My name is Esma Hazal, I am a screenwriter and I currently study Philosophy & Moral Sciences at the university. As a philosophy student who reads and naturally has arguments on certain topics, I decided to share my thoughts and reflections on a public blog with you. I believe it would be a waste to keep them in my notes and archives passively.
In this blog, I will focus on the following topics: philosophy, thoughts & reflections, storytelling, atheism and an unbiased approach to the Quran and Mohamed. I hope you'll enjoy the new insights I hope to give you here. Welcome to Reflect-in!
"I just want to be perfect."
These desperate words from Nina in Black Swan (2010) set the tone for her haunting journey throughout the movie, as she battles for the lead role in Swan Lake. Embodying both the pure White Swan and the sensual Black Swan, her obsession with achieving perfection takes over. The more she pushes herself to embody both Swans, the more she disconnects from reality. Her emotions distort her perception, causing her to blur the lines between dreams and reality. At times, Nina's own body becomes foreign to her. In the end, she achieves the perfection she yearns for, but it comes at the ultimate cost: her sanity. Black Swan explores the dark consequences of perfectionism and how it can destroy the mind. If you would enjoy this movie, which is one of my favorites, the animated movie Perfect Blue (1997) would be another great match for you.
Nina’s perfectionism in Black Swan comes at a tragic cost for deeply personal reasons. Mima in Perfect Blue also wanted to be perfect, but for her, it was the overwhelming pressure to conform to others' expectations that led her to a psychological breakdown. "I wanted to be perfect. But I couldn't be," she says. One thing is clear in the human condition surrounding perfectionism: it is an illusion that destroys you, piece by piece, until you no longer know who you are.
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