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The movie Black Swan

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Post by kazoo Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:30 pm

Has anyone here seen it? It contains a lot of themes related to topics we are discussing right now:mental illness, projection, a dancer taking on a difficult role...I had a lot of thoughts about how it illustrates these ideas but I didn't want to get too deeply into it if no one else has seen it.
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Post by President Roosevelt Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:31 pm

I haven't seen it....which is ironic cause it seems like my kind of movie Smile

The movie Black Swan NAT
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Post by Phantasm Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:11 am

I'm game kazoo. Though it's kinda a gay movie.

The movie Black Swan Jim-carrey-snl-black-swan-l

hahaha


Kidding, its a good movie - though maybe you need to edit thread title to say there may be spoilers?



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Post by Night Eyes Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:33 am

yes i've seen it!

really good film

although if you're going to discuss it i might need to watch it again to refresh my memory!
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Post by Guest Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:09 am

Hey I dressed up as Black Swan for Halloween Cool The film is a bit whatever but it's a fine look Cool

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Post by kazoo Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:06 pm

OK, if you read any further, you've been warned about spoilers!!


The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045 The movie Black Swan 161622045


The theme of "one mind":

In the thread about the "others" we discussed the idea that everyone in our reality is a projection of ourselves.  That we are all one mind.  Well, it's almost as if Nina's mental illness gives her a special ability to see this.  Lily isn't just a friend/rival.  Lily is also Nina.  She's just the part of Nina that is too repressed to express. Several times in the film when Nina sees Lily she actually sees her own face.  In the scene that PR mentions above, Nina isn't uh, "connecting", with Lily, she's actually connecting with herself.  After this (drug induced) visualization she's more able to express the "Lily side" of herself.  When Nina and Lily struggle at the end and Nina stabs Lily, it's later discovered that she actually stabbed herself.


The them of actors getting what they play out:

We see Nina literally becoming a swan.  In her mind she had the feathers, the eyes, webbed toes, the whole deal.  Nina's mental illness allows her to literally become her role of the Black Swan in her mind.  Without the mental illness she would not have been able to immerse herself into the role as deeply as she did and perform at the level she did.  A lot of people who have commented on the movie have stated that some "insanity" is required for genius level artistic expression and that what the movie is showing is not really mental illness but rather a demonstration of just an intense creative process.
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Post by Night Eyes Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:25 am

i'm really going to have to watch the film from this perspective now, when i watched it, i viewed it from the perspective that, the Ballet Industry is such a hard and competitive place to be, and it was highlighting what can happen to the dancers because they push themselves so hard trying to achieve such high standards.

thanks for the fresh outlook Kazoo.
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Post by President Roosevelt Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:01 pm

Nice kazoo Cool

I read the Wikipedia summary the other night. I think Lily represents the raw creativity and sensuality, the uninhibited side of Nina that she was denying herself. Nina is too focused on perfection which is becoming rigid and stressful to her. That's why she fits the White Swan perfectly, but she can't be the Black Swan yet because she hasn't opened up to that side of herself.

Her night out with Lily is very symbolic with the cinematography and atmosphere. We're moving into Lily's world which is dark, sultry, and earthly in Nina's eyes....the murky depths of the unconscious where all the raw creativity is stored. We're moving away from the Mom's world of...I guess "consciousness"...the order of things, maybe even Nina's nurturing, light side. Lily gives Nina ecstasy to help her loosen up and Lily takes it. This is kind of like Lily saying yes to that uninhabited side of herself. The sex scene is symbolic too. Nina initiates it, she kisses Lily first, she's attracted to her...deep down she wants to have Lily's Black Swan persona...which is what drives the attraction. Lily goes down on Nina, Nina takes the "receiving" position where she is most vulnerable...like letting go of herself (conscious resistance?) and letting go of the need for control (orgasm)....so it's like Lilly's energy taking her over. In Tantra sexual philosophy, it's said that sex combines the energy of two people by joining up their chakras. In dream symbolism, when we have sex with someone it might mean that we desire to connect with them, that they have certain traits we ascribe to them that we desire in ourselves. Since that sex scene was a dream anyway, it's maybe Nina becoming more aware of her inner raw, sensual Black Swan which she sees in Lily. Curiously, orgasm is la petite mort...the little death...."a brief loss or weakening of consciousness." Nina dreams that Lily tries to suffocate her right after orgasm. Maybe this is Nina's "growing pains" of dying to her old self and becoming the Black Swan? The Black Swan personality is rising to the surface and Nina's White Swan persona feels strangled by its power? In Tarot, the Death card also represents new beginnings, the new must be created but first the old must die.

