Swedish-Polish director-writer Magnus von Horn describes his film “Pigen med nålen” (translation: “The Girl with the Needle”) as a “fairy tale for grownups.”
My old friend Bruno Bettelheim, author of “The Uses of Enchantment,” a definitive analysis of fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis, used to tell me that the “extreme violence and ugly emotions of many fairy tales help children solve certain existential problems, such as separation anxiety, Oedipal conflict, and sibling rivalries.”
Von Horn seems to think these themes apply to adults as well.
“The Girl with the Needle” displays the same underlying fears as you’ll find in “Hansel and Gretel” or “Little Red Riding Hood.”
In Von Horn’s psychological horror film, we meet Karoline (portrayed by Victoria “Vic” Carmen Sonne), a seamstress in a factory whose husband has recently disappeared in WWI, leaving her destitute. Being pregnant, she takes a job as a wet nurse. She grows close to her employer, an older woman named Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), who operates an illegal adoption service. However, these efforts to help mothers place their unwanted newborns in foster homes has a sinister nightmarish side to it.
Dagmar is like a witch who owns a candy shop (instead of a gingerbread house), a way of luring desperate young women with a promise of help.
Dagmar’s home and shop are dark, Gothic spaces. As von Horn describes them, “We exaggerated the setting completely, throwing dirt, water, and smoke on the exteriors. We played with perspective a lot in some of the interiors.”
Von Horn’s third feature, “The Girl with the Needle” premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d’Or. It was named one of the top 5 international films of 2024 by the National Board of Review. It has been nominated for a Golden Globe. And won two European Film Awards. In addition, the film has been chosen as the Danish entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.
If you hurry, you can still catch “The Girl with the Needle” at the Tropic Cinema.
“We set out to make this black-and-white film set 100 years ago,” says von Horn. “When we enter a film like that, we feel we’re fairly safe because this takes place a long time ago, and it’s not even in color.”
Nonetheless, von Horn and co-writer Line Langebek Knudsen find chilling parallels “with the present day, where women’s reproductive rights are still under threat and capitalism is no less cruel.”
Von Horn says, “I have always wanted to make a horror film. When I was approached to develop this project, I felt that it had the potential to be a horror film. I never wanted to make a horror genre film but to somehow explore what a horror film is. How can you base it on drama, and always stick to the characters?”
Based on the true crime story of Dagmar Overbye, a Danish serial killer. She offered help to women with unwanted pregnancies.
Marcus von Horn adds, “In our research of Copenhagen at the time and Dagmar Overby, it became obvious that this is not just about the evil in one woman. It says so much about society and the times they lived in. This is social realism, a human drama produced by a cruel society.”
As Bruno Bettelheim said, “At its core, a fairy tale is an exploration of ideas, a form of education that does not lecture, but rather captivates the audience through powerful narratives that take them on unforgettable journeys.”
Fairy tale or not, “The Girl with the Needle” takes you on a dark and difficult, yet unforgettable, journey.
Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com
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