FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Presents In association with ...

DANCING GOOD AND EVIL:
THE STORY
The daring and original director Darren Aronofsky (THE WRESTLER, THE FOUNTAIN, REQUIEM
FOR A DREAM, π) lures audiences into a haunting, fractured world of delusions, doubles and paranoia in
BLACK SWAN, his first psychological thriller. He spins a sensual and chilling tale of a prima ballerina locked
in an obsessive battle with dark impulses that slowly engulf her.
Academy Award® nominee Natalie Portman (CLOSER) stars as Nina, an ambitious young New York
ballet dancer who is after the ultimate double role: the delicately innocent White Swan and the seductively evil
Black Swan of the star-making classic “Swan Lake.” She gets the role but is unsure if she can let go enough to
embody the dark side of the Swan Queen. As she ascends to new heights with her body, her most deeply buried
fantasies, jealousies and nightmares begin to ensnare her mind into the blackest depths causing a dangerous
clash with the provocative newcomer who is her greatest rival. Nina quickly becomes all too perfectly
entwined with the bewitching and deadly Black Swan.
Far from the typical thriller set in a world of crime or haunted houses, Aronofsky’s vividly intimate
portrait of a woman unraveling at the very seams of her psyche takes place in the least expected of realms, the
artistically electric and physically demanding world of professional ballet. For Aronofsky, it was the perfect
place to unfold a visually explosive tale of the obsessive pressure to be perfect. As with THE WRESTLER, the
film also gave him a chance to plunge into an unseen world and peel back what makes the people who are
driven to sacrifice so much.
Although he started thinking about this story fifteen years ago, Aronofsky notes that BLACK SWAN is
intentionally a companion piece to his most recent film, THE WRESTLER. While wrestling and ballet might
seem like they couldn’t possibly be more disparate worlds, BLACK SWAN dips into moments of sheer
psychological horror unlike anything Aronofsky has done before. The two films are tied together by themes of
bodily extremes, souls in turmoil and by a filmmaking style that pulls the audience inside the characters’
fascinating inner worlds.
“Some people call wrestling the lowest of art forms, and some call ballet the highest of art forms, yet
there is something elementally the same. Mickey Rourke as a wrestler was going through something very
similar to Natalie Portman as a ballerina,” Aronofsky explains. “They’re both artists who use their bodies to
express themselves and they’re both threatened by physical injury, because their bodies are the only tool they
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