The Art of the Nuance

 I wanted to see the movie THE BLACK SWAN.  My interest was in the dancing, but I was drawn into the family dynamics and the intricate nuances that were highlighted by the producers... which brought the story to life.  As the main character Nina (played by Natalie Portman) danced, every breath that she took was magnified just slightly.  It took me back to my days of ballet where a spotlight catches everything and breathing has to be controlled.  To this viewer the story was about finding passion from what you love.  Sometimes we lose that passion because of stress factors. In Nina's case it was the stress of constantly maintaining perfection as a ballerina.

To me there is nothing more perfect than nature.  It was made to be perfect and however it looks it is beautiful...whether it is in the dead of winter or the lush bloom of spring.  And if perhaps there is a missing branch of a rotting tree, it's imperfection makes it interesting and actually quite pleasing to the eye. The photos to the left are of ice encapsulating  pine needles in a wintry web. It doesn't translate as beautiful as it is in person, but the idea is there.

The same is true  with Nina's dancing in Black Swan.  It was pure technical perfection in the beginning, and by the end it still was technically good, but she now had discovered how to translate her love for the dance....into the dance. Having the feeling in your heart and putting it into dance, writing, or a painting is what separates people into the passionate and the passionless.

There was a lot of "in your face" dysfunctional behavior in this movie but it was the subtle nuances that grabbed me.  Her little gasps with movement. A head movement that brought her closer to her partner.  It suggested love as the white swan and challenge as the black swan. As with nature...when there is an earthquake or tsunami, all that was beautiful becomes deadly.

I came away thinking.  It was not the violent deadly weather-like actions that made me think. It was the little movements and suggestions that allowed me to draw my own conclusion. As a writer,  I look at movies differently letting the story wash over me like a wave.  How did it make me feel?

And that... is why people write books, because the written and spoken word have such a profound impact on us.  There is nothing better than curling up with a good book or watching an engaging movie. It makes us feel and that's what it's all about.