Ari Aster's MIDSOMMAR (2019)

"That's a bear."

'I'm going to lie down. Everybody lie down'

^ paraphrase because I don't remember the exact line but this whole scene had me in absolute stitches. The whole 'I don't want to meet new people' is perfect psylocibin talk

rip Mark, not a horrible enough person to truly loathe, more than enough of a fool to get skinned

- Can we just go back to Stockholm and have a real holiday?
- Sorry, I'm skint.

I was debating whether there was a non-zero chance any of the outsiders would have been allowed to leave. There's definitely the tension earlier in the film where it's unclear whether they're getting killed for fucking up by screaming when the elders commit suicide, or taking pictures of the sacred book. I think it's pretty clear at the end that they were all fated for death, so the stakes of the earlier interactions.. kind of evaporate? Minus the May Queen, obviously. She's the wild card.

I just assumed that once Connie and Simon got murdered for not *really* doing anything wrong that all the outsiders were going to die. Including Dani! I was more focused on how Dani was going to transform and what she would turn into.

baffled that no one saw Dani = May Queen as soon as the May Queen thing was referenced, that seemed as obviously telegraphed (if not *moreso*) than the deaths of everyone else

Pelle clearly had his eye on her as May Queen immediately, like as soon as he tried to broach the subject of their common "orphan" status

If he did, he lucked into it, because it seems like he had zero involvement in her going on the trip in the first place.

I guess the one discrepancy to me was that Pelle mentions his parents died in a fire which seems to imply they were sacrificed, but it's probably both a red herring and foreshadowing to what the cult does. They never really deviate from the initial claim that the full festival only happens every 90 years? Although they must do a lot of the rituals in other years, because otherwise there wouldn't be all of the photographs of May Queens

baffled that no one saw Dani = May Queen as soon as the May Queen thing was referenced

idk seemed pretty obvious to me and a lot of other people I've talked to!

well since she was the main character, it seemed likely Dani would end up as May Queen... the question is did she win the dance contest fair and square, or was it rigged to ensure she would win?

as soon as she arrives there, everything from her asking about the May Queens, looking at the photos, having a bed directly under a picture showing part of the rite, directly points to that

obviously they don't need to rig anything because in a movie if gods are worshipped, said gods are the director and writers. whatever the gods want to happen, will happen

Although they must do a lot of the rituals in other years, because otherwise there wouldn't be all of the photographs of May Queens

had a confused discussion about this with the ppl I saw it with immediately afterwards - as referenced upthread, it must be that they have May Queens every year (because why else all the photos), but the sacrifice stuff is only every 90 years?

^^^ otm

I thought they may have rigged it because they could tell from the screaming ritual that she needed a success. And she got it!! :) big smile!!

well, I mean... it's about if Dani wants to be they May Queen or they do

e they could tell from the screaming ritual that she needed a success.

doesn't the screaming ritual happen afterward?

which actually lines up with the cycle of life: youth until 18, on a quest until 36, pillars of the community until 54, ritual suicide at 72, and every 90 years they reset the cycle with sacrifices

That otm was for knowing there was a May Queen situation happening for Dani

Idk — I thought the screaming was first but I saw it like a month ago and I’m in a doctors office rn so my brain may be mushy

when Dani is sharing screams with all the ladies it's after she sees Christian having sex with Maja, so she's already the May Queen at that point.

my memory is that the ritual orgy thing happens *while* the May Queen dance contest is happening, then when she wins she wonders where Christian is, finds him goin at it in the barn, flees to the other house where all the women follow her and they have their primal scream therapy session

but I think it would have been clear to them well before that that Dani needed a win!

well yeah

hey, I saw it only yesterday so I can weigh in!

the dance contest happens, and she wins. they sit down at the long tables with her at the head, and Chris is drugged during the meal. Dani is taken away off to the fields to bless the crops in the chariot thing, and asks if Chris can come along

shortly after she's carried off, Maja makes this little flower petal path up to Chris and he's led away. while Dani's doing the ritual to bless the crops, he's being prepped and the entire mating thing begins. by the time she returns, it's nearly done

so it's quite a while after she's already won the dance contest -- they've already finished dinner and she's been taken off to the fields

the sex ceremony doesn't start until Dani's been crowned May Queen, but it's a rapid succession of events... Dani is crowned, and taken in the carriage to bless the fields and concurrently Christian is taken to Maja and both rituals are interwoven.

literally everything that happens in this film is clearly and deliberately signposted and the joy of it is experiencing all the things you know shall happen. it's also about how they happen

Yeah it's kinda like Taken in that sense... you're just watching a falling object shatter through a succession of barriers until it hits the ground

the biggest red herring for our anthropologist character is the interest in the inbred sage and the holy book -- there might be something interesting in there, but every part of the rituals is documented right on the walls of the room they're sleeping in!

yeah everything's on the murals, I noticed a bunch of stuff while watching it

dude showed her sketch of her as may queen fan art even before they left right?

yup

pretty sure he was humming Stairway to Heaven too

Side note, no anthropology grad student doing field work in 2019 would take photos of a sacred book after being explicitly told not to. In fact what actually happened to Josh is not far off from the response he would get from his thesis advisor upon discovering he'd done that. Dani was much closer to what an actual sociocultural anthro grads are like.

Yeah it's kinda like Taken in that sense... you're just watching a falling object shatter through a succession of barriers until it hits the ground

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 July 2019 16:06 (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or as others have said, Mandy...

xp kind of unclear whether he would have done that if left to his own devices or if he's reaching for unique material after getting his thesis sniped by Chris

which, if the prior scenes of him being a dick to his girlfriend weren't enough, clearly established him as a shithead. a few grad student friends of mine will be seething mad at that scene

I need to watch Mandy!

update: one of said friends was, in fact, very mad at that scene. lol

Have trouble believing Josh would feel any academic threat from Christian, he was such a fuckup it would be more funny than insulting that he'd decided to do his dissertation on the Hårga. No way is that guy going to make it through a seven-year Ph.D. program.

Also on an academic note, I will add that I absolutely loved during the dance contest when Dani begins to speak Swedish and is, like, completely delighted by it, maybe the most joyous part of the movie?

that was the closest to a supernatural moment, imo!

like.. is she speaking Swedish because she's becoming the May Queen? who knows!

To me it sorta pointed towards her wanting to be the May Queen, and also that actual magic was affecting events in the film.

The old guy clapping to fuck with tripping Christian cracked me up

(a bit of online research reveals that they were not in fact speaking Swedish in the dance contest, but nonsense... that's a bit less fun)

speaking in tongues, maybe?

you know, the version where you're speaking in the pre-babel universal language that all humans understand

Glossolalia

maybe it's an oblique ABBA dancing queen joke?

casting-wise are there any easter eggs like bergman actors or such?

This was great - the sound/music was brilliant.