Girl With Hyacinths

Girl With Hyacinths is commonly described as “lesbian Citizen Kane.” And I totally agree with that assessment. This movie is lesbian Citizen Kane!

Regrettably, the very existence of Girl With Hyacinths on this site is a plot spoiler. Sorry about that. The film is about a woman named Dagmar who commits suicide at the start of the film. The police come to investigate Dagmar’s death by talking to her neighbours. Unlike the police who inform them, married couple Britt and Anders actually give a shit about the passing of their young neighbour. When the police opt to not investigate the open and shut suicide further, Anders and Britt take over. They track down Dagmar’s few acquaintances to try and piece together a portrait of her life. Why did this beautiful young woman kill herself? What tragedy in her life drove her to this?

Dagmar is obviously already dead by the start of the film. But she’s still the main character of the piece. Like Citizen Kane, We see in flashbacks the dissolution of someone who by all logic, should be happy. Even in these flashback scenes, Dagmar remains indecipherable. There’s a sense of tragedy in her life as well as death. Dagmar is ever lonely and isolated, even in company. She feels inherently out of place in the world around her and sees no way this could change. The queer experience in Girl With Hyacinths is one of isolation and tragedy.

Like Dagmar herself, queerness is present largely in its absence. The film’s last twist is the reveal of her feelings for a woman. Instead of seeing Dagmar have love of women, we instead see her completely isolated or failing to connect with men. The reveal of Dagmar’s queerness ties this all together. It was impossible for me to see this film without knowing the ending. But I wish I could. It’s a simple reveal but one that makes everything previous make sense. Dagmar’s queerness is something she rarely acts upon in the film. However, that facet of her identity colours her entire worldly experience.

While the comparison to Citizen Kane is more about story structure similarities, be assured, this is also a spectacular movie. Another comparison is between director Hasse Ekman his contemporary, Ingmar Bergman. In Swedish cinema, Ekman is frequently considered underrated and unsung given that his strong body of work is often forgotten in the face of Bergman’s iconic films. Girl With Hyacinths proves that Ekman deserves mention alongside some all-time greats. Girl With Hyacinths is a beautifully meticulous movie. The story and every shot are perfectly precise. Yet this precision never undercuts the emotional beats of the story or the overall sense of tragedy. This is a flawlessly executed film.

Quite simply, Girl With Hyacinths is a great movie. It’s perhaps the only true lesbian noir. Every aspect about this film works so well. This is a particularly early addition to the WLW film canon and 70 years later, remains an absolute standout.

Overall rating: 9.1/10

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