Songs From the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, 2000)

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terabin · #1 Post by **terabin** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:31 pm

I just saw this film and loved it. I was wondering whether anyone could comment on how this film fits into the state of film in Sweden in general. Does Andersson's work have any precedent in Sweden? I suppose it would also help if I knew more about Andersson's work! Is this film typical of Andersson in its material and approach to the material?

#2 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:35 pm

I know he made a film (unseen by me) about a romance between two young girls in the sixties. This film definitely fits in with some of the more modern Swedish films I've seen in being incredibly pessimistic about living in Sweden. Even populist "entertainment" films like Froken Sverige are hinged on the love/hate relationship with living in Sweden.

Mr Sheldrake · #3 Post by **Mr Sheldrake** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:43 pm

I love this film too, and sure hope that Andersson's latest film You the Living gets some kind of release in the US. I believe that Andersson is primarily a maker of commercials, and made one that greatly impressed Ingmar Bergman.

Magic Hate Ball · #4 Post by **Magic Hate Ball** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:02 pm

Oh, I love this movie. I've rented it from Netflix twice. The sequence in which everyone struggles to carry their vacation bags to the counter is terrifying and wonderful, as well as the many, many other scenes, and I still remember having chills run up my back when the one man stands up at the table and shouts, "That building is moving!" It's like Tati on downers (or more than what he was on after Play Time).

Knappen · #5 Post by **Knappen** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:15 pm

Both this film and You the living are truely unique films and not at all representative of the swedish film production in general.

#6 Post by **zedz** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:19 am

domino harvey wrote:I know he made a film (unseen by me) about a romance between two young girls in the sixties.

If you're thinking of his 1970 debut A Swedish Love Story, it's very great but completely straight (though the boy has rather long hair), and worlds away from his recent work.

Knappen wrote:Both this film and You the living are truely unique films and not at all representative of the swedish film production in general.

Ditto. Andersson is one of modern cinema's sui generis filmmakers. You can add his 80s shorts and commercials to the 'genre', but nothing much else. You the Living is probably even better than Songs from the Second Floor, and may be the strangest musical comedy ever made.

terabin · #7 Post by **terabin** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:23 pm

zedz wrote:Ditto. Andersson is one of modern cinema's sui generis filmmakers. You can add his 80s shorts and commercials to the 'genre', but nothing much else. You the Living is probably even better than Songs from the Second Floor, and may be the strangest musical comedy ever made.

I find it interesting that the Village Voice would call the film "slapstick Ingmar Bergman" and according to Ebert, "tragic Groucho Marx." Does anyone find these comparisons helpful? Magic Hate Ball already mentioned "Tati on downers."

I look forward to seeing You, the Living. And I hear that Andersson is in a slightly different mood with the new film. Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa describes Andersson's objectives in the new film:

to add a joie de vivre expressed by burlesque humour to the quite desperate state of human beings and the contemporary world.

#8 Post by **zedz** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:40 pm

terabin wrote:I find it interesting that the Village Voice would call the film "slapstick Ingmar Bergman" and according to Ebert, "tragic Groucho Marx." Does anyone find these comparisons helpful? Magic Hate Ball already mentioned "Tati on downers."

Sort of, but the Bergman reference (= shorthand for European and depressive) is very lazy: there's nothing particularly Bergmanesque about any of Andersson's films. The Tati reference is much more apropos, as Andersson specialises in detailed long-shot mise-en-scene and the point(s) of a given shot could be found anywhere in the visual field.

You the Living is hilarious, and the audience I saw it with were laughing like drains for much of the time. Like Tati, the laughs hit different parts of the audience at different times, and they can take the form of obvious slapstick or mild visual incongruity, either of which can strike you as hysterical, depending on context and mood. And it's all presented in a context of grey drabness, depression and inertia (which you'll recall from Songs).

There's a shot in which an elderly man takes his dog for a walk (enter frame left; exit, some considerable time later, frame right) that will be with me until I die. There's also possibly the best-ever variant on the whipping-the-tablecloth-off-the-table joke, showing once and for all that great comedy is 0% surprise, 100% timing.

Particle Zoo · #9 Post by **Particle Zoo** » Fri May 16, 2008 10:27 am

Long time lurker, new poster.
I saw 'You, the living' last night and loved it. I agree with previous posters that there is something of Tati in the broad canvas, where action can take place in any part of the frame. Also in the elaborate sets. As the DVD extras reveal, everything is shot on set, including exteriors.
I also detected a hint of Bunuel, in the recanting of dreams. I love the dead pan humour, I wont spoil any of the plot, but to anyone who has seen the film I say 'Try to think of something else.'