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''Black Swan'' was well-received by critics, and became Aronofsky's highest-grossing movie. [[Natalie Portman]]'s performance was especially praised, and she received an [[Academy Award]] for Best Actress among many other awards and nominations.
 
Not to be confused with the 1940s Tyrone Power film ''The Black Swan'', [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan:Black Swan|Cygnus atratus]], [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan_:The Black Swan (Taleb_book)Taleb book)|Nassim Nicholas Taleb's guide to randomness]], [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s book ''[[The Black Swan (Literature)|The Black Swan]]'', the song from Thom Yorke's solo album ''The Eraser'', or the Australian brand of dip.
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=== ''Black Swan'' has examples of: ===
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{{quote| '''Thomas:''' Nina, what did you do?<br />
'''Nina''': I felt it. Perfect. I was perfect. }}
* [[Black Bra and Panties]]: Lily, to go along with her [[WomaninWoman in Black]] motif.
* [[Black Humor]]: The movie does have the occasional moment where one thinks "should I really be laughing at this?". There are many moments of [[Dead Baby Comedy]] stuck in the middle of horrific or dramatic scenes.
** Nina's first masturbation scene and the reason why it becomes [[Fetish Retardant]].
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** Pay attention to the mirror right behind Nina during the exact same scene, and you will see that her mirror self is moving just a tad faster away from the door than her...
** Nina's rash in a place that's commonly associated with wings.
** The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Icarus |Icarus]] statue from the party scene.
* [[Fragile Flower]]: There's a reason Thomas says Nina is perfect for Odette, the White Swan.
* [[Freeze Frame Bonus]]: Several times:
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* [[Genre Shift]]: Less of a shift than in most examples, but the movie does sway back and forth between being a psychological thriller and an overt horror story, although the balance between psychological thriller and horror tips more and more towards the horror end of the scale as the movie goes on.
* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: As part of her downward spiral into madness Nina throws all of her stuffed animals in the trash.
* [[Go Out Withwith a Smile]]: {{spoiler|Nina}}
{{quote| ''{{spoiler|I was perfect...}}''}}
* [[Haunted Heroine]]
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* [[Lipstick Lesbian]]: Lily and Nina. Or is it?
* [[Lost in Character]]: One possible interpretation of Nina trying so hard to be the Black Swan, is she utterly loses herself in the part.
* [[Madonna -Whore Complex]]: Deconstructed, oh-so-much.
* [[Man Bites Man]]: Thomas forcingly kisses Nina. She bites him. This prompts him to give her the White/Black Swan role.
* [[Meaningful Name]]:
** Nina literally means "little girl" and is often used in diminutives of Russian names, showing how babied she is by [[My Beloved Smother|Erica,]] as well as connecting her to ''Swan Lake'', which was a Russian ballet. And when chanted by a crowd it sounds something like bird-noises. Her last name, Sayers, could be something of a [[Shout -Out]] too: Zelda Sayres, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was an ambitious ballerina who came very close to making it big professionally, but who was also schizophrenic.
** Lily is harder: It's similar sounding to Odile, the name of the Black Swan from ''[[Swan Lake]]''. The name is also reminiscent of Lilith, infamous demon and seductress of the night. The Lily flower symbolizes purity and the colour white, as well as death and resurrection- all of these are particularly appropriate at the end of the film. On a probably unintentional but still interesting note, "lily" is the translation of the word "[[Girls Love|yuri]]".
** The domineering director is named Thomas Leroy; "Le Roy" means "the king" in French and "Thomas" means "twin".
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* [[Psychological Thriller]]
* [[Really Gets Around]]: Lily seems to have no compunctions about casual, no-strings-attached sex. Assuming Nina isn't imagining the encounters.
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]:
** In the transformation scenes during the "Night of Terror" sequence, starting when {{spoiler|Nina plucks a feather from her back.}}
** The final Black Swan makeup features ''terrifying'' red contacts. Visible on the poster, but even more startling in the film. This is exaggerated when she first dances with them on, with Portman's eyes widening considerably against an accompanying sound effect.
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* [[Serious Business]]: Swan Lake, of course. Lampshaded when [[Those Two Guys|"Tom and Jerry"]] can't even pretend to be interested.
* [[Shadow Archetype]]: Lily to Nina.
* [[Shout -Out]]: The transformation sequence is reminiscent of ''[[The Fly]]'':
** Nina first notices a rash on her right shoulder.
** Then there's a lot of [[Fingore]].
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** Then she gains red eyes.
** Then her knees {{spoiler|start bending the other way.}}
* [[Sir Not -Appearing in -In-This -Trailer]]: [[Winona Ryder]] (though she appears in the international trailer).
* [[Slasher Smile]]: Evil Nina unleashes a horrifying one during the bath scene: [http://www.n-portman.org/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=39951&fullsize=1 Here]. Later, after returning home from the club, Nina flashes [http://www.n-portman.org/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=40208&fullsize=1 this].
* [[Spiritual Sequel]]: To [[The Wrestler]], of all things. They begin similarly, both depict the tolls that Randy/Nina's chosen profession takes on their body, and they end with literally the same shot. [[Word of God]] says that they are "Two halves of the same film", with [[Professional Wrestling]] representing the lowest art, and Ballet representing the highest.
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* [[Stocking Filler]]: Lily wears garters in her sex scene(?).
* [[Surreal Horror]]
* [[Swans -a -Swimming]]: Comes with the framing device.
* [[Talent Double]]: Ballet dancer Sarah Lane was the "dance double" for Natalie Portman. [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan_dance_double_controversy:Black Swan dance double controversy|Some issues have arisen from this.]]
* [[Teacher-Student Romance]]: [[Lampshaded]] by Lily after Nina defends Thomas' [[Jerkass]] behavior.
* [[Technician Versus Performer]]: An obvious case with Nina and Lily, respectively. This is consistently lampshaded in-film by Leroy. However, this gets massively deconstructed as Nina has no social life because all she does is ballet, and is explicitly told by Thomas that she needs to be both to play the Swan Queen.
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* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: Nina has ''problems''!
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Post-Oscar nom commercials show Nina's transformation.
** Heck, even the first trailer for it showed Nina {{spoiler|picking a feather from her skin, whilst staring at it with a crazed look [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|in her eyes]].}}
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Well Done Daughter Girl]]: See [[Stage Mom]] above.
* [[Woman in White]]/[[WomaninWoman in Black]]: Nina and Lily, respectively.{{spoiler|Later, Lily becomes the [[Woman in White]] and Nina the [[WomaninWoman in Black]].}}
* [[The Vamp]]: The Black Swan character embodies this trope. Nina might have to get in touch with her inner Vamp to pull off the role. Is Lily this trope naturally or is that just how Nina sees her?
* [[Virgin Power]]: Averted. Nina's lack of sexual adventurousness and her inability to confront that part of her nature is a big part of her problems (though she tells Thomas she's not in fact a virgin, she may be too shy or ashamed to admit it).
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