高级英语视听说(第二版)---教师用书及课后答案(5)

Nina kills herself during a mental breakdown. Being brought up as a sweet and obedient girl, Nina is obsessed with perfection and to make herself appear perfect, she adopts strong self-discipline and suppresses all her desire and passion, not knowing such a self-denial, once coming to an unbearable point, can only lead to self-destruction.

V. Research Activities

Four basic aspects of the movie

Background: historical background, social background, the novel on

which the movie is based, the author of the novel,

production of the movie, etc.

Themes: the main ideas that the movie intends to convey to the

audience.

Conflicts: conflicts within oneself, conflicts with others,

conflicts with the society, conflicts between events,

conflicts of ideas, etc.

Performances: actor, actress, director, playwright, song, music,

Academy Awards, etc.

These four aspects, however, can never be clear-cut; they are often interrelated. The information provided below serves as some supplementary material only. The students are free to present any material relevant to the four aspects. Their presentations should include both factual information and their own opinions or comments.

Background

a.Aronofsky was inspired by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky's novel The

Double when he was conceiving the film, first published in 1846 as a novella The Double: A Petersburg Poem. It centers on a government clerk, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who turns crazy with the idea that a colleague has usurped his identity. The novel delineates his internal psychological struggle when he keeps encountering someone who is his exact double in appearance but more superior to him in every other

aspect.

b.Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821 –1881) was a Russian writer of

novels, short stories and essays. Dostoyevsky explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. His literary works were influenced by realist and romanticist writers, most notably Dickens, Gogol and Balzac, and his best remembered work was Crime and Punishment.

Dostoyevsky overall wrote 11 complete novels, 3 novellas, 17 short novels and 3 essays. He is often regarded as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.

c.Swan Lake was composed during 1875–1876 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Initially in four acts, it was based on Russian folk tales, telling the story of Odette, a princess who turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet was premièred on March 4, 1877 in Moscow, with the name The Lake of the Swans.

d.The director also considered Black Swan a sequel to his 2008 film The

Wrestler, which also reflects features of demanding art: an aging professional wrestler continues to participate in wrestling matches in order to resume his 1980s heyday performance regardless of his failing health.

Themes:

The film Black Swan addresses most of the significant issues confronting girls and women in the modern day world, of which the complex relationships Nina is involved in, especially the mother-daughter relationship, the pursuit of perfection and the virgin-whore dichotomy are the most worthy of being mentioned.

a. Complex Human Relationships: For the complex human relationships,

particularly the mother –daughter relationship, we see a mother who appears both supportive and destructive toward her daughter, who alternately cheers on her daughter yet also attempts to sabotage her;

and who on the one hand lives vicariously through her daughter while resenting her achievements. And we cannot exaggerate the influence the mother (compounded with that of Thomas) on Nina’s deterioration. These influences are so subtle and clueless that no one could blame the mother for what was happening to Nina and her increasingly unhealthy behavior.

For the other relationships such as with Lily and Thomas, we can see

a lesbian relationship that is both liberating and destructive and a

complicated mentor-sexual predator-manipulative boss relationship.

b. Perfection Seeking: The theme of perfection seeking is seen throughout

the film in Nina, who struggles both physically and psychologically to get her artistic ideal. Nina longs for acceptance and being “chosen”;

to be perfect, she experiences so much pressure from the environment that shapes one’s very identity. Apart from illustrating the intense pressure, external and internal, to be perfect, the film does drive home the reality that perfection is something that’s never actually attainable. Once you’ve achieved one kind of perfection–as Nina had as a “perfect” white swan–the game or the world always disappoints you by wanting more from you and extracting from you something you do not have. The symbolic ending of the film added a poignant statement on what it means to be an artist, visually portraying the physical manifestations of suffering one must endure through their bodies and minds in order to reach or approach artistic perfection.

c. Virgin/Whore dichotomy: Meanwhile, the virgin/whore dichotomy is

central to Nina’s story. She’s spent her whole life trying to be the pure, perfect ballet dancer, and has achieved that goal to some extent.

Physical, emotional, and sexual purities can all be seen in her small, underdeveloped, and young body. But it’s when she tries to become the perfect seductive whore as demanded by the director that Nina is torn apart. She is asked to show not only technical perfection but sensuality and sexuality as well. She can’t handle the duality, the double identity: she can’t contain the perfect virgin and perfect whore at once.

Conflicts:

a.Nina vs Lily: To get the role, Nina has to compet …… 此处隐藏：6012字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……