⚘ BEHIND THE SCENES: THE ROLLING PIN ⚘

The attention to detail in Midsommar is astounding. Just look at this rolling pin!

The "Affekt Language" of the Hårga was created, a mysterious combination of emotional signals, spoken words, and runes. Then, the Affekt runes were designed and given meaning. Then, the symbols were combined in a beautiful pattern with an idea of placing them onto the top of a tart. And a craftsperson actually created a real rolling pin with the beautiful Affekt pattern and placed it within the cooking house on set. 

Nille Svensson said:

In the beginning I started thinking about how you could develop a runic system for the Hårgas that wasn't ”viking runes”. We had a meeting with the choreographer on the film Anna Vnuk, and she sent me some YouTube clips from her Midsommar workshops, where she developed [the Hårgas’] movement and dances. I thought there were some interesting arm movements that looked a bit like calligraphy, so we used that to develop the alphabet system. It made sense that the characters would allude to both wording and movement, since the affect language sort of exists on both symbolic and performative levels. 

Nille Svensson

Nille Svensson

Zoe Hegedus

This rolling pin is barely seen in the final cut of the movie, but it's an example of the depth of meaning that has been created and built, to make the Hårga feel real. A humble rolling pin! It's so beautiful. 

I'm going to specifically name some people who were involved in the creation of this, and I'm sure there are many more who were involved whose names I do not know. 

Martin Karlqvist, consultant, co-creator of Hårga

Henrik Svensson, production designer

Nille Svensson, art director 

Zoe Hegedus, food designer

Ari Aster, writer and director

⚘ BEHIND THE SCENES: HAIR PIE DINNER ⚘

 

Jarl, Valentin, Irma, Ulrik, Dagny

posted by Anders Back (Valentin) @andersback.actor

⚘ BEHIND THE SCENES: THE FIRE ⚘

 

Posted by @brigiszakal

⚘ BEHIND THE SCENES: MARK'S SKIN ⚘

Midsommar behind the scenes: In case you weren’t sure who that was wearing Mark’s skin… it’s Ulf! Performed by Henrik Norlén. Photo found on Instagram of Ezster Takácz who was an art director on the film.

⚘ Behind the Scenes: Hårga Family Photo ⚘

Jarl - Tomas Engström

Inga - Julia Ragnarsson

Mats - Lennart R. Svensson

Hanna - Louise Peterhoff

Arne - Anders Beckman

Dagny - Agnes Rase

Siv - Gunnel Fred

Maja - Isabelle Grill

Ulrik - Martin Karlqvist

Ulrika - Rebecka Johnston

Ulf - Henrik Norlén

Karin - Anna Åström

Irma - Anki Larsson

Ingemar - Hampus Hallberg

Evert - Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton

Sten - Lars Väringer

Majvor - Tove Skeidsvoll

Patrik Andersson - Producer and concept co-creator

Photo Credit: Gabor Kotschy

Many thanks to Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton for helping me fill in the rest of the names on this photo. 

⚘ Behind the Scenes: Florence Pugh describes the group crying scene ⚘

Today on Instagram, Florence wrote:

Swipe right for deep info on a simple but beautiful pic.

Truly, these women made this scene possible. It was TERRIFYING. As terrifying as it was to watch, it was to read and know we had to do it.

I love these girls so much. I’m not a big crier, so going through that with them was true safely and love and respect. It only happened because I had them.

Funny fact- I lost my shoe every time I crawled off the bed and worried that the camera could see a dirty muddy espadrille sweaty foot in the background.

Thank goodness that wasn’t the case...

Fun fact no.2, everytime we cut there were at least two hands around all of our rib cages, holding each other as we sobbed. #midsommar

Dani’s sisters in Hårga:

Hanna - Louise Peterhoff @louisepeterhoff

Dagny - Agnes Rase @agnesrase

Karin - Anna Åström @annaastrom2

Majvor - Tove Skeidsvoll @toveskeidsvoll

Kajsa - Kati Dombi @kattidombi

Ulla - Liv Mjönes @mjonesliv

Inga - Julia Ragnarsson @juliaragnarok

⚘ Production Designer Henrik Svensson Discusses the Influence, Symbolism and Lore Behind One Particularly Ominous Festival ⚘

 

photo credit Gabor Kotschy

This whole interview is truly wonderful and you should read the whole thing! Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

Marisa Maribal: Dani’s past seems to be strongly associated with the color yellow. It’s exhibited in the decor of her parents’ house, the flowers leading into Hårga, and the pyramid shaped temple. I also noticed blue is a prominent color within the community in terms of artwork and clothing. Can you elaborate on your use of color theory and symbolism within the film?