I don't know how to explain Lilly's face becoming Nina's in flashes of the sex scene. Maybe it's Nina consciously recognizing a part of herself in what she thinks is Lily and it scares her? And what of her hallucinations? Maybe it's symbolism to Nina. The Thomas having sex with Lily hallucination is kind of like Nina recognizing that the Black Swan side of her is needed to seduce the father/god/judgement figure in her life. In other words, only the Black Swan in her can please the perfectionist voice she has. The imaginary scene where she kills Lily is like releasing the Dark Swan's energy and embodying it. It reminds me of Joseph Campbell where killing the monster releases the energy behind the monster, or the hidden treasure it's hoarding. But it's all a metaphor for what's going on inside you. The death is the hero-ego stepping over the boundary of what she was thought was possible. Death becomes renewal, a release of energy in the psyche. So after that, Nina gives a wonderful performance and everyone loves it - her Mom, Thomas, Lilly....Nina actually stabbing herself kind of represents that death and rebirth symbolism. She's stabbing herself, the White Swan, but also stabbing the Lily in her, releasing that power fully into her, so the Black Swan is there too. Stabbing/violence is kind of like a creative act here, an impulsive, all-consuming emotional act to be free of what's holding her back. Like a snake, she can shed her skin and embrace the "Black Swan." And now, with both swans in her consciousness, there's "perfection."

Isn't it amazing how violence, sex, and death are part of the creative process?

Like Zorba The Greek said, "A man needs a little madness or else he never dares to cut the rope and be free." (Nikos Kazantzakis)

Anyone ever seen Mean Streets? I think there's so much symbolism in there related to Christianity, even though it's a gangster film....
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Post by kazoo Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:29 pm

Wow PR, are you saying you got all that by just reading the Wikipedia entry?!

I love your analysis and I'll try to add more when I have more time but something I wanted to add is that one interpretation of the ending, and the one that Natalie Portman believes, is that Nina really did not stab herself but the bleeding is actually like menstrual blood representing Nina finally reaching maturity.

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Post by Phantasm Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:34 pm

lol. Not fair. I leave this thread awhile and someone charges in and steals some of my best ideas. Razz 2  

President Roosevelt wrote:Curiously, orgasm is la petite mort...the little death...."a brief loss or weakening of consciousness." Nina dreams that Lily tries to suffocate her right after orgasm. Maybe this is Nina's "growing pains" of dying to her old self and becoming the Black Swan? The Black Swan personality is rising to the surface and Nina's White Swan persona feels strangled by its power? In Tarot, the Death card also represents new beginnings, the new must be created but first the old must die.

Interesting that you mention this because the sex death connection goes way beyond what most people imagine. Even the ancient Greeks had Eros and Thanatos. Death kills, sex brings life. It isn't a coincidence that they are linked. In various places on earth both now and historically, fertility rituals and death rituals have been interlinked. I mean look even at the Christian wedding tradition, something we all experience. The bride walks down the same aisle the coffin does. These similarities were even more pronounced in ancient Egypt say. Easter: the death and rebirth of Christ, echoing pagan celebrations of fertility. the list goes on and on.

The movie Black Swan MyFairWeddingDayOfDeadOldCakeTopper081510

So yes, I'd say the sex scene is definitely symbolic of death and rebirth. Foreshadowing the eventual stabbing. Actually your analysis reminds me of a short story by Agatha Christie, a really weird one, I can't remember the name. There's this girl who has two friends, a boy and a girl. As they grow up the girl has a strange power over both, especially the girl. The two girls are opposites, Girl A is pretty and accomplished but fragile while Girl B is plain, dull, and physically strong.

At one point Girl A hypnotises Girl B. She crows that she can make her do whatever she wants, she even makes her eat guck. When Girl B awakes from the spell she swears she'll kill Girl A one day. Girl A laughs.

