Matthew Libatique composes a visual plot synopsis

Visual storytelling. In a single shot we see Natalie Portman’s Nina seated at her dressing table framed to suggest there’s a matching compartment of her mind in a cubicle right beside her. Is that a wall of solid cinder block, or a paper thin facade? That imaginary chair in the adjoining room down this hall of mirrors seems vacant, but is it? Vying for our eyes’ attention is the fractured dazzle of an ocular mirror rimmed in a wreath of leafy prisms, with Nina’s head reflected as if her psyche is suspended inside a snow globe. Caution: Objects in the convex lens may be closer than they appear.

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique has worked alongside Darren Aronofsky as his visual collaborator on Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and The Fountain (2006). Feels about time for his contribution to be officially appreciated, don’t you think?