A director’s cut and 62-page book celebrates one year since the release of Ari Aster’s cult horror, featuring an introduction by legendary director Martin Scorsese
Marking one year since its original theatrical release, a new collector’s edition of Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar – an unsettling depiction of the Swedish midsummer festival, and its pagan roots – is released today. Comprising a 62-page book and 171-minute director’s cut, it promises the already-cult film’s fans further insight into Aster’s imagination and process.
The book consists of illustrations by Swedish artist Ragnar Persson, which were originally created for the film where they were painted on walls, documented in books, and sewn onto linen. The result of months of research, the evocative images take their inspiration from Hälsinge murals – named for a region of Sweden – which were traditionally used as a means of passing information through generations about the festival, and to celebrate regeneration and fertility.
The book also reveals a famous fan of the film, legendary American director Martin Scorcese, who provides an introduction. “A couple of years ago, I watched a first film called Hereditary by a director named Ari Aster,” he says. “Right from the start, I was impressed. Here was a young filmmaker that obviously knew cinema. The formal control, the precision of the framing and the movement within the frame the pacing of the action, the sound – it was all there, immediately evident.”
This release follows an auction by A24 of the May Queen dress which actress Florence Pugh notoriously wears in the movie – made from 10,000 silk flowers – which went on to sell for $65,000 to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, with proceeds going to FDNY Foundation, Food Bank for NYC, NYC Health + Hospitals, and the Queens Community House.
The collector’s edition of Midsommar is available to purchase on A24’s website.