'Beloved be the one who sits down.' - Cesar