As they grow up Girl A continues to have this amazing amount of power over Girl B, even though Girl B hates her. Girl A is sick and Girl B is forced to wait on her like a slave. But then Girl A dies and Girl B thinks it's all good now...

Well then we find out - this is the whole mystery - that Girl B has been murdered, strangled, in her own locked apartment.

It also comes to light that Girl B, who is about as musical as I am, sometimes takes to singing and playing the piano, perfectly, just like Girl A used to. Other times she can't at all.

What happened was that Girl A WAS always in control of Girl B. It was a case of metempsychosis. Girl A transferred her soul to Girl B after death so she now had that body. They were two personalities in the same body. But Girl B was always there even at the times when Girl A was dominant, and she grew increasingly mad.

Finally, Girl B did what she always said she would. She killd girl A.

And herself as well.

Obviously the symbolism is different here, but death is still necessary for the one personality to take over the other.

Thanks kazoo and President especially.

President Roosevelt wrote:Isn't it amazing how violence, sex, and death are part of the creative process?

lol someone needs to tell Selina to visit this thread. And Night Eyes, I hope your reading carefully, because this is what our next RPG will look like. Twisted Evil

Edit: ewww kazoo. I prefer President's interpretation. Laughing

also

kazoo wrote:A lot of people who have commented on the movie have stated that some "insanity" is required for genius level artistic expression and that what the movie is showing is not really mental illness but rather a demonstration of just an intense creative process.

that's insane. Very Happy they say some insanity is required for genius but that there is no mental illness in the movie? Firstly that makes no sense and secondly EVERY intense creative process is insane Cool

Also, though this relates to what we've been tlking about in the Limiting Beliefs thread, do we think Nina was "in control" - had the power to "just stop" picking at and stratching her skin?


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Post by kazoo Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:56 pm

Ha, maybe I should have been more specific to say diagnosable mental illness.  I think creative types often get away with being a bit eccentric because people expect that as part of their process.

It's interesting to note that Nina replaces Beth (Winona Ryder's character) and Beth is clearly disturbed as well.  So that may also play a part in the "one mind" idea too and play into what Nina believes is required to be an elite performer. Beth hurts herself first by walking out into traffic and then later by stabbing herself in the face. The Beth stabbing scene is presumably one of Ninas delusions but of course was real to her.
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Post by Phantasm Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:10 pm

Especially for you, kazoo. http://researchpub.org/journal/aps/number/vol1-no2/vol1-no2-1.pdf

It's kinda a dedication so I'd post it in the Shiny, Happy, Pretty things thread, but I'd probably get into still more trouble. The movie Black Swan 221039779

kazoo wrote:It's interesting to note that Nina replaces Beth (Winona Ryder's character) and Beth is clearly disturbed as well. So that may also play a part in the "one mind" idea too and play into what Nina believes is required to be an elite performer.

Isn't it interesting that ballet dancers are stereotyped as crazy-ass neurotic anorexics. And sportsmen got a grip. Very Happy They both "perform" in one way or another. But both sportsmen (and before you shoot me, women) and ballet dancers like Nina are arguably always connected to Source during their best performances.

Fed, for example, is the direct opposite of crazy, he is clear-minded, you see it in his playing. Nina is INSANE and yet it is that very insanity that makes her performance "perfect". But technically she shouldnt be connected to source because she's got "issues".

Something to think about. Very Happy
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Post by kazoo Fri Sep 04, 2015 1:16 pm

Thanks for the article. I'm posting on my phone right now but I'll definitely give it a read when I'm back on my computer.
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Post by kazoo Tue Sep 08, 2015 8:58 am

Interesting article.  (I can't believe no one caught the authors spelling Lily correctly and also incorrectly as "Lilly" sometimes within the same paper.)

Since the article was presented by people who know more about psychological disorders than I do I'm not going to argue with their argument that Nina's delusions were part of her OCD rather than being a result of an additional disorder such as schizophrenia.  I just always assumed that Nina was already in a fragile state, being so repressed had already expressed itself with her skin picking and the additional stress of taking on such a challenging role triggered a larger disorder.

A lot of the reviews I've read about the movie complained that they didn't like that you couldn't tell what was real and what was one of Nina's delusions.  They miss the fact that that was the whole point.  

