Earlier this year, the highly acclaimed film Black Swan (2010), directed by Darren Aronofsky, returned to theaters for its 15th anniversary. Although loved by many, there are controversies revolving around plagiarism and credit that make you wonder if the film’s legacy is well-deserved.

The Blurry Line Between Homage and Copy

Black Swan is a movie about Nina, a ballerina who gets the opportunity to play the lead in “Swan Lake.” However, the stressful role brings about a mental decline that completely takes over her life.

For all its accolades, including five Oscar nominations and a Best Actress win for Natalie Portman, the film’s story has been accused of plagiarism by articles like one from El Gato News and another from Metaflix. 

The controversy revolves around another famous film: Perfect Blue, directed by Japanese auteur Satoshi Kon. 

In Perfect Blue the main character, Mima, is a famous pop singer who looks to transition into an acting career. Her life becomes dominated by paranoia as she realizes just how crazy fans can get. 

The articles point out a very clear similarity between the main characters’ names: Nina and Mima.  

That isn’t all, though. They’re both young women that perform, have doppelgangers, and struggle with their jobs as lines become blurred between their personal and professional lives.

Metaflix points out how both films fit into this prompt: “A female performer spirals into insanity as increased pressures in her career cause her to lose grip of herself and reality.”

While the similarities between the two films are notable, in the end they are outweighed by the numerous differences.

The main conflict throughout Black Swan comes from within Nina. She torments herself as she strives to be impossibly perfect, which affects her personal life. 

Perfect Blue’s main conflict is external. Mima’s fans are the root of the problem, which begins to affect her work life. 

Nina’s doppelganger represented a dark side of herself previously unknown to her, and Mima’s came from the expectations and pressures put onto her by her fans. 

So where did this controversy come from if the stories aren’t even that similar? 

It possibly stems from the fact that Black Swan’s director, Darren Aronofsky, had recreated a Perfect Blue scene in his older movie, Requiem for a Dream, which caused people to rumor that he had purchased the rights to Perfect Blue.

When Aronofsky was questioned about the controversy, he denied it by stating in Tinsel & Tine, “Not really, there are similarities, but it wasn’t influenced by it.”

I find this odd however as Aronofsky is clearly a big fan of Perfect Blue, and he isn’t afraid to use stuff from other films in his. 

Aronofsky spoke with Satoshi Kon nine years before Black Swan was released, in Kon’s Tone, with Satoshi Kon even stating that Perfect Blue had scenes similar to other films.

Kon said that Aranofsky told him that Requiem For A Dream was an homage to Perfect Blue.

Black Swan took heavier inspiration from David Cronenberg’s 1985 horror classic, The Fly. Both films utilize body horror, with a huge similarity. In The Fly, a character grows hair out of their back, just like how Nina grows feathers out of her back. 

Instead of being an example of plagiarism, Black Swan is actually more of an homage to Perfect Blue. Plagiarism takes things directly and claims to be its own thing, but homages take things and honor them with something new, while acknowledging the original source. 

I believe Black Swan isn’t plagiarising, it clearly has its own original ideas and while it does take from other films, it respects them and utilizes them to create something even greater.

A Need For Credit

The second controversy revolves around Sarah Lane, a professional ballet dancer, acting as lead actress Natalie Portman’s body double, who received barely any credit for her work on the film.

Black Swan, which contains a large number of ballet scenes, required lots of work from Lane to make the film work.

Although Natalie Portman had ballet training, Lane was required for difficult ballet scenes. 

These things are normal for movies, body doubles are necessary, but giving credit is also necessary. 

At the 2011 Oscars, Portman had earned the Academy Award for Best Actress after her leading role in Black Swan. 

But before the Oscars, a video which showed proof of Lane’s body double work on the film had been removed from the internet; and in the film’s credits, Lane was listed as “stunts” instead of “body double”. 

ABC News reported that Lane had also been called and asked to, “please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie’s image.”

Why would they not want Lane to speak on her own performance?

During the Oscars itself, Portman herself oddly never spoke on Lane’s hard work; not even thanking her when receiving the Best Actress award.  

With phone calls, media removal, and no verbal appreciation, the situation is undeniable; Lane was robbed of her hard work.

Even with these controversies, I still believe Black Swan to be completely worthy of its legacy. 

Although the lack of credit for Sarah Lane’s work is problematic, it doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the film itself. The movie remains unchanged. 

And it can continue to call itself as its own movie as its story is more than likely not copying Perfect Blue, so that controversy doesn’t affect the movie at all as well.

What we’re left with is a movie that shocks the audience with beautiful music, brilliant choreography, and an amazing story that will surely stick with you for a while.