Cinema
Girl with Hyacinths
Flicka och hyacinter
Hasse Ekman · 1950
Synopsis
A young woman leaves a party, in despair, and walks home alone across Stockholm; in the morning the cleaning woman finds her hanged. In a letter, she leaves her few belongings to her neighbours, the writer Anders Wikner and his wife Britt. Her name was Dagmar Brink and she played the piano in bars. Intrigued, Anders sets out to find those who knew her, starting with the painter Elias Körner, author of the painting that gives the film its title; each gives him a fragment, and no one ever really got close to her. One name recurs: Alex.
Context
Shot from December 1949, the film is built, in the manner of Citizen Kane, on successive testimonies, and its director wrote the screenplay alone. The role of Dagmar is played by Eva Henning, then his wife. It is one of the first Swedish films to deal openly with homosexuality; the critics of the time often passed over this feature, and Ekman thought that part of the audience had not seen it. It was not a commercial success for Terrafilm.
Who it is for
Eighty-nine minutes, in Swedish. The story moves forward through flashbacks and does not say everything it shows.
Prizes and reception
Prize of the film journalists' club in 1950; regarded by most critics, and by Ingmar Bergman, as its director's best film.
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