Where are we humans going? A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. We meet people in the city. People trying to communicate, searching compassion and get the connection of small and large things.
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
Stars:
Elisabeth Helander,
Jörgen Nohall,
Jan Wikbladh
Sam and Jonathan, a pair of hapless novelty salesman, embark on a tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy that unfold in a series of absurdist episodes.
Director:
Roy Andersson
Stars:
Holger Andersson,
Nils Westblom,
Viktor Gyllenberg
Two teenagers fall in love over the summer, in spite of cynical and disapproving adults who dismiss their relationship as being nothing but young love.
A plain, ordinary man tells us about his work as a real-estate broker, his dead father, his ordinary home and so on in a naturalistic voice, lacking any emotions, looking straight into the ... See full summary »
Director:
Roy Andersson
Stars:
Klas-Gösta Olsson,
Lennart Björklund,
Christer Christensen
In the early twentieth century is created in France the first motorized police group. They are called 'The Tiger Brigades', after Prime Minister George Clemenceau's surname: The Tiger.
Stars:
Jean-Claude Bouillon,
Jean-Paul Tribout,
Pierre Maguelon
After killing a child when his plane crashes in a Vietnamese village, Pierre suffers from delayed stress and partial amnesia. Returning to France, he lives like a vegetable until he meets a... See full summary »
Lincoln, who's not yet 18, leads a straight life most of the time: he has a girl friend, goes to dances, jokes with guys. But he also has a secret life, in which he's drawn to dark places ... See full summary »
A Russian woman living in Memphis with a much older rock-'n'-roll legend experiences a personal awakening when her husband's estranged son comes to visit.
The Runeberg family is an ordinary middle class family, with a house in a suburb, a car and three children. By vacationing in a rented house by the sea, the hope is that the tension and ... See full summary »
In a minor town the morose manager is primarily responsible for the bad atmosphere of a restaurant. But central for the plot are three persons: a male waiter who is never named (here called... See full summary »
A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. A story about our need for love, our confusion, greatness and smallness and, most of all, our vulnerability. It is a story with many characters, among them a father and his mistress, his youngest son and his girlfriend. It is a film about big lies, abandonment and the eternal longing for companionship and confirmation.Written by
Fredrik Klasson <fredrik.klasson@telia.com>
Each scene is shot with one take where the camera stands still as the actors embrace the frame (the camera moves once in the entire film, in the railway station scene). See more »
Quotes
[about his son]
Kalle:
He wrote poetry till he went nuts!
See more »
This film won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award in 2000, and it is indeed very well made. But damn, it's not what you'd want to take someone to on a date. Unless they have odd tastes.
Songs is a kind of allegorical black comedy about capitalism and the brutalising effects of modern society. The cast is mainly depressed middle-aged men in bad suits and there are multiple storylines and little scenes that all add up to one big condemnation of the Western world: a man who hasn't missed a day in 14 years and decides to go to work rather than have sex with his wife, then gets fired. A poet/taxi driver driven insane by the misery around him. His father, who burnt down his store for the insurance and spends most of the film covered in soot. You get the picture.
The film is full of powerful symbols, like a heap of cheap plastic Christs being thrown onto a rubbish heap, or the eternal traffic jam, and moments of absurdity that made me laugh out loud, such as when the Swedish high command gather to honour a retired commander who is so senile his bedpan gets emptied while they give him a speech. But the even the humour is bleak - there isn't a single happy moment in this film. Frankly I didn't buy it. Life may sometimes be dull, bad things do happen to good people, capitalism can suck, but it just isn't that awful. Forgive me for getting lyrical, but life is too full of hope and friendship and beauty to get sucked down in to this grey, dreary view of the world.
RATING: 7/10
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This film won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award in 2000, and it is indeed very well made. But damn, it's not what you'd want to take someone to on a date. Unless they have odd tastes.
Songs is a kind of allegorical black comedy about capitalism and the brutalising effects of modern society. The cast is mainly depressed middle-aged men in bad suits and there are multiple storylines and little scenes that all add up to one big condemnation of the Western world: a man who hasn't missed a day in 14 years and decides to go to work rather than have sex with his wife, then gets fired. A poet/taxi driver driven insane by the misery around him. His father, who burnt down his store for the insurance and spends most of the film covered in soot. You get the picture.
The film is full of powerful symbols, like a heap of cheap plastic Christs being thrown onto a rubbish heap, or the eternal traffic jam, and moments of absurdity that made me laugh out loud, such as when the Swedish high command gather to honour a retired commander who is so senile his bedpan gets emptied while they give him a speech. But the even the humour is bleak - there isn't a single happy moment in this film. Frankly I didn't buy it. Life may sometimes be dull, bad things do happen to good people, capitalism can suck, but it just isn't that awful. Forgive me for getting lyrical, but life is too full of hope and friendship and beauty to get sucked down in to this grey, dreary view of the world.
RATING: 7/10