Hypnotic trip. Review of the film ”Solstice”
Anyone can be afraid of the dark, but scaring a person with light is already a truly difficult task, especially for horror makers. Ari Astaire, a native of New York and one of the main hopes of the genre, has already proved that the simplicity, which lies in the uniformity of the script structure and trodden pathways, is far from his interest. Last year, he made a big splash with his debut Reincarnation, making such a stir that no other horror movie could boast for a long time. Critics were delighted, the audience was in shock: Aster suddenly became an object of cult. A year later, he presents his new, more ambitious psychological horror "Solstice", which, unlike its predecessor, 95 percent of the genre's huge timing (two and a half hours) takes place in bright daylight. And believe me, from this film,
The main character, Dani (Florence Pugh), has a rather strained relationship with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Raynor): they have drifted away and, it seems, are about to part. But the tragedy that happened to Dani turned her into an orphan, and Christian - into her closest person. Realizing the complexity of the situation, Christian delicately invites his girlfriend to go with him and his friends, Josh (William Jackson Harper), Mark (Will Poulter) and Pally (Wilhelm Blomgren), to Sweden. The four of them had been planning this trip for a long time, pursuing at the same time the goals of a man's fun and exploring another culture. The sarcastic chauvinist Mark was about to have some fun, while graduate student Josh, with an interest in folklore and anthropology, planned to collect material for his doctoral dissertation on Kharga's traditions and customs. Khargi is a remote Swedish community, from which Pelli is an exchange student who invited his friends to his homeland in distant Scandinavia for the summer holidays. Now all of them have to come to terms with the fact that Dani is traveling with them.  Having moved the scene with a luxurious editing transition from Christian's apartment to the plane's toilet, Aster begins to acquaint the viewer with an extremely unusual and mysterious Sweden, directing his American heroes towards faraway Helsingland, where the local community conducts a nine-day cleansing ritual every 90 years. Throwing in mushrooms and, in Dani's case, a special herbal decoction, aliens from a foreign culture end up on another planet, where everyone walks in spacious white robes with runes embroidered on them, singing in an unfamiliar language, and the sun never sets. More precisely, for a couple of hours it still sets, but for people who have never seen the white nights with their own eyes, such a phenomenon seems to be something supernatural and out of the ordinary. And this is the least strange of all that the heroes have in store during their stay in Khargi. Ari Astaire is a true master of atmosphere creation, but you already know this if you watched "Reincarnation". In the case of Solstice, the filmmaker goes far ahead. The film's prologue contrasts markedly with the rest of the action. It unfolds at night and is filmed indoors. But the main thing is his depressing tone, enveloping, serving as if a love potion with which the inhabitants of Kharga intoxicate the heroes of the film. Asta with such a prologue, describing the tragic events of the Dani family, hypnotizes the viewer, forcing him to forget about many things. In particular, about time, which allows you to plunge headlong into this creepy story, reminiscent of the misadventures of Sergeant Govie from the cult in every sense "The Wicker Man" Robin Hardy or the priest Thomas from last year's folk horror "Apostle" by Gareth Evans.  Solstice, as described by the director and scriptwriter himself, is a story about parting, told through the prism of a pagan ritual. It is noticeable to the naked eye that Aster thematically continues "Reincarnation". Not in the sense that he again talks about secret communities and their terrible worship of all things that do not lend themselves to rational comprehension, but because this film is again about mental pain, about psychological trauma experienced by a person. And the horror that Asta evokes in the viewer when watching has a much deeper character. There is not a single harsh screamer here, there are no monsters, there is no exploitation of darkness, there is nothing that cheap horror movies are trying to scare with. Ari Astaire uses exclusively the atmosphere, the hypnotic measured rhythm of the narration, vivid images that are engraved in the memory, creates tension with the camera alone and awakens fear on a psychological level. This is exactly what distinguishes the authors of horror films of the new generation, which also include Jordan Peel and Robert Eggers, thanks to whom the genre is now experiencing a renaissance and finally acquired a high status.  The first appearance of overseas guests in the community is shown by a memorable 180-degree camera shot slowly examining and introducing us to Khargi. Aster makes it clear that all the action will take place here. He worked on the screen space in detail, populating every square meter of the set with an incredible amount of authenticity. The community feels truly alive, life pulsates in it, incessant even with the camera being pulled aside. The director's permanent cinematographer Pavel Pogorzhelsky turns his obsession with frame symmetry and his passion for long shots into a true symphony that permeates the entire Solstice. The complexity of the plans lies not only in their length and continuity, but also in their composition, reminiscent of the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. The camera becomes another inhabitant of the community, it moves with the heroes, eavesdrops on their conversations, but most curious of all is how she snatches out elements that are elusive or inaccessible to the eyes of the characters. Astaire has crafted an outstanding work that tells itself - not only thanks to the development of the storyline of the characters, but also through images, events that remain in the background, and interior elements. The interior, inscribed with runes, decorations of upturned houses, a striking yellow pagan temple, illustrations of ritual processes on the walls: all this is the merit of the Stockholm decorator Henrik Svensson, who helped Astaire with the preparation of the material for Solstice. For Svensson, this was the first experience of working in cinema, which is why, perhaps, he so reverently approached the request of the American director, deeply immersed in Swedish folklore and pagan traditions, combining benevolent customs with elements of cult, mysticism and the darkest myths of this culture. The result is striking: the community at Solstice is a whole unique world, thought out to the smallest detail, and the film's script manages to combine the most frightening elements of folklore with an accessible, sometimes funny story about four Americans stunned by someone else's way of life.  The elements of comedicism largely fall into the film with Will Poulter's character, although neither he nor Raynor and Harper even come close to the merits of Florence Pugh, who is here many times better than in "Lady Macbeth", which brought her many prestigious awards and nominations. Ari Astaire, for the second time in a row, achieves from his actresses some transcendental level of acting, rarely associated with horror films. Reincarnation's Toni Collette almost got her well-deserved Oscar nomination. Perhaps the same fate will befall Pew, despite the fact that she played the role of an outstanding and full of nuances. The talented Astaire, like some kind of charmer, attracts talents: in addition to the cameraman Pogorzhelsky, the production designer Svensson and the rising world star Florence Pugh, it is necessary to note the merits of the composer Bobby Krlick, without disturbing ambient music, which the film would noticeably lose in atmosphere.  From a breakthrough debut and extraordinary experience in the horror genre to one of the best films of the year, it is not surprising that Ari Astaire went this way so quickly, because he, now without a fraction of a doubt, is a director from birth. You can be delighted with Solstice for a number of reasons, but directing in a film is aerobatics. A unique, measured rhythm throughout the two and a half hours, outstanding compositional work, fluid inventive cuts and elaborate plans turn this aesthetic folk horror into an indescribably cinematic experience. The Topic of Article: Hypnotic trip. Review of the film ”Solstice”. |
