Sub-Genre Analysis - Black Swan & The Bourne Identity

We will be comparing two different sub-genres, psychological thriller and action thriller. The two thrillers we have picked are Black Swan and The Bourne Identity. First, we will discuss the two different thrillers, then compare the two in terms of sub-genres.

Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller and horror film. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities embodied by the new arrival Lily (Kunis).  The  narrative of the film centres around a female ballet dancer Nina Sayers that wins the lead role of 'swan lake' who is perfect for the role of the 'white swan', although she feels her role is being snatched from her when a new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the cast of the show, who seems to be grabbing the attention of the dance teacher who Nina is in love with, this causes an issue and Nina starts to believe that Lily is after her and her role and slowly loses her mind as she gets into the character more and more, becoming 'the black swan', leading to her to psychologically going mental.

Nina would be seen as the protagonist throughout the film as she is shown to be just a sweet and inocent ballet dancer at the beginning. The character is desperate to be the best and perfecting herself, but throughout the film she becomes in danger of herself because she starts to get injured and losing focus, which shows the audience she is in peril. There are scenes such as after her performances in part 1 of swan lake, where she goes into her dressing room to find Lily in there who teases her about how she performed. Then, in anger she throws her against the mirror. This shows her weakness in the film. However, stereotypical mind games are portrayed when Nina had actually stabbed herself and not Lily who she had imagined to be there. The frustration and anger gets to her making her think and see stuff which causes her to do stuff. This reflects the weakness and innocence of the protagonist. Nina is controlled by her Dance Teacher Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) throughout the film who is pressurizing her to be better than any one else. The teacher also forces her to extreme states of mind, this shows us that she is inferior to him. Thomas is the antagonist as he limits her freedom and she feels helpless, although he does not harm her or put her in danger.

The narrative presents ordinary situations where extraordinary things keep happening, such as when Nina is gone to be fitted for her dress and she is standing normally in the mirror being measured. However, when she notices her reflection, she notices red cuts on her back. This is also a theme of seeing reflection and optical illusions which emphasis the mystery of the storyline too, as this usually this wouldn't happen in this situation. This makes the audience wonder and ask questions as what the Nina might be going through. The character seeing things makes the audience aware of her lack of concentration within her dance, the aim now is to get rid of the black swan and win over her teacher. However, as we all are aware she believes its the black swan she kills but really she stabs herself. Another scene is when she is having an argument with her mum and locks her out her room, and her legs suddenly snap into a swan like shape, this usually wouldn't happen and plays with the audiences minds. This confuses the audience but makes them want to keep watching.


Themes of identity are presented a lot in this film through all the actions she does. One scene that represents doubling is when Nina is walking through an alley dressed in a fluffy white coat and passes another person who she imagines to be her but is dressed in black. This links to the narrative as she plays a white and a black swan in the film. Also, throughout the film she keeps seeing a double of herself in the mirror but doing different things to what she is doing at the time. There is also a scene of Nina in the bath and as she goes under water she opens her eyes and imagines herself glaring down smiling at her from above the water, she suddenly sits up and the double image of herself is gone, this emphasises the psychological mystery of the narrative.
  All the different micro elements in the film help portray the urgency and mystery, it builds up tension and curiosity as to what will happen next. The camera work used adds tense emotion in the scene. An example of this is where the protagonist is practising her dance for the lead role, there is a close up showing deep expressions on her face suggesting to the audience that she has very strong passion for dancing. 
 A close up is also shown of Nina with sore bloodshot eyes showing confusion and terror on her face when she pulls a feather out her back as if she is turning into a swan, the different illusions makes the audience interact with the character as they will be feeling confused just like Nina, wondering whats going on. The camerawork portrays the events in the scenes such as handheld angles. Whilst Nina is dancing, the camera follows her whilst she is moving but at the same time , it still shows that she is the object the camera is focusing on. An eye line match is shown when Nina is staring into the dancing studio, we as audience members view what she is seeing. This makes the viewers aware of her feelings and what she's experiencing.
There is a lot of fast mysterious sound during the thrilling and extraordinary scenes, as well as elegant and slow music whilst she is dancing. The elegant music is parallel to her feeling and the situation, it also builds tension and realism to the story. The contrast with the music illustrates the peakest point of the storyline.
The lighting in the mise-en-scene has a great effect on the sub genre of psychological. There are many scenes where artificial light is used in order to portray realism. Throughout the rest of the film, the lighting is very dramatic and dark leaving the audience on the edge of their seats and creating engimas. The dark colours represent different emotions such as death and sadness. Linking in with the narrative, it creates suspense and adds mystery to the scenes. The costumes used in this film adds realism to the characters such as the perfect ballet outfit Nina wears. This reflects her innocence as a protagonist. At the end when she looks as if she almost is a swan with her feathery black dress, bold makeup and the orop of a tiara tells the audience she is playing the black evil swan. The contrast in her costumes suggests the different personalities and feelings.




The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American-German action spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, suffering from extreme memory loss, attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency. The film also features many other main characters who help set the story. This film is the first in the Bourne film series, being followed by four other series. The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Bourne Legacy.


The plot starts of with Jason In the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille, Italian fishermen rescue an unconscious man floating adrift with two gunshot wounds in his back. The boat's medic finds a tiny laser projector surgically implanted under the unknown Jason's skin at the level of the hip. When activated, the laser projector displays the number of a safe deposit box in Zürich. Jason wakes up and discovers he is suffering from extreme memory loss. Over the next few days on the ship, Jason finds he is fluent in several languages and has unusual skills, but cannot remember anything about himself, he has memory loss making him unaware what anything has happened in the future, Jason also doesn't know why he was in the sea. When the ship docks, he sets off to investigate the safe deposit box. Jason has the skills of a dangerous man however he has no memory. Now the governments top agents is about to become their number one target. And the only way he can survive is to find out who he really is, but before they find out where he is. Jason escapes from every danger he gets into, as quoted in the movie " as he's made to disappear".
Bourne escapes and encounters a Swiss woman named Marie Kreutz, offering her $10,000 to drive him to an address in Paris. Meanwhile, Alexander Conklin, the head of Treadstone, assures Abbott that he will destroy any evidence connecting them to Bourne, making it more difficult for Jason to know who he really is.

The action thriller is fast and snappy, the clip shows various parts from the movie. There is narrator within this clip making the audience aware of what to expect and roughly what The Bourne Identitty is about. Where in Black Swan we only really see the main character and her life journey as she goes through ballet school. The psycological thriller Black swan has defiantly got more short shot duration and maintains the storyline as very unrevealing. On the other hand, in The bourne Identity, the action thriller is quick and fast showing the audience the narrative and characters.