled. In her mind she kills her rival. In reality, she destroys herself.

What does "It was perfect" mean? Nina has spent her whole life chasing perfection. In her final moments, she finally reaches it, but it costs her everything.

What were the feathers and the rash? They are hallucinations and self-harm. Nina scratches her own back raw, and in her mind it becomes a sign that she is transforming into the swan.