Questions I have regarding the story - Midsommar (2019) Discussion

[–] Keelai (34853) 4 years ago

Dani stayed with her new family.

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

I know you would have. Leftist paradise.

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[–] Keelai (34853) 3 years ago

Not everything is political. Your comment belongs in the Politics Forum.

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

You belong anywhere but here.

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[–] Nina (545) 4 years ago

1. Well, I am sure that at least all of the victims were drinking mushrooms all the time without even knowing it.

2. I think Christian was chosen to have sex with Maya because he had good genes and the oldest woman said sth like that he had matching star sign with the girl. Plus I think Maya found him attractive. But the main reason was to get her pregnant and I think they wanted to have strangers for that to prevent incest.

3. I think Dani stayed in the community as she has deserved herself a high standard. I mean she does not really have sth to come back home to. :-(

4.Meaning of the film? Damn, I am still struggling with that cause this movie really messed me up!

5. God, what they did to Christan was so damn wrong! No one deserves sth like that! They f..murderd him! Yes, he cheated on Dani but remember he was under the influence of drugs plus he actually wanted to break off things with Dani before his trip to sweden! So actually Dani wasn't even supposed to come with them! Everything just happened cause her family died...

6. Bear painting? When was that?

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[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 4 years ago

What you said about Christian having sex with Maya to avoid inbreeding makes the most sense.

The bear painting can be seen around the beginning of the film when Dani is lying in bed.

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

What is "sth"?

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[–] Nina (545) 3 years ago

something

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

You type longer words than that. Is typing "something" so exhausting?

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[–] Nina (545) 3 years ago

English is not my native language. But whenever I am chatting or reading in different forums I see these type of short forms. It's s the same with the word "lol". You wouldn't write "laugh out loud", right?

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[–] FilmBuff (7232) 3 years ago

ur a dmbas

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

I'm sorry, what (if any) language was that?

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[–] howgamer (3927) 4 years ago

1. Which time?
2. He was healthy and the woman was attracted to him. To breed.
3. She was incorporated into the community. There is no way she could have left and returned to the modern world while all of her fellow travelers went missing. There would be too many questions. However, this is irrelevant because by the end of the film, she finally is accepted and wants to be with the community.
4. It's a mix bag of folk rituals and a ripoff of the Wickerman.
5. No, he was a bad boyfriend, but also a weak person. I mean he wanted to break up with her prior to everything that happened, but he just couldn't be honest with how he felt about it. She was controlling in the relationship and he wasn't honest about his feelings. Then, he takes a crap ton of drugs and has sex with some girl. Does that mean he deserves to burn to death? Nah I don' think so. She killed him cause she was angry, felt finally accepted somewhere, and see number 3.
6. I did not notice any bear at at the beginning, but there is lots of foreshadow throughout the film.

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

There's a painting with a burning bear in one of the buildings (I think Siv's house). When I saw that, I knew that bear was living on borrowed time.

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[–] howgamer (3927) 3 years ago

I remember that scene, but not the bear in the beginning. I think that building has a lot of the events that happen from what I remember.

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

The bear in the beginning was when they first arrived. There was a live bear in a cage and the one guy says "I guess we just ignore the bear?"

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[–] howgamer (3927) 3 years ago

Sorry I was referring to the painting of the bear at the very beginning of the film that the OP references, not the bear in the cage or the bear painting at the site that we see in the latter part of the film. Or maybe the OP is referring to the painting of the bear in the ritual building with all the others, but I didn't think that was near the beginning. I thought it was mid to late in the film?

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

I don't remember a painting in the beginning either.

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[–] AckbarsRevenge (3800) 3 years ago

There is a painting of girl with a crown kissing(?) a bear.
It's in Dani's appartement in the beginning of the film.
https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/flat/beach-towel/images/artworkimages/medium/1/poor-little-basse-john-bauer.jpg?&targetx=-2&targety=-364&imagewidth=952&imageheight=949&modelwidth=952&modelheight=476&backgroundcolor=A78E61&orientation=1&producttype=beachtowel-32-64

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[–] chilone (17857) 3 years ago

Wow! I didn't remember that. Thanks!

