I cannot shake off the griping sense of hopelessness and despair I got from Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle” and “Beanpole” combined. It’s an idée fixe that these films ruthless portray, women with nowhere to go, struggling their entire lives while being shoved deeper into the gutter. This case arises as the true story of a Danish serial killer, Dagmar Overbye, and despite its brutal reality, it has distinct well-scripted aggression adapted one hundred years after the acts that it depicts. In simpler words, will not be an easy watch and will be disturbing to say the least.
So, we know that Dagmar is not the lead of “The Girl with the Needle”, then who is? Von Horn & Line Langebek’s script focuses on a young Danish woman named Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) instead. In case you’re wondering if it was the same vague depiction she was introduced with, the answer is yes, you see her on the verge on poverty. Almost there to be evicted since no rent has been paid for weeks. The landlord wanted her out, and he waited long enough, so he planned on putting the apartment for rent. What would happen next? Well, that seemed more or less the same to him, and quite frankly everyone else as well.
Karoline begins an affair with her boss, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), who agrees to marry her, and hopeful for the future, she is elated. But, she can’t think of the wealthy life as she is already pregnant to this rich man, who seems ‘too good’ in her perspective. Left in a daze, it’s Jorgen’s duplicitous mother that terminates their marriage and leaves Karoline even more desolate, now pregnant, and no one to be. (Though it is doubtful that Anora’s story was looking to do so, it accentuates how class and gendered scrutiny of sexually active women is not as far in the past as we would like to think.)
The piercing reality drives Karoline to try performing her own abortion with a needle, apparently in a last effort to bring some sense to her life, as the movie title suggests yet she is stopped by Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm) who agrees to help for a price to find the child a family. But after going through procedures, Karoline has nowhere to go and therefore has to go with Dagmar only to realize that the new savior she found does not help the children find a home, but the opposite.
In “The Girl with The Needle” which showcases Von Horn’s work, he adopted the first person approach which to some might be a bit restricting. True, in saying that it is similar to a horror though from his of his which he directed and produced in part, its images and the storyline is very full screen 3d. It keeps creating an anxiety as does a horror movie that every turn taken cannot lead to a joyous end. And Von Horn places emphasis on that, especially with compositions by Frederikke Hoff Meier and sound concepts that are more construed than classical. He, moreover, returns to distorted faces but not solely of Karoline’s husband disfigured during WWI but in a prologue of faces interlaced and also the shadows on her face as Karoline discovers reality. Justified in that to say, all of those are deformed, if so in part intentionally or the part concealed from outside view.
Starting off, Pierre is out of character in the sense that it is a completely different role that she had to step in and it appears as if she was quite devoted and existed in such character at the same time implementing an intensity that was equally strong enough towards the Vasaylova performances. Dyrholm and Vasaylova both put forth smart actions portraying the theme acknowledging the onscreen events taking precedence over it.
All in all, from the beginning itself the movie adequate amount of anxiety and non-reliving sadistic moments to the viewer which by the end does in some ways become a bit excessive. There are certain tales that should be narrated in their absolute grittiness. Two of the worst serial killers are centered in this true crime pice and watching their life in a movie is rather disturbing. In order to comprehend the entire film you would have to go through that pain and the cruelty shown to viewers on screen is relatable in regards to the story of Dagmar.
Watch free movies on Fmovies.
