STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED

Classic

Excellent

Good

Fair

Tragic

FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Jessica Lundberg Elisabeth Helander Bjorn Englund Leif Larsson.

Directors Roy Andersson.

Screenwriters

Running Time 93 minutes

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You, The Living (15)

Plot
Roy Andersson follows up Songs From The Second Floor with a non-linear tale about a bunch of downtrodden sorts who are unaware of their impending doom.

Review

The morbid hilarity of mundane existence is revealed by Roy Andersson in this deadpan follow-up to Songs From The Second Floor (2000).

Again adopting a non-linear structure and an attention to ludicrous detail that recalls Jacques Tati, the Swedish auteur flits between unlinked, inconsequential episodes in the lives of various downtrodden sorts whose self-obsession blinds them to their impending doom.

Musical interludes and reconstructed dreams reinforce the aura of surreality created by speeches to camera and the grimly amusing realisation that our own lives are every bit as irredeemably ghastly.

Verdict
Recalling the work of Jacques Tati, this is a grim but amusing and ultimately successful effort.


Reviewer: David Parkinson

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