Black Swan and Whiplash along with their respective filmmakers have been mentioned at length so far on mentorless, and unsurprisingly, there is more to say about both, and this time, it’s together that they will be dissected.

Both films relate the painful journey of two hopeful artists, willing to sacrifice everything to become ‘perfect’.

In his visual essay Hands & Feet, Fernando Andre emphasizes the numerous similarities in both hero’s journey, not only in their storyline, but also in the way the camera tells the story.

Without talking about formula, it’s interesting to note that both films had a large appeal and reached to a much wider audience than expected.





The Broken Artist’s Journey: How Black Swan & Whiplash Used a Similar Hero’s Journey

The Setting:

Both films are set in cut-throat New York Art Scene.

The Backstory:

Both characters live alone, attached to a single parent while the other abandoned them at a young age.

Both parents believe in their children, but hold them back from becoming truly great.

The Main Character:

Both films have a lead in their 20s.

Both films are about young artist pushing themselves to the brink of self-destruction all in the name of their art and their descent into madness to perfect their craft.

The Opening Scene: (practicing their craft)

Both films open with the protagonists dressed in black and white in dark and severe rooms, as a stranger in black enters.

By the end of the opening, both characters have set up their game: drumming and dancing.

The Antagonist: (the other possible lead)

Both films feature a scene where the instructor pick someone other than them, and they react intensely.

In both films, the characters find out that their teachers last pupil has committed suicide.

The Obstacle: (their own limitation as artist)

Both films feature extensive disturbing practice sequences where Nina dances and Andrew drums.

The All Is Lost Moment:

Both characters suffer an intense embarrassment.

They both seek counsel of their parents, bracing them, but then they break away

The Climax:

Once they arrive on stage, they both give the best performance of their lives, going further than either they or their instructors’ expected.

The Resolution:

When they reach their pick, both films performed the same cinematic exchange, they cut from the characters’ pained expression mid-performance to their parents’, watching from afar in distress, they have finally broken free, each in their gender specific ways, Andrew with ferocity and power, and Nina with grace and submissiveness.

All those elements come from the video below, that you should watch as its editing adds a lot to what you’ve just read.

Check also below for complementary articles about each film, you’ll see there is even more to dig.

Enjoy:

[thanks to Joe Sejean , via Fubiz