From: Black Swan
Genre: Movies
Who said it?: Nina Sayers
The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from Darren Aronofsky’s psychological horror film, Black Swan. The movie focuses on Nina Sayers who gets the prima ballerina role as the Odette/The White Swan due to her grace. However, she fails to get the other half of the role of Odile/The Black Swan as she does not have the unbridled fury and power in her dancing and the role goes to the relative newcomer, Lily. Despite getting the role of a lifetime as the White Swan, Nina Sayers becomes obsessed with the Black Swan role and is paranoid that Lily is sabotaging her chances.
The quote comes from the very end of the film. Nina (played by Natalie Portman) has claimed both the White and Black Swan roles and performs both roles flawlessly, despite having stabbed herself during a hallucination in the middle of the show. At the climax, she falls off the edge of the stage to simulate Odette committing suicide and everyone rushes to congratulate her for a brilliant performance. The director notices the blood gushing from Nina’s side and tries to ask what happened. This is when Nina, finally achieving her goal, delivers the quote.
Geek wisdom: Is the cost of perfection worth losing everything, including yourself? An unhealthy obsession with anything is ultimately just that: unhealthy. Sometimes it’s always a good idea to take a step back to see if something is worth all the trouble.
My Geek Wisdom 