Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn finds himself in some rarefied, multi-cultural air this awards season, showing on each the Worldwide Oscar shortlist and the BAFTA longlist within the comparable class for his first Danish-language function, The Woman with the Needle.
Von Horn’s Swedish-produced debut, The Right here After, premiered in Cannes’ Administrators’ Fortnight in 2015, whereas his second function movie, the Polish-produced Sweat, was a part of the official program of the Covid-canceled Cannes in 2020.
The filmmaker presently resides in Poland and has twin citizenship with Sweden, so what drew his curiosity in pivoting to a Danish film? Within the Q&A beneath, he explains it was the story itself that touched upon his personal inside fears.
Starring Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, The Woman with the Needle is impressed by one in all Denmark’s most infamous homicide circumstances. It follows Karoline (Sonne), a younger manufacturing facility employee struggling to outlive in post-WWI Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, deserted and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Dyrholm), a charismatic lady working an underground adoption company, serving to moms to search out foster houses for his or her undesirable youngsters. With nowhere else to show, Karoline takes on the position of a wet-nurse, and a powerful connection is fashioned between the 2 ladies, however Karoline’s world shatters when she stumbles upon the surprising fact behind her work.
Deadline’s assessment referred to as the movie “an unequivocal and beguiling triumph.”
The Woman with the Needle premiered in Cannes final Could and has gone on to win myriad prizes, together with 12 on the Polish Movie Pageant in addition to two European Movie Awards and the Golden Frog at Camerimage. It was named a High 5 Worldwide Movie by the Nationwide Board of Evaluation and nominated for a Golden Globe. Considered one of Deadline’s Ones to Watch forward of Cannes, von Horn was additionally anointed a Director to Watch by the Palm Springs Worldwide Movie Pageant.
Von Horn beneath expands on the movie’s trajectory, the way it has employed “time journey to replicate one thing about our present world” and dealing with Danish celebrity Dyrholm. Right here’s our dialogue which has been condensed and edited for readability:
DEADLINE: Why did you resolve pivot to creating a Danish-language function? And what concerning the story grabbed you?
MAGNUS VON HORN: It was offered to me from the Danish producer and my co-writer (Line Langebek) when it was simply an thought. So it was supported by Denmark, and was all the time meant to be a Danish movie… Finally, I needed to convey on Poland as properly, as a result of that’s the place I reside, and that’s the place I’ve my inventive crew — and get Poland concerned within the manufacturing as properly, in order that I can entry my individuals and use my territory to shoot it and make it. It simply makes me a greater filmmaker.
However earlier than that, one a part of me all the time needed to make a horror movie. Once I heard about this, it was one thing that scared me. It was an concept that touched on this concern I’ve — I used to be a fairly new father on the time — like, what if one thing will occur to my youngsters? In my expertise, you may lie at night time and picture horrible issues, and it’s a darkish gap. You are able to do nothing about that concern, however I discovered that what I can do, a minimum of, is I can use it in a inventive method. I’ve performed it earlier than, to make use of concern as a inventive type of gasoline, and that has all the time labored for me properly as a result of one thing very private usually comes out of it.
DEADLINE: So, do you search out tasks that make you afraid or confront a concern? Whether or not they be concerning the story or the precise course of?
VON HORN: Each. I bear in mind earlier than I got here throughout this story, I spoke with my Polish producer (Mariusz Wlodarski) and I mentioned, “I need to do one thing concerning the dying of a kid.” That got here from being a brand new father, or being new at being a father. And on the time, I had no actual story for it. And I bear in mind Mariusz was like, “Okay, let’s not go there, it’s so darkish.” However once I got here throughout this story, and I heard about this, I believed, “Okay, this has potential of a method of telling that story, or working with that concern.”
So it’s like I’ve that behind my head, I’m on the lookout for a technique to inform it and this story from Denmark grew to become a vessel as a result of I’d by no means imagined a technique to inform that shall be by means of a interval piece. On the similar time, it’s all the time a problem: How do you inform this story with such darkish materials related to such concern? It’s the problem of learn how to make that additionally entertaining not directly… It’s a must to make that participating as a narrative, and never similar to, right here is me pouring out my coronary heart. Nobody cares about that. I believe that’s the artwork of filmmaking, or literature, or something, is right here is all these items I’ve inside, however nobody will hearken to me if I simply get up and say, “Hey, pay attention, I’m petrified of this.”
Once I communicate to lots of people simply generally life, not essentially filmmakers, they don’t like to make use of their concern. They don’t need to confront their concern; they want to watch it in films. I don’t have issues with working with my fears.
DEADLINE: What do you suppose earlier than this movie led you to consider in that?
VON HORN: The earlier movies I made have been some concepts impressed by true crime. I don’t have this fascination of gore or, , psychopathic conduct and brutality — I hate it. However I do have a fascination, and it usually comes by means of true crime, the place I see a sure type of humanity, or I see part of myself in one thing the place I don’t need to be positioned, the place I don’t need to see myself. I really feel that all the time provokes me and I’m wondering, “Is that this one thing I can talk about and nonetheless preserve the dialogue or the movie on a degree the place it’s about humanity and the nice and the unhealthy within the human being?” — and it doesn’t turn into learn how to not simply make it exploitive or shock issue, which I’m not all for.
It’s all the time a type of a dare in direction of myself. The human being is rather more advanced and good and unhealthy than we’d wish to current it. I all the time really feel like we like to think about ourselves as very noble, and our thought about ourself is extra noble than we’re capable of by some means correspond to.
So when individuals say, “Oh, this character is so darkish and good and unhealthy. She’s not this cute little like sufferer,” to me that’s very fundamental in any story — an individual is sweet and unhealthy.
