There is a terrifying atmosphere from the silent beginning of The girl with the needlewhich is maintained throughout the film by the Swedish director living in Poland Magnus van Horn. This atmosphere is accentuated by an exceptional expressionist photography by Michal Dymek, with a beautiful spectral monochrome, and a soundtrack by Frederikke Hoffmeier, which underlines the tensions, leading them to despair.
Located in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the end of the First World War in the background, Karoline (exceptional Vic Carmen Sonne) is a young seamstress in a textile factory whose husband has apparently been discharged in combat and, evicted from her home of years, finds “a shoulder to cry on” in his wealthy boss who was moved by his request for a widow’s pension that was impossible to make effective.
So when her husband reappears with indelible traces (physical and psychological) of the battlefield, she runs him away because she is certain of her upcoming marriage. But she soon finds herself unemployed, abandoned and pregnant. And when he decides to use the needle that gives the film its title, he meets Dagmar Overbye (Trine Dyrholm), who helps him get through the moment and offers her services at a clandestine adoption agency that supposedly finds adoptive homes for unwanted children.
The backstory of the film, among the many themes it touches on, is based on a true event. It is a descent into hell with a dramatic focus placed mainly on the fictional character and her complicated misadventures, which lead her to have an emotional relationship with the woman who employs her as a wet nurse and who clearly hides a macabre secret behind her. that temper calmed by drops of ether.
The girl with the needle It is a film with brilliant performances around deeply stormy themes. It is terrifying in its construction, in how it goes from social drama to visceral thriller while maintaining an aesthetic that recalls the horror cinema of the thirties (Browning mainly) sprinkled with nods to David Lynch and Lars Von Trier in its approach to the marginal, because of how It makes what is not seen as disturbing as it is rugged. The moral dilemma and the social context intersect throughout the truly infernal plot about abuse, orphanhood, abandonment, hopelessness and the most brutal revenge.
The girl with the needle can be seen at Cineteca Nacional, Casa del Cine MX, Cine Tonalá and Cinemanía in Mexico City, as well as Film Club Café (Edo. Mex.), the Cineteca FICG and the Cineforo UdeG in Guadalajara, the Cineteca Nuevo León in Monterrey, the Sala Alternativa in Aguascalientes, Jeudi Veintisiete in Morelia and Cinema Nahual in Xalapa.
It can then be seen on the Mubi platform.
*Javier Pérez He does reports, chronicles and interviews, as well as film criticism and coverage of cultural issues. Direct ForoFoco. Nobody wants to accompany him to the movies: he won’t stop eating popcorn or talking about something else.
Follow information about business and current events in Forbes Mexico
Do you like to get informed through Google News? Follow our Showcase to have the best stories