Henrik Svensson: I did a draft for a color synopsis of the film early on, for how I thought the movie should feel. Like a color score, with the main vibe and the arches of the characters and settings. I of course had one foot in with Goethe, since we already kind of traveled that road in visiting the anthroposophists in Sweden, one foot in with Plutchik, to get some structure in it; but eventually it went more and more freestyle, even if the first draft still really stands when I look at it today. The yellow flowers and the yellow of the house is actually in the script. More and more things along the way made me want to make the yellow and the blue our signs of death — our bad signs; The main reason being it is the colors of the Swedish flag, and I wanted to make the point of how wrong nationalism is. Additionally, of course what the colors ’normally’ represent, symbolically and physically. I wanted to do something that hits you physically on every level. But mostly in a subtle way, work with dynamics, dial it down to save it for where it really hurts.

and

Marisa Maribal: Runes were used throughout the film in both set design and costume design.  Can you discuss the specific intention of the symbols, their placement, and meaning within pivotal scenes? For example, the two runes in the maypole and those mentioned on the stone covered in blood. I believe the table was also set up in the shape of a rune as well, but I’m not entirely sure.

Henrik Svensson: You got it. All the meals, except the last one, had the tables set up as runes. More or less everything in the village is either a part of something runic or has something runic to it.

The runes are made-up modifications of symbols mainly from the elder futhark, with ’’our’’ interpretation a bit different. I’m not sure if this is making any sense now, but for example we have a rune for ’’cultivation of art, soul and craft’’ that is very prominent in the film. The entire village is built in that shape, including all the houses, fields and gardens, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t shine through. Our rune for ’’healing and cure’’ was also a big one.

The stones, and all of the other older stones on the mountain, bare the names of their ’owners’. The runic names for the Hårgans consists of combinations of runes. One to five runes, depending of age. The newborns have one, the elders have five. Each rune stands for different aspects of the bearer, such as temperament and purpose. Dani’s name, that is on her dress, consists of the Hårgan runes for ’’crisis/death’’ and ’’helplessness/innocence.'”

The Hårgan runic alphabet consists of 16 runes. Eight positive ones, four unbalanced ones and four really bad ones.

and

Marisa Maribal: Henrik, is there anything you’d like to specifically talk about or add that I didn’t mention?

Henrik Svensson: While we are on the topic of the honeycomb: an interesting fact that I’m sure maybe only two or three people know about is that Hårga is based on the bee society. The infrastructure with the drones, in our case pilgrims, the youth, the workers, the elders and the queen. How we divided the ages and purposes of the inhabitants. The gatekeepers at the door, the welcome committee, the ’eye’ that IS the very door.

⚘ Behind the Scenes: The Official Web Site of the Hårga ⚘

 https://welcometoharga.org

⚘ "Midsommar" Producer Patrik Andersson Discusses Career & Ari Aster Collaboration ⚘

A wonderful interview with Patrik Andersson, one of the concept creators of the Hårga:

"Midsommar" Producer Patrik Andersson Discusses Career & Ari Aster Collaboration, May 5, 2020

Some excerpts:

Can you tell us more about how the idea of Midsommar came to be and the development, production, etc?

I had the ambition of making a very ambitious Swedish folk horror. Much on par with "The Wicker Man", yet from the Swedish perspective as we have such an iconic Swedish pagan remnant in our Midsummer traditions. Me and my childhood friend Martin Karlqvist started to develop the idea and set out some frames for it. We wanted it to be clearly psychedelic as the genre of folk horror in itself has an even bigger luster when you go towards the world of "Valerie and her week of Wonders" for instance, and we clearly needed a myth, a philosophy and a community that took this into something completely new, yet with a rich and true background into Swedish and Scandinavian history. So we started to construct the world of the Hårga's. Deep into it we knew we needed and wanted an American writer (given that the lead characters coming to Sweden where from the US) who clearly knew how to challenge the genre and make it into something richer and new. Through LA liaisons, we managed to get in touch with writers and I got my hands on the "Hereditary" script. Ari's talent was immensely obvious. Ari was eager to make something in Europe and specifically in Sweden, being a huge fan of Ingmar Bergman and Roy Andersson. So he came. A number of times. For research together with our production designer Henrik Svensson, celebrating Swedish midsummer and of course road-tripping to Hälsingland. Ari's take on the story and world was of course connected to the huge break-up-story that is the main arch and heart of the film and he brought Dani as the guiding light into the story. And we just loved it. This made it into something new, even though being in the world of a folk horror film we had a new way into the genre. 

It took us years and years to make the film happen after the script was completed. Mainly due to the ambitions of the film and that we really wanted to this on an unprecedented scale from a Swedish perspective. Ari managed to step into production of "Hereditary" and the success of his first film gave us the possibility to make our film as A24 who had been tracking the project for a long time as they were the distributor of "Hereditary", gave us the means needed to greenlight. We shot the film in Hungary due to many reasons, yet mainly ability of building the complete village of the Hårga's within our time-frame and also having less unstable weather for continuity reasons. Since the film is taking place almost completely in daylight and outdoors, this was a big thing. 

What was the most difficult thing about Midsommar?

The scale of it. No one involved in it has done anything like it ever before. 

What has been your favorite thing to date about Midsommar?

A dream come true. The impact of this film. Did you see the opening act of the Oscars? 

There is a Q&A section that answers some intriguing questions about Midsommar. Be sure to check out the whole interview.