DEADLINE: How did you come to work along with your actresses? Was Trine Dyrholm the primary want for the a part of Dagmar?
VON HORN: I knew about Trine as a result of she’s an enormous Danish star and is the most effective actress in Denmark, and I all the time needed to work along with her, in order that was a primary alternative for me. However once I approached her the primary time she mentioned no to the script, as a result of it was not prepared. She’s not solely actress, she’s filmmaker relating to story, to consider the entire thought of a movie. She’s very skilled and gifted, and he or she felt the script was not prepared but.
That was superb motivation. I imply, she mentioned it in a really good method, but it surely despatched me again to maintain on engaged on the script, to then strategy her once more a 12 months later and get her on board, which was an excellent feeling. I’ve all the time seen her as fearless, a fearless actress. And this half, I believe you might want to be fearless. I might even see when the script was not on her degree but, she was intrigued by it. Later, I discovered she is aware of an ideal deal about the true individual her character is predicated on. So I believe it was very attention-grabbing for her as properly.
DEADLINE: Did that make for some enlightening conversations between the 2 of you?
VON HORN: Fully, as a result of in Denmark, it’s a query: “Okay, so how can we do that?” It’s such a well-known character, so there are all these assumptions and roots within the nation, however I don’t have that. I’ve what I name this wholesome vanity in direction of all the pieces that’s nationwide to them, that doesn’t have these nationwide roots for me. So I considered it extra as a creation. I didn’t need to make a biopic on this character.
I had three references I gave her — one was Fagin from Oliver Twist from the 1948 model by David Lean, which is a psychopath, however very charming and fairly humorous the way in which it’s acted; Regan in The Exorcist when the satan speaks by means of her; and Willem Dafoe’s character in The Lighthouse — and he or she type of actually rapidly received that.
DEADLINE: That’s attention-grabbing as a result of The Lighthouse is a way more latest reference than the opposite two…
VON HORN: I needed to combine it. It’s good to have completely different references from completely different occasions. However I believe it was to counsel that she will have some enjoyable with this character, and to not overlook that and to play with that. And I believe she did very properly, as a result of that’s additionally the stress we play with with the viewers and with Karoline.
DEADLINE: And the way did you choose Vic Carmen Sonne to play Karoline?
VON HORN: It was a for much longer journey as a result of I related along with her possibly two years earlier than we began taking pictures. I’ve this concern of all the time not discovering my major actor. On my first movie, I misplaced my major actor twice, like simply earlier than taking pictures, and needed to postpone. So I all the time search out the primary actor very early. However I used to be launched by a casting agent to those potential actresses for Karoline, and most of them seemed very wholesome — and that claims one thing good about Denmark, as a result of it’s a welfare system that exists on a degree the place everyone’s center class. I’m not saying Vic doesn’t have that, however she has an look and a presence that I may even purchase with out costume and make-up, that, okay, you match into this manufacturing facility 100 years in the past that I’m envisioning. That was actually essential for me, that there’s a sure degree of credibility. I need to take the viewers on a time journey. I don’t need to play the sport of those are a bunch of individuals carrying pretend mustaches and attire simply pretending. She was part of that, however not solely on the surface, she additionally has an emotional vary which is all the time stunning and combined and unpredictable, which I discover very attention-grabbing as a result of it additionally makes me consider on this world the place a special algorithm are answerable for society, so we act differently. It’s additionally a way of handing over the created fictional character to somebody who will do one thing attention-grabbing with it.
DEADLINE: What, if something, has stunned you in individuals’s response to the movie since its premiere again in Could?
VON HORN: The shock that I felt is that the movie resonates so strongly in several components of the world relating to abortion, as a result of it’s such a politically robust subject, and for people. I imply, for me, it’s essential as a result of I reside in Poland, and I’m pro-choice, and the liberty of alternative has been taken away by politicians in Poland.
I didn’t know if it was going to resonate in that subject as strongly within the U.S., for instance, but it surely has. I’m possibly even stunned and completely happy about that shock. A lot of the conversations I’ve find yourself about abortion and what alternative ladies have in several international locations or societies the place I’m screening the movie, and that’s a dialog that was all the time actually essential for me, and it’s one thing that grew to become crucial as a result of throughout improvement of this movie, the legal guidelines in Poland, the place I reside, modified, and that impacts so many individuals in Poland, and that has been essential for me to talk about.
DEADLINE: It actually lends a well timed layer to the drama…
VON HORN: I believe it’s actually an essential layer, as a result of it’s not gonna work that method in all societies, as a result of some are very completely different, and thank God. I say this movie is sort of a science fiction to me. , we use time journey to replicate one thing about our present world. And I take into consideration this movie, the extra similarities you discover to your individual society, the more severe it’s. And should you discover none, then good for you.
DEADLINE: Did it shock you that, as a non-Danish filmmaker, your movie was put forth by Denmark? Does that type of lend any additional strain?
VON HORN: I don’t really feel pressured about it in any respect, I really feel honored. I’ve all the time admired any Danish cinema. It’s good to be a part of it. It’s humorous, the rivalry between Denmark and Sweden is all the time very current, so there are many jokes on that, however that’s simply humorous to me. I didn’t give it some thought earlier than. Once we premiered in Cannes, once we received that type of affirmation — I’m not going to faux that I’m all by means of the method like, , fully assured that that is going to be an ideal movie when I’ve the nice premiere we dreamt about. My life is a curler coaster of out and in of confidence. After we premiered and after we noticed what the summer time did to the movie, and the way the movie lived and was offered, then I began to really feel very assured that this might be an Oscar contender for Denmark. But it surely was by no means one thing I’d count on not having had that premiere. Simply as a human, I depend on the reward of others to outlive.
