The Girl with the Needle

I really enjoyed this movie. It was dark, chilling, unsettling and very real. The cinematography took me away. It immersed me so much from picture to picture. Yes, this movie is grotesque and pushes a boundary. But the storytelling is quite fascinating, I love how they created something equally unsettling as it is masterful. Thanks a lot!

The Girl with the Needle: Technical Brilliance, Narrative Limitations Magnus Van Horn's "The Girl with the Needle" is a masterclass in period production design and atmospheric storytelling, yet ultimately falls short of its narrative potential. Set in the bleak landscape of post-World War I Denmark, the film is visually extraordinary. The cinematography and production design meticulously reconstruct a world ravaged by war and social upheaval. Every frame feels authentically gothic - a world of shadows, desperation, and moral ambiguity. Frederikke Hoffmeier's soundtrack is a haunting character in its own right, amplifying the film's psychological tension. The gothic elements - particularly the morphing faces - are initially striking, though Van Horn's repeated use becomes more stylistic excess than meaningful technique. The film's technical achievements, however, cannot fully compensate for its narrative shortcomings. Dagmar's courtroom scene, despite strong performance, reveals a script that fails to fully explore the complex moral landscape it attempts to navigate. "The Girl with the Needle" emerges as a technically stunning work that ultimately feels more like an exercise in style than a profound exploration of its thematic potential.

Just after the end of the Great War, the young and expecting “Karoline” (Vic Carmen Sonne) finds herself alone and with little prospects after confusion around whether her soldier husband is alive or dead reigns and she is swiftly shunned by the family of her lover, the father of her unborn child. Through the grapevine, she learns of “Dagmar” (Trine Dyrholm) who runs a popular sweet shop that doubles up as an adoption agency where people in her predicament may try to find suitable homes for their children. It’s not so much that “Karoline” wants to go down this path, but she is faced with a stark reality that perhaps only her new friend can alleviate. This isn’t just a transaction, though, and gradually the two women begin to bond - to the extent that soon she is also assisting with this illegal enterprise, but is all as benevolent as it might seem? In many ways it has something of the “Vera Drake” (2004) to it, in that it features a very strong leading role for a woman set at a time when the whole process of conception and/or childbirth outside of marriage was seriously frowned upon, and thereby necessitating sometimes quite drastic action from the would-be mothers - only this rapidly becomes something much more sinister. The timeframe also works disturbingly well to illustrate just how straightforward it was following the chaos and destruction of the War to engage in the trafficking of everything from drugs to people - the black market knew few bounds. This is loosely based on a real life story, which only adds to the shock factor as does the setting in a Copenhagen that is anything but the stuff of the “Little Mermaid” and the two leading performances are gritty, poignant and compelling to watch as the story plumbs the frequently odious depths of human nature, addiction and venality. This is not an easy watch, at times you might find yourself looking out of the window or checking your watch, but it’s that authenticity, coupled with an eerily effective score from Frederikke Hoffmeier that creates an atmosphere that wouldn’t look out of place in a “Jack the Ripper” story. By the end the audience is faced with quite a quandary. Sympathy or loathing, empathy or disgust? Maybe all of these, maybe none? Certainly not for the squeamish but definitely a thought-provoking and stylish film to watch.