birds of paradise thoughts

i watched this film on sunday and i can't stop thinking about it. i really enjoyed and loved all aspects of it. everything was just so pure and symbolic about this film. 

birds of paradise is a newly released film about ballet, friendship, love, betrayal, misunderstanding and development. of two ballet dancers competing to win the prize in the lovely city of Paris. it features two of my favourite actors: kristine froseth (from the society) and diana silvers (from booksmart). 

i was especially excited to start watching this film because of my connection to ballet. when i was younger, i did a couple years of ballet but quickly dropped it afterwards. recently, i have taken it up again and i have never felt so at peace and calm in my life before. needless to say, this was definitely not the feeling which the characters would have felt in the film. the reality of ballet is brutal, competitive, toxic and the film does a good job in portraying the competitive aspect through the two protagonists: kate and marine. 

what i thought was the most interesting but also disturbing about this film was the blurring of the lines between incest and romance and how that, in my opinion, effectively subverts and challenge heteronormative stereotypes. both relationships, marine and her brother ollie AND marine and kate, hint towards the idea of incest. on the one hand, marine's mother and the public believe that marine and ollie had sex, even though marine denies it and states that her mother was mistaken. on the other hand, after ollie's death, marine and kate develop a sisterly bond. in a way, replacing marine and ollie's previous tight sibling bond, as marine's mother has pointed out. but yes, marine and kate ended up having a threesome with felipe, so i guess you could say that incestuous. even though they're not blood-related, marine did call kate her sister. if we choose to believe marine that the sex never actually happened with her brother and that marine and kate's relationship is more than just a sisterly bond, then we could argue that the writers wanted to go against heterosexual norms and also to challenge the typical portrayal of hetero relationships in ballet performance. afterall, marine and kate made a pact to be joint female winners of the prize despite the tradition of the one male+one female winner.

speaking of the joint female prize, there's also this idea of merging. transitioning. metamorphoses. from 2 to 1. imageries of fusing could be seen in marine+ollie's relationship and also in marine+kate's relationship. on the one hand, marine and ollie are tied together in a biological, physical aspect and also through a soul connection, as marine exclaims that when ollie died, a part of her died too as they were connected as one. on the other hand, despite marine and kate's attempt (mainly marine) to recreate marine and ollie's bond (as marine desperately tries to deal with her grief by finding someone to replace her brother after his death), their bond is more psychological, more romantic and unrealistic in regards to defying the ballet traditions with joint female winners. thus, the unrealistic aspect of this joint winner pact exposes society's reluctance to move away from traditions and more importantly, highlighting underlying fears and anxieties of the increasing visibility of a queer public space.

interestingly, this idea of fusing also cropped up in atwood's the robber bride, a book i was reading during the time when i watched this film. whilst, (in atwood's novel) charis desperately attempts to be rid of her psychological fusion with karen, zenia, and perhaps her baby (physically); marine and kate both desire to fuse: to be joint winners at the prize on a physical level, but also as a tight bond on a spiritual level. 

spoiler alert (ish)?? so... about the ending, i thought it was quite a smart one. remember how i talked about the impossibility of a joint female prize? well, in the end, they both win in their own ways. ultimately, kate wins the prize and becomes a star in the Paris opera ballet. whereas, marine wins psychologically by healing from her trauma and starting her own dance choreo, leaving the toxicity of ballet world behind. notably, the audience can visibly see that despite kate's success, she doesn't seem to be content. there is still a lot of pent up anger and frustration, even confusion within her character. thus, i would argue that marine is the true winner here. despite the sense of ambiguity and surrealness portrayed in the ending scene, of hopefulness but also doom, the film provides a glimmer of hope for the audience that one day kate, like marine, will be set free too. 

so yeah... to conclude, i really enjoyed this film and would recommend everyone to go watch it regardless of whether they do ballet or not. feel free to share your thoughts on it, especially on the theme of metamorphoses and who you think the true winner was;)

thx 4 reading <3