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[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 3 years ago

Regarding No.3, while I do agree that Dani probably stayed, she could have explained their absences easily. Pele was from that community, Josh and Christian both wanted to study it (they were staying anyway), and she could probably just say that Mark wanted to hang out with those guys. She was done there, she and Christian broke up, and so she left. After that, she'd just have to say, "I haven't heard from them since midsummer," and that'd be that.

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[–] howgamer (3927) 3 years ago

I think initially that would be fine, but when they don't show up weeks/months later and never complete their thesis that will raise serious questions especially since she was the last one seen with them and is the only one to return. Unless these people don't have parents, colleagues, or other interested parties then nobody is going to care.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 3 years ago

It would be rocky, but if she stuck to, "I left, they stayed," then the next step would be for the authorities to investigate that community. Since it's international, not to mention a village that was obscure and isolated, that would be a major headache. When they got in contact with the community, those freaky cultist dudes would've just said, "Oh, they had a great time, Dani left early, they stayed, and she left," and what would they do?

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[–] howgamer (3927) 3 years ago

I think there would be some major questions raised once they get to the village due to the multitude of hallucinogens, anesthetics, paralysis drugs, blood stained rocks, massive burn areas with skeletal remains, human remains in the garden, and the woodshed pictorials basically showing all of this. However, it is possible they could clean all that up and certainly cough some of it up as culturally influenced.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 3 years ago

They'd be able to explain the hallucinogens, anesthetics, and drugs, I'm sure, either as cultural (sacred rites) or medicinal - assuming somebody there has licences for it (which is possible). The burn area could be explained, too.

That leaves the skeletal remains and blood-stained rocks.

If they put all the skeletons together in a graveyard, then that would again be cultural. At the very least, the authorities would need exhumation orders, which might be difficult to get depending on Sweden's laws regarding sacred burial sites. If they got there fast enough, yes, they would find the still-gooey corpses of the missing grad students. Then Dani would be in trouble only if the villagers ratted her out.

Blood-stained rocks might be hardest to explain, but they could always just say that people cut themselves in rituals and smear it on the rocks, leaving out the death part.

The big question, though, is that with a cold trail, would the authorities spend a month or two prying into the community? If six months to a year passed between the rituals in the film and when the investigation started (and it could be longer - nobody would be expecting those grad students back for awhile if they were doing research and Pelle could probably cover for some time using cell phones and emails) then the cultists saying, "Oh, they left, we don't know where they are," might make the cops unable to proceed.

In CSI, maybe, but budget constraints, international law, time passed, etc., would make this a brutal investigation to conduct.

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[–] fzane (1105) 3 years ago

If Dani lets Christian live, it's likely the cult kills them both. So, I believe in those moments of decision, she ultimately chose the lesser of two evils, and to protect herself; at least she gets to live. At that point, she is not considering the cult her new family, but more as her captors. It's like taking Stockholm Syndrome to a whole different level! And, the smile she gives at the very end is her giving into her captors, and literally going insane.
Here is the last line from the script that reinforces what i'm saying:
A SMILE finally breaks onto Dani’s face. She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful.

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[–] CinemaDemon989 (1286) 3 years ago

I didn't get the hint that Dani was going to be sacrificed at all. Maybe I missed something.

I agree about everything else you said though.

