Midsommar 2019
Aster's daytime folk-horror breakup movie; a group of grad students follow a friend to his Swedish commune. Both hosts came out blown away and a little rattled.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
Making ‘Midsommar,’ A Deep Dive Into the Movie Freakout of the Year | Interview
July 3, 2019/ 52 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Sean and Chris talk through Ari Aster's Midsommar, then Sean sits down with Aster on building the Hårga village, casting Florence Pugh, and the eleven scripts in his drawer.
17 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
MidsommarSean and Chris, spoilers kept to a minimum
Hereditary 2018
The 2018 debut they keep measuring Midsommar against; more supernatural, more two-movies-in-one, where this one plays as a single cohesive sentence.
Lady Macbeth 2016
Where Sean first clocked Florence Pugh, whom he calls one of the best performances of the year.
Little Women 2019
Greta Gerwig's adaptation, out later in 2019, also starring Pugh; Sean jokes it was its own kind of horror movie for a certain generation of men.
In conversation
Ari Aster on
Midsommar 2019
Aster frames it as a macabre fairy tale and an operatic breakup movie; the Hårga village was built from scratch in a Hungarian field, scored by Bobby Krlic as the Haxan Cloak.
Ari Aster on
Hereditary 2018
He was in Hungarian pre-production the day after it opened, so he never really felt its reception.
Ari Aster on
Lady Macbeth 2016
The William Oldroyd film that sold him on Pugh, who couldn't audition at first because she was shooting Park Chan-wook's Little Drummer Girl.
Ari Aster on
Fighting With My Family 2019
Cited as part of Pugh's run of demanding roles, for which she had to learn to wrestle.
Ari Aster on
The Wicker Man 1973
The brightly lit pagan-horror touchstone Aster reaches for, though he notes it's mostly grim and overcast.
Ari Aster on
The Color of Pomegranates 1969
Sergei Parajanov film Aster had production designer Henrik Svensson watch.
Ari Aster on
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1965
The other Parajanov reference for the film's design.
Ari Aster on
The Wizard of Oz 1939
A color reference, especially the garish 'Crayola phase' near the end; they also studied 40s and 50s MGM musicals.
Ari Aster on
Last Year at Marienbad 1961
A restored Alain Resnais DCP he caught at Film Forum. He calls it a recent favorite, and traces Roeg's montage back to it.
Ari Aster on
Don't Look Now 1973
The Nicolas Roeg film he says is deeply important to him, talked about while touring Hereditary.
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Little Drummer Girl
Books The Golden BoughLittle Women (Louisa May Alcott novel)
Ads Ringer Dish