⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
By Leah Read.
Midsommar is directed by Ari Aster and is his second film created. The movie follows a young women called Dani (played by Florence Pugh) who is grieving after a devastating family tragedy. She travels to a small village in Sweden with her boyfriend and friends as part of their academic research assignment and the group are invited to a summer festival to celebrate the summer solstice. At first the festival seems peaceful, but it slowly becomes strange and disturbing as the group discovers the village’s unfamiliar cultural traditions and rituals.
The aesthetics, cinematography and other elements of visuals in Midsommar are beautifully created and interesting. Pawel Pogorzelski, the key cinematographer in Midsommar expresses his cinematography through blending elements of folk horror with a vibrant colour grading (reminiscent of Technicolor) to create a fairytale aesthetic feel. Other elements that tie into this are the variety of different costumes and clothing that are worn by the people of the cultural community village in Sweden. The overall effect of this is to create a sense of unsettling for the audience.
A particular scene that stood out was the opening tragedy scene which has a huge impact on the whole story. The use of long tracking shots and slow pan tilts that follow the fireman into the house to find Dani’s family creates that sense of unease and establishes the theme of overwhelming. This use of disorienting camera movement continues in the film as there is a smooth transition of the camera from Dani vomiting at home in her bathroom to her then transitioned onto the plane to Sweden which is an interesting approach that Pogorzelski had made.
Florence Pugh delivers an emotional and realistic performance on screen that showcases her characters grief at family loss in a naturalistic and raw way that makes her emotional distress and pain feel realistic rather than being overly dramatic. Pugh’s use of body language, facial expressions and psychological responses suggest that her character Dani is slowly evolving from a distressed, isolated women to someone who begins to feel like she is accepted and included into this community cultured society. The importance of the community becomes interesting in Midsommar through them demonstrating that they prey on the people who are vulnerable, manipulate and are used as a therapeutic antidote for Dani who is going through grief. This is shown through the cult physically surrounding her and mimicking her crying wails to reveal that no individual has to carry the burden of trauma alone.
However, there are some aspects of the narrative that I found to be really disturbing and uncomfortable. One disturbing moment in the film was the Attestupa ritual, whilst I’m not going to give any spoilers let’s just say it was the elderly characters. Watching those elements of how the story unfolds on screen shows how some of the graphics had become overwhelming.
But overall, the production company A24 have excelled at their work and created a cinematic masterpiece that I will never forget.