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[–] fzane (1105) 3 years ago

I agree. The cult probably would not have sacrificed Dani either way. But, she doesn't know that for sure though. For all she knows, if she chooses to let Christian live, they could just kill them both. Most likely, no matter what she chose, Christian was likely going to be killed anyhow. So, she chose logically to at least save herself. I mean, they can't just keep wheeling Christian around for the rest of his life, blowing dust in his face everyday to keep him paralyzed, can they? :-) Eventually he would build an immunity to the dust, attempt to convince Dani to escape with him, and blow the whistle on the whole place. Going deeper, the cult was hoping to psychologically put the "onus" on Dani to complete her complicity into the murder. It worked too b/c shortly after she made her choice, and watched Christian burn alive, she completely snapped, and when insane.

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[–] Seperatrix (1213) 3 years ago

Addressing your last question . . .

The bear painting. Yeah, and it makes me wonder about the entire story. Is it as straightforward as it seemed? I'm not leaning toward "it was all a dream" or anything. Just that in some sense if feels as though there's something bumpy under the surface.

Take for example the scene where Dani has become the May Queen and is being carried about. For a moment we see her sister's image in the forest background. Dani is not shown seeing her sister's image. So what's the point? Unlike in other moments of the film where she "sees" her sister here, her mother there, or her entire family. The forest scene is for our eyes only, like the bear painting. Buy why?

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[–] sunezno (269) a year ago

What were they drinking at the dinner table? Were they drinking mushroom tea the entire time?

I don't think that they were drinking mushroom tea each time, simply because of the way that mushrooms work in the body. Someone smarter than I can explain the chemical happenings, but the point is, the tea wouldn't have had the same hallucinogenic effects if they had ingested it that frequently.

What do you think the significance was of Christian having sex with Maya? Besides sexual attraction of course. Why was it so important to the community?

As others have said, it was for reproductive purposes.
Though I found it weird that they only had them copulate once before they killed him off. Despite Maya saying, "I can feel the baby" after he ejaculates inside her, the chances of her being pregnant from that one shot aren't high enough to risk it, I wouldn't think. Even if she did get pregnant from that one coupling, it doesn't make sense for them to get rid of Christian after only making one offspring.

What do you think happened to Dani after all her friends were sacrificed? Did she stay with the cult or leave? I know this is purely a hypothetical question.

I assume that she stayed with them. She had nothing left back home, and though her time with this community was short and full of death, I think she finally felt at home, like she had a family to help her grieve the loss of her own, and the loss of her former life.
Now, whether or not that's a good thing is debatable. But what better place to develop Stockholm syndrome, right?

(to be continued...)

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[–] sunezno (269) a year ago

How would you interpret the meaning of the film?

I'm too tired to delve into this one tonight, but I do believe that it's open to interpretation.

A lot of people say that Christian deserved what he got? Do you think so?

Personally, I could tell that Christian wasn't right for Dani from the first few lines of conversation they had on the phone at the beginning. Then the more we saw of him, the worse my opinion of him got. At best, Christian and Dani just weren't good for each other, through no fault of anyone's. But then we see him for the real shitbag that he is: he lies, he manipulates, he gaslights, he stabs his friends in the back...he is just incredibly narcissistic and shallow.
Some people have argued that, regarding the thing with Maya, Christian was "drugged and raped," and I have to call bullshit on both counts.
He was into the 15-year-old from the time she playfully kicked him just after they got there, and he was remarkably shameless about his interest in her after that. During the conversation with the elder lady wherein she told him that he had a one-night-only chance to sleep with Maya, instead of instantly responding with, "What the hell, she's FIFTEEN!", he just hemmed and hawed about it for a while (or maybe he'd told the lady he'd do it and was then psyching himself up for it, who knows).
Then when he was handed a cup of tea, and he asked what it would do, he was told that it would lower his inhibitions or something. He then kept the cup, and instead of pouring it into the grass or something, he drank it. He seemed to realize that if he drank the tea, he could use it as an excuse for his actions, theoretically, because taking the virginity of a 15-year-old while sober would be hard for him to justify (to himself or others).
Having said that, no, I don't think that his being a slimy waste of hair makes him deserving of that fate. But of the people there, and with Mark already dead, why not.

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