Hello and welcome to another installation of Girl Talk! With Sam Poyner and Arista Brozovich! In this blog we will be discussing some of our favorite complex female characters that are seen in film and television. We want to provide an outlet toward understanding these characters for their quirks and flaws, as opposed to dismissing them for their unconventionality. We believe that there isn’t enough recognition for complicated women in film/tv in comparison to men, so we feel it is important to shine a light on some characters we have grown to love, despite the choices they have made, whether we agree with them or not, because complex characters can’t exist without their own imperfections.
This week, we will be focusing on the character of Dani Ardor. This post was written by Arista Brozovich, and will contain spoilers for the movie Midsommar.
The character of Dani Ardor is a young woman whose narrative begins by walking a path of deep rooted grief. Midsommar begins with the tragic death of Dani’s sister, in which she commits suicide, and ultimately claims her parents lives as well. Dani is left with only her boyfriend, Christian, to help her move through this grief, although he is emotionally removed from his and Dani’s relationship. Christian’s friend Pelle, a Swedish student studying alongside Christian, extends his invitation to Dani to join him, Christian, and their friends Mark and Josh to partake in his commune’s midsummer celebration. However, this festival soon proves to be darkly sacrificial, and what appeared to be a commune, then proves to be a sacrificial cult.
Wow… I know that was a lot to process, and you probably did not anticipate reading a blog about a secret Swedish cult today… However, this is truly one of my favorite films to dissect because it is a beautiful example of how the complexity of female characters can rely on tragedy, and yet not necessarily make the character tragic. Dani, upon entering the world of Hårga (the name of the commune,) is already in a deep state of emotional pain. The loss of her entire immediate family, on top of having no real support system, as Christian cannot provide this for her, leaves her to process these fresh emotions alone. She does this as quietly as possible, to not disturb what little normality she has left in her life. Dani seems, at first, to follow the narrative of the woman who must make her emotions digestible for those around her, especially the man in her life, in order to not disrupt her environment. As the movie progresses, it is revealed that Pelle essentially brought Christian, Mark, and Josh to serve as sacrifices in the Hårga’s midsummer rituals. These sacrifices are believed to serve as purging a sort of evil from the commune, and bring a more bountiful harvest through this. Once again, wow. The other side of this is that Dani gets crowned as the festival’s Mayqueen, in which she now represents the beauty of the summer, and a period of renewal.
I find that this moment of narrative height in this segment of the movie creates a new trajectory entirely for Dani as a character. The men who accompanied Dani on this trip are representative of this repressive and harmful aura surrounding Dani. Christian is a horrible boyfriend, who forgets her birthday, avidly wants to break up with her, and even entertains another woman in the Hårga commune expressing interest in him. Meanwhile, Mark and Josh feed into this mistreatment of Dani, and often treat her with little to no kindness, if they even address her at all. This part where Dani is being acknowledged, and even loved by the Hårga, while she is being freed of repression is a transital moment for her. Which brings us to one of the most haunting scenes in the film, where she finds Christian cheating on her with another woman from the commune, and she begins crying. A group of women from the commune join her, and begin to emulate her crying. This is a breakthrough moment when Dani realizes that within this commune, she has a voice that is valued, and even mirrored back to her. She has this opportunity here to be heard for the first time in a very long time for her character.
Finally, the final scene in this film is what makes Dani one of the most interesting female characters that I have ever seen. Surprise, Christian is also a sacrifice for the Hårga, where he is paralyzed, trapped in a house that is then burnt as part of the ritual (need I say wow again…) This final scene shows Dani watching the building burn down, and everyone in the commune begins to mimic the screams from the sacrifices, much like how they did to Dani while she was crying. Dani starts by joining the crying as well, however this emotion slowly melts into a smile, and the shot is transposed to show Dani’s face over the burning building. This shot shows the way in which she has completely melted into her freedom that the Hårga have provided her. Even though there is the obvious ethical foreground of, you know, the whole ritualistic murder thing that’s crazy, there is still a part of you as a viewer who sympathizes with her. As we watched Dani suffer through deep mistreatment, and a grief that never seemed to end, we see her finally have her problems absolved. She is rid of all of the constraints of her life, where she was mistreated, emotionally neglected, and we see her salting the Earth behind her. I think it is important to note that Dani, although a character to sympathize with in the beginning, does not necessarily deserve to retain our sympathy through this. While the commune provides her with a new place to fit in, there is no excuse for the cultish rituals, and the brainwashing that they are able to achieve with Dani. The emotional manipulation that occurs to her character is through the cult’s very specific tactics. It can be presumed that because of her emotional vulnerability, Pelle chose her to be inducted into this, as the commune could provide familial roles and comfort. I love that this film is a unique exploration of the range and expression of female emotion, and how it works to provide the audience with an ambiguous experience of unethical absolution. Providing the beautifully complex female character that is Dani Ardor.
You can rent the movie Midsommar on platforms such as Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Fandango.
Thank you for reading this installment of Girl Talk! We’ll see you later for our next complex female character!
Arista Brozovich – Poetry Editor & Blogger: Arista is a Junior at Lewis University. She is currently working towards obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in English Studies, with a concentration in general writing. From there, she wishes to continue her studies into a Master’s degree, and hopefully earn a career in editing. She hopes to improve upon her writing and editorial skills while at Lewis to apply in her future career. When not in class, she can be found listening to music, reading, or writing, or at her job as a barista!