Girl with Hyacinths

Girl with Hyacinths (Flicka Och Hyacinter) (1950)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Hasse Ekman

Starring: Eva Henning, Ulf Palme, Birgit Tengroth, Anders Ek, Gosta Cederlund

From: Terrafilm

This film is part of the Criterion Channel’s new Nordic Noir section, and as according to the channel this movie is an unexpected popular watch, why not tackle it for myself? Whether or not you consider this noir or not is debatable; I have a list devoted to the genre but as I only add American films to it anyhow… a young lady named Dagmar who’s a loner took her own life via hanging.

That happens a few minutes in and that should be mentioned for those that don’t want to view such things for whatever personal reasons. Dagmar’s apartment neighbor is a writer and he investigates why she made this decision. The blurb on the channel in fact invoked the name Citizen Kane; that’s a tall order but the movie is very good. The viewer sees flashbacks which shone a light on Dagmar’s life and why she committed suicide.

The description on the Criterion Channel reveals a key detail which perhaps shouldn’t have been revealed beforehand; even if you don’t know, people today might have an easier time guessing the big surprise at the conclusion. A segment of the audience reading this probably would be interested in Dagmar as a character due to her preferences. Hyacinths was an easy 90-minute watch; the runtime flew by as the author Anders investigates, we see many flashbacks, and he has frequent discussions w/ his wife Britt concerning the case.

Whether behind or in front of the camera, I wasn’t familiar w/ most of the cast and crew, aside from Anders Ek. There’s strong filmmaking craft involved and the cast as a whole was swell. That said, Ulf Palme as Anders and Eva Henning as Dagmar were the highlights; the latter was incredibly sympathetic as a nice lady who is treated horribly by seemingly every man in her life, then she took her own life.

The movie is of the downbeat variety yet I was still glad to have gone on this journey. None other than Ingmar Bergman was a fan. In the future I’ll view at least one more from the Nordic Noir collection.