SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR
by Roy Andersson Sweden/Norway/Denmark 2000 35 mm 98 min. OV Germ. ST
In a glorious return from his prolonged break from filmmaking after the 1975 flop GILIAP, Roy Andersson won the Jury Prize in Cannes for his magnificent third feature, which he also produced. Consisting of 60 vignettes, each shot in one take, the film takes the audience on a journey through a post-industrial, post-religious society in a seemingly constant state of purgatory – a society Andersson alternately blesses and rebukes.
One night the world seems to go mad. Traffic in the city comes to a halt. Shareholders flog themselves in a long procession down the road. A magician saws a man. Kalle stands out – he set his furniture store on fire to get the insurance money.
A miraculous-grotesque film with stunning visuals of bizarre desolation.