I have some thoughts about the infamous sex scene too if anyone is interested.
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Post by Phantasm Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:29 am

kazoo wrote:Interesting article.  (I can't believe no one caught the authors spelling Lily correctly and also incorrectly as "Lilly" sometimes within the same paper.)

Well it is from a crap journal. I didn't read the article in much depth myself, just came across it and it made me think of you. Smiley

There's a better article in the Film Quarterly, "Debating Black Swan: Genre and Horror" that considers Nina's illness to be paranoid schizophrenia. I actually liked this guy's take on it better than either article though: Decoding Symbols in “Black Swan”

"Perhaps, Darren Aronofsky asserts, we all have a dark side, even sweet and innocent ballet dancers."

In terms of LOA, I wonder if we need this dark side? Everyone always talks about being happy all the time but I think we often forget that human nature is complex.

The movie Black Swan Mark-twain-dark-side-wallpaper

I think this dark - even evil - side doesn't necessarily attract negativity but may be useful in getting what you want. After all, as the wordpress article points out, the fragile innocence of the White Swan means she is lacking in the confidence and bravura needed to manifest perfection. Neither swan is perfect alone, it is only when they come together as one (symbolically represented in the sex scene) that they become perfect. Only when Nina re-integrates with her evil side does she become whole. It is at that stage that she manifests the performance she wants.


I'd be interested in your further thoughts and am sure others are as well.


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Post by kazoo Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:30 am

Thanks for sharing that.

I am not sure we all need a dark side, tho we probably all have one to some extent or another. I think it depends on what it is we want.

Of course we are all multifaceted and complex and a major theme of the movie is what happens when we try to suppress part of our nature.


About Nina's sexuality...I don't mean her orientation, but any form of her sexual expression in the movie. It made me uncomfortable.

Portman is quite beautiful, but not very sensual (at least not in my mind) making her perfect to play Nina. Portman reportedly lost 20 pounds to play this role. Already slender, it was 20 pounds she really didn't have to lose. She was so thin and all of her secondary sexual characteristics were lost. She regressed to having the body of a prepubescent girl. Now, don't get me wrong, again, it was perfect for the role of Nina who was in a state of arrested development and kept child-like by her mother but it definitely added a level of discomfort for me anyway especially when Thomas was groping her. The sex scene with Kunis wasn't quite as bad because it wasn't creepy and predatory like the scenes with Thomas but not being a dude into girl on girl action all I could think of is how she looked painfully thin. I guess the scene was supposed to be uncomfortable so it was executed in such a way that it definitely achieved its goal, that is if you can see beyond the "hot" factor.

I get that the whole point was Nina finally getting in touch with a side of herself she should have explored years earlier but still, Portman looking so childlike definitely made it all uncomfortable for me rather than sexy. Of course you guys may disagree.
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Post by President Roosevelt Thu Sep 24, 2015 12:48 pm

Dearest kazoo, where are you? I miss you.

The movie Black Swan Readingchallenge_katie

First, I don't think Nina was necessarily experiencing her "dark side". We could be watching the movie from her point of view, and since she doesn't fully know the sensual, wild, raw creative side of herself, we see it the way she sees it: the dark and unknown, the competitor, the enemy. We fear what we don't understand and cast it into different shades of darkness.

What we call "dark" is ultimately subjective. If a kid punches another kid and pummels him to the ground because he bullied his sister, I know parents will be in uproar over how violent the kid is, even though he tried to do the right thing in his mind. To them, the kid has a "dark side" of anger and violence that must be controlled by learning right from wrong. In a less politically correct culture, like hunter-gatherers, violence against those who attack one of your own would be an honorable virtue. Works the same way in the Mafia and street gangs. The "dark side" of today may very well be the "light" tomorrow. You never know when we might need "savages" to save us:



I think the writers/filmmakers were deliberate when using taboo topics to express how "dark" Nina can see her own creative side. Ecstasy and girl on girl sex....not the kind of stuff organized religions or "mainstream" society likes to talk about in the open. As an added benefit, these things are "dark" enough for shock value, to get attention, and that helps it stay a metaphor.

Ask a man in an interview for a corporate finance job what he thinks of girl-on-girl sex....he'll probably give you the "politically correct answer" because he just wants to get hired and have enough money to afford a nice middle-class life. But, in privacy from the world, he probably enjoys girl-on-girl sex. And what's wrong with that? It's natural after all. But....the demands of the normal life - our corporate jobs, our friends, our loved ones, the need to keep our houses and cars in order....the pressure to fit in well with the order of things, the pressure to keep our social value by fitting the ideal image of what we must be....is like wearing a mask. We try to be perfect but the pressure is too much. What happens? To meet the demands of society (or what we perceive to be the society's demands and the "right way of life") we suppress a unique, emotional part of ourselves. We give in to one polar extreme, so then the suppressed desires in us will look for the other polar extreme to express itself. It's kind of ironic isn't it? The more you tell someone not to do something, the more they will want to do it.

For example, if you go by one extreme and overwork yourself, stress yourself out over deadlines and perfection, deny yourself proper sleep and nourishment....then you may get sick or your body will desperately crave sugary and salty carbs to deal with the stress. This has happened to me loads of times. That's why I like the Buddha's middle way, work but have fun, keep things in balance. But Nina probably did have an OK balance in her life. Her obstacle was that it was hard to become someone else while she is still herself. So to create the new sensual black swan in her, she puts her "self" in the ring of fire and "burns" her skin off. Ecstasy, girl-on-girl sex, the violence...these can be metaphors for challenging the "self"....the darkness, the competitor, the enemy takes over. In a sense, it's kind of like method acting except that it's probably all real in Nina's mind.

Have you girls ever seen A Beautiful Mind? It's one of my favorite movies.



John Nash was a gifted mathematician who came up with the Nash equilibrium in game theory which was applied to mathematics, economics, law, antitrust-cases, and biological technology. But he was also "cursed" with schizophrenia. Let's assume that the movie is the complete truth (in reality, it's not). John Nash is shy, he doesn't believe that he gets along well with people, and he doesn't think people want to get along well with him. So he "creates" his best friend, Charles, in his mind as part of his schizophrenia. This is his "self" locked in, the "self" of not being able to make friends. Finally, his wife supported him on his journey to overcome schizophrenia. The illusions are still there, but John finds the strength to ignore them. He does that by challenging his own mental construct of "self". It's no longer about not getting along well with people, John knows his wife loves him, he makes friends in the library over time, and he starts teaching again. These things redefine the "self' in his mind, opens up the perception, and he is able to find more strength to deal not just with his schizophrenia but with his own limiting beliefs about his social abilities.

To us, schizophrenia was his "dark" side. To me, someone who has had a mental illness before, schizophrenia is not the "dark" side, his limiting concept of his "self" was his "dark" side. When he challenged that concept of "self", he was able to become happier. I think Nina also challenged her own concept of "self" and that opened up the creative process. At first, in her POV, it was dark and unknown but in the end it was beautiful and fully her.

So do we need a "dark" side to manifest things? No, we don't. I do believe that to manifest we just need to put our mind in the right direction. The "dark" side in us may be attractive simply because it has qualities that we desire inside of ourselves, to be more whole again, and that synergy of traits can open up a more fulfilling "self". I don't want to scare people but sometimes people piss me off and I can't help but admire the way Tony Soprano deals with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQOk8uAvus

I loved Tony Soprano as a teenager. He was a bad-ass mobster with depression. Like me, he had depression. Unlike me, he beat people up and cursed out people who messed with him. I wanted more of that assertiveness in my life, I needed that confident gangster attitude not to cover up my depression but to help me transcend my depression through a synergy of complex traits. Not just Tony Soprano, but also Tony Montana and Toni Cipriani. This was Law of Attraction at work, the more I watched the show, the more his personality grew on me. The more I thought about it, the more I became it. When we visualize, affirm, or use the Invisible Counselors from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, we are rewiring our mind, challenging the concept of our "self" to create a new "self" that is better for us. This is a creative process, the old "self" dies, sheds its skin like a snake, and we become a new "self" by opening up to what was once "dark" and unknown. That's the law of life: change. Tony Soprano had lots of pride, he didn't take any shit, he faced problems with a "smile and kill you later" attitude. I used some of this to face my problems and it worked. So the "darkness" isn't necessary to manifest things, but adopting it into our life can help us manifest what we want. The trick is to realize what we really need in our life and open up to it.
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Post by Phantasm Thu Sep 24, 2015 1:37 pm

The movie Black Swan F23ea033e7d5fab99904f21b7deab1fa

At the end of the day sex and violence are natural instincts. This kind of reminds me of something Sel posted earlier in the "Shiny" thread...a scene from the TV show Penny Dreadful (speaking of Bond as we were in Dark Beautiful, it's got Eva Green). 

Ethan is teaching Vanessa how to shoot. He tells her she has to be no longer human, but animal. She's bringing out the beast in herself, the kill for survival instinct. He tells her she mustn't look the thing she murders in the eye or she will think, feel emotion, hesitate. She can't do that. She has to become less than human. 

Thing is darkness ultimately is a part of us, for we are animals. But we are also divine beings. This is something that writers throughout history have drawn attention to. We are material but also spiritual beings, animals with gill-marks to prove it yet our minds can't be bounded by any nutshell. And to manifest our highest consciousness, though I hate to admit it, we need to go beyond the body and even the traditional ego-mind. Beyond primal instincts. Though ironically it is sometimes those same primal instincts that lead us to transcendence.

Sex and death, creation and annihilation. This is us and we are it, and there's no escaping who we really are.
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Post by Phantasm Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:27 am

President Roosevelt wrote:
Have you girls ever seen A Beautiful Mind? It's one of my favorite movies.



My dad's a mathematician and he quite likes this movie.

President have you seen Primal Fear?





Also found this for you, it's from the Mafia game, dunno if you've played it.



Pity about the Angels eh? Cya later. Cool
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The movie Black Swan Empty Re: The movie Black Swan

Post by Phantasm Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:19 pm

The movie Black Swan Tumblr_m2cc9newka1qkkgzuo1_500

Smile
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Post by Phantasm Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:31 pm

Oh and as to Nina not being sexy, to me sexiness is rarely only about body type. Yes, a Marilyn Monroe is sexier than an Audrey Hepburn. But sex appeal is a lot more than how a person looks. It's about the life force in them. So no, Nina in her white swan self was not really particularly sexy at all. She only became sexy when she embraced "the dark side" of herself.

Which is not to say that "good girls" can't be sexy. Look at Lizzy Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (god, my mum and sister love that series Rolling Eyes ). She's moral and prudent and so on but just bursting with life.

The movie Black Swan 86e33be1af38771d54125e18953c0593

And yeah. It does help that the actress happens to be buxom. Wink
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Post by President Roosevelt Wed Sep 30, 2015 2:36 am

While I haven't seen the movie in full, I can't say for sure if Nina is sexy or not....she doesn't really sound like it or exude it in the trailer. Yeah, she's hot in the lesbian sex scene but....well, of course I'm gonna like that Razz 2. Nina is very beautiful but always seems so tense, so full of pressure, like she's dying inside. She kind of reminds me of the bad times in my childhood, when parents yell at you because you don't know how to multiply or divide to their expectations, definitely not sexy to think about that...But I think that only goes to show what a good job Natalie Portman did as an actor. Nina's not supposed to be the sexy one, Lily is.

So what is it that makes Lily the sexy one? Maybe it's because she's much more uninhibited, free, relaxed into herself, she knows how to live in her sensuous side and is confident in it. She is it. She just has more passion or fire to her. Yeah, she seems dark and dangerous at times, but you just have this feeling like you can have a good time with her. But....I am very biased. Mila Kunis has always been very beautiful to me ever since I was a kid watching That 70's Show, but she became sexy to me after watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and later on Friends With Benefits. Sure, the nakedness and the sex scenes are fun, but it's also more than that. We can look at other actresses and models and think how beautiful they are, but then we forget about them. Mila, to me, was unforgettable. I don't know Mila Kunis's real personality, so in my mind she is literally the girl in that movie, Rachel. And apart from looks, what makes Rachel so attractive? She's daring, adventurous, knows how to have fun, she's basically a symbol of life itself - the feminine force of energy that let's our main hero realize that there's more to life than his ex. In the hero's journey, this is the meeting with the the Goddess, the hero subconsciously recognizes "feminine" traits to be whole again and move onward on his quest. I'm sure Selina will appreciate this after our conversation about vampires  Smile.



That's why I think attraction is a lot more than body. According to Abe-Hicks (?) the reason why we're attracted to certain people is because they pull us closer to Source energy. And I remember a very esoteric article saying that being sexy is about opening up the life force in you, in other words sexiness is about how "full of life" you are. The Sacral Chakra is the chakra of sexuality, it's what gives us the energy to feel sexy and attractive, the energy that attracts relationships and such, the energy of vitality (or is that the Root Chakra?) but this is also where self-worth, sensuality, and pleasure are the biggest themes. Without joy in life, without pleasure, without enjoying life, the Sacral Chakra shuts down and with it we lose joy and sexual pleasure. Our sexiness feels gone. I used to think the Heart Chakra was about relationships, and it is, but the Heart Chakra is more about forgiveness, universal love, and compassion. Relationships, romance, and sexuality at the core seem to really belong at the Sacral Chakra. And this makes the most sense to me. Yes, maybe love is felt in the heart, but when I feel good in my body, when I feel relaxed, confident, and joyful about life (Sacral Chakra themes), it's just so much easier to relate to people and talk to them, easier to be me and flirt too.

A big part of sexiness, I think, is how we relate to others, how we make others feel. Yes, according to the Law of Attraction, sexiness is a mind over matter thing, we have to believe in our own attractiveness by repetition of the thought that says we are sexy. Superman and Mallica, for example, are big fans of positive selfishness and repeat the idea that attractive people are the ones who don't care as much, they know they're attractive so they don't worry about attracting someone, they're just free in their minds, they focus on themselves and feel good about who they are, they feel love for themselves and that attracts love from others. In a sense, this is true. Desperation and attractiveness have poor chemistry together. But I don't think you necessarily have to be selfish and only focused on yourself to be attractive. I knew a girl in college who got lots of attention from boys, she was very popular, everyone wanted to date her. Yes, she was very good-looking but so were lots of other girls. So why did this one girl get the most attention? I think it was personality. She was very charming, she knew how to make people feel special, she knew what to tell them, how to touch them, how to use body language to connect to them (another Sacral Chakra theme). She's the kind of person where if she sees you reading a book in the library she will sit on her armrest, play with your book, and ask you about your day. She never depended on anybody to make her feel special, but she knew how to make people feel good when they were around her. It's just so much easier to connect to someone like that as opposed to the beautiful girl who seems so distant or non-expressive.



I'm nowhere near being as sexy as I'd like to be, but I think charisma is a part of it. Bill Clinton is my Mom's idea of sexy, he has lots of charisma thanks to presence, eye-contact, being passionate about what he speaks about, and making others feel like he understands them. Not to toot my own horn, but I experienced this personally. I was put into a leadership position and the only way to make the team successful was to speak up about our goals, set a direction, get others on board, talk to them about the work and teach them new ways to grow, share in high-fives and tell them how confident I was in them. The team's work really improved the more engaged I got with them and the more charismatic I became, but the most interesting part is how much more responsive and open the women became. Not just that, but it was easier at that time in my life to make new friends and flirt with lots of girls too. It's like when you become a person who is so sure about themselves and makes others feel good too, you attract more admiration. So I think a part of being attractive is that we have likable traits, like the ability to be present, have charm, and make others feel special to you. When we have our sexual/romantic fantasies, we are kind of falling for this illusion of the beautiful person having these likable traits. In the fantasy, they are engaged with us, flirting with us, making us feel special, and that's what makes it all so alluring, apart from physical beauty. Sure, we can also be attracted to mysterious, distant people, the challenge. It's ultimately subjective, a matter of taste and individual (subconscious) desire.

The movie Black Swan Giphy

Of course, that doesn't mean Natalie Portman can't be sexy, she is to people out there, but I think given the right role, setting, and scene - her sensual side can show itself. It's ultimately based on our thoughts. The movies we see and roles she gets influence how we imagine her and relate to her, but behind closed doors the white swan Natalie Portman could very well be involved in some very black swan stuff Cool . And how is this ad not sensual?

The movie Black Swan Natalie_Portman_Miss_Dior_Eau_Fraiche_Campaign
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