You, the Living (2007)
"Du levande" (original title)

You, the Living is a film about humankind, its greatness and its baseness, joy and sorrow, its self-confidence and anxiety, its desire to love and be loved.

Director:

Roy Andersson

Writer:

Roy Andersson

Stars:

Elisabeth Helander, Jörgen Nohall, Jan Wikbladh

10 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elisabeth Helander	...	Mia (as Elisabet Helander)
Jörgen Nohall	...	Uffe (as Jugge Nohall)
Jan Wikbladh	...	The fan (as Jan Wikblad)
Björn Englund	...	Tubaplayer
Birgitta Persson	...	Tubaspelarens fru
Lennart Eriksson	...	Man on the balcony
Jessika Lundberg	...	Anna
Eric Bäckman	...	Micke Larsson
Rolf Engström	...	Trumslagaren
Jessica Nilsson	...	The teacher
Pär Fredriksson	...	The carpet dealer
Leif Larsson	...	Carpenter
Patrik Anders Edgren	...	Professor (as Patrik Edgren)
Gunnar Ivarsson	...	The businessman
Waldemar Nowak	...	The pick-pocket

Storyline

A series of scenes that focus specially on a single idea, emotion or act us. In the absence of interfering qualities this film is able to take one factoring influence and amplify it to absurd and hilarious proportions. Each scene gives us an uninterrupted view at some of the more unglamorous characteristics that in the end determine who we are, both as individuals and as a thread in the patchwork of the collective human unconscious.

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Plot Keywords:

swastika | reference to goethe | electric chair | sentenced to death | business meeting | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Music

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Sweden Germany France Denmark Norway Japan

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

21 September 2007 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

You, the Living

Filming Locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,924 (USA) (31 July 2009)

Gross:

$21,438 (USA) (7 August 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

4 1/2 Film, Canal+, Det Danske Filminstitut

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Every scene in the movie except one is shot in studio.

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Quotes

Mia: Serving non-alcoholic beer with food that smells so good. It's torture!
Uffe's mother.: I only want what's best for you.
Mia: Best! Is this what's best for me? Enduring this damned existance... with all the shit and deceit and wickedness and staying sober? How can you expect or even want a single poor bugger to put up with it without being drunk? It's inhuman. Only a sadist would demand that.

User Reviews

Life as we don't know it

I laughed out loud several times during this film though give it a cursory glance and you would think it was something else altogether. I adore the pace and the way it slowly burns into you as you are presented these gobsmackingly beautiful tableaux. Andersson gives us something else here. Shows us something I had not seen since his last film. He is compositionally exceptional and via his method of fixing the camera and allowing action to take place before us, he opens the door on humanity and we peer into a place that reflects our own lives, our little lives. It is powerful stuff. It is the simplicity with which he allows the events to take place that creates the opposite feeling of complexity. Everything in front of the camera is anything but simple. Andersson's attention to detail is extraordinary. I believe most scenes, if not all, are sets built from scratch according to his designs. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. For me it took me to a place and I came out of it having witnessed a world frayed and beautiful, starched and pained, barren and splendid. At once alien and familiar. This film is brilliant and life affirming. I know because I came out smiling feeling wonderful. It has taken him seven years to make this. If he only made this one film he would still be up there with the greats.