Darren Aronofsky’sBlack Swanwas easily one of the mostacclaimed movies of the 2010s, being the rare film in his filmography to achieve massive box office and Oscar success (with Natalie Portman deservedly winning Best Actress for her fearless turn). It’s the kind of film that’s both hard to watch and near-impossible to look away from, riding a fine line between being melodramatic but not overwhelmingly so and disturbing and unsettling but also engaging. To this date, it remains one of this generation’s defining films about the lengths one goes to for their art at thecost of their sanity.
However, many cinephiles have noticed more than a few similarities betweenBlack Swanand anime legend Satoshi Kon’s 1997 classic,Perfect Blue. Both films focus on a young woman (inBlack Swan, a ballet dancer; inPerfect Blue, a pop starlet) spiraling into madness as they seek to reinvent themselves and use their crafts to get in touch with their darker selves. Taking influence is a common practice for even the best filmmakers today, but is there any basis for the belief thatBlack Swanactually ripped offPerfect Blue?
Darren Aronofsky Has Paid Homage to Perfect Blue Before
Black Swan
Black Swanisn’t the only film in which Darren Aronofsky paid tribute to Satoshi Kon’s masterpiece. Most notably, there’s a scene inRequiem for a Dreamin which Jennifer Connelly’s character, Marion, sits in a fetal position in the bathtub, having started prostituting herself to fuelher heroin addiction. A shot from underwater captures her submerged face below the surface as she screams.
As many have noticed, this sequence is virtually a shot-for-shot remake of a similar scene fromPerfect Blue. Aronofsky is the first person who will acknowledge the similarities between these two scenes. As he detailed in a French documentary about Satoshi Kon,Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist, he deliberately paid homage to the sequence because he felt it was an effective way to capture Marion’s emotional mindset.
InRequiem for a Dream, I was probably in the script process… I think I was looking for a scene to kind of get the internal mindset of Jennifer Connelly’s character, Marion. And probably at the same time, I sawPerfect Blue.
More intriguing is that before makingRequiem for a Dream, Aronofsky had reportedly tried to buy the rights toPerfect Blue, as he wanted to direct a live-action remake. Additionally, he had met with Satoshi Kon in the early 2000s, hoping to discuss plans for the remake. Alas, the deal never went through, and Aronofsky instead focused his attention onRequiem.
Insiders have noted conflicting reports about themeeting between the two; some have indicated that Kon was flattered by Aronofsky’s clear love of his work, while others say his feelings towards his homage toPerfect Bluewere less than amicable. However, in an interview from 2007, Kon discussed the “homage” inRequiem for a Dream.
Since Kon died of pancreatic cancer in 2010, we’ll never know for sure what the two thought of each other. But it’s clearthat Kon’s workwas a significant influence on Aronofsky, even this early in his career, and this admiration especially came to the forefront a decade later whenBlack Swanwas released.
Are Perfect Blue and Black Swan Really That Similar?
Black Swan’s conflict revolves around star ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman in arguably the best performanceof her career), who auditions for the dual lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky’sSwan Lake. While the director believes she’s a perfect fit for the graceful and innocent White Swan, he’s skeptical of her ability to pull off the darker and more sensual Black Swan, believing competing dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) to be a better fit and this newfound competition drives Nina to perfection and ultimately leads to her descending into madness.
Perfect Bluefocuses on a young Japanese pop starlet, Mima (notably two letter changes apart from Nina), who retires from music to pursue an acting career, and as she starts taking on more sexual and adult-oriented roles, she too starts descending into madness. Indeed, the similarities between these two plots are striking, at least on the surface. But below the surface, the films diverge considerably.
Darren Aronofsky Says a Black Swan Musical Is in the Works
“We’ll see what happens. But we’re working on it,” the director said of adapting the 2010 psychological thriller into a musical.
Aronofsky has denied taking influence fromPerfect Blue; as he said ina 2010 Q&A, “There are similarities between the films, but it wasn’t influenced by it. It really came out of Swan Lake the Ballet, we wanted to dramatize the ballet, that’s why it’s kind of up here and down there, because ballet is big and small in lots of ways.” While it’s admittedly hard to believe thatBlack Swanwasn’tat allinfluenced byPerfect Blue, there are enough plot differences between the two that his claims mostly hold water.
Black Swanis laser-focused on Nina’s quest for perfection, to the point where the film feels told almost entirely from her subjective point of view.Perfect Bluehas a key subplot that allows us a more objective perspective of the story, focusing on a super-fan of Mima’s, Me-Mania (so unhinged he makes Eminem’s Stan look positively sane), as he murders crew members of Mima’s new show to force her to return to pop stardom. Most crucially, Mima’s story ends happily, with her successfully making the transition to a more mature acting career, while theBlack Swanendingsees Nina die in her quest to be perfect.
However, the most striking differences are in the film’s thematic concerns. WithPerfect Blue,Kon was interested in exploring themes of fantasy versus reality, the image Mima presents to the world as a pop star, and how that conflicts with her true identity. The conflict arises when her fans, like Me-Mania and her mentor Rumi, refuse to accept Mima transitioning into a more sexually-driven persona. Especially in Rumi’s case, since she aged out of pop stardom years before and lived her fantasies vicariously through Mima, she snapped when this fantasy could no longer sustain itself.
Black Swan, on the other hand, is almost entirely focused on exploring the obsessive lengths an artist goes to if it means achieving perfection. The conflicts Nina goes through are almost entirely internal; the only outward resistance she faces in trying to play the Black Swan is skepticism that she can pull it off. Even her rival Lily, whom Nina sees as an arch-enemy, seems to be less overtly antagonistic than she appears. Thus, the film takes on a much more tragic element thanPerfect Blue, as Nina’s work to push herself to her limits is nearly entirely self-inflicted and ends up driving her to madness and death.
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Is Black Swan a Perfect Blue Homage or Rip-Off?
As previously mentioned, completely original inspiration in filmmaking is hard to come by, and even the best artists draw upon multiple sources and inspirations to create something new. We believe this is what Darren Aronofsky did withBlack Swan; while his love of Satoshi Kon’s work is well-documented, he successfully avoids feeling too close to his influence.
While there are surprising plot similarities, the fact that Aronofsky’s film had different thematic interests and a much darker and tragic angle on the same subject should tell us thatBlack Swanis more an homage and companion piece toPerfect Bluethana rip-off. But obviously, the most significant thing the two films share in common is that they’re fantastic and should be celebrated for their accomplishments on their own terms.Black Swanis streaming on Max, whilePerfect Blueis available to stream on AMC+ or rent on iTunes, Prime Video, and Google Play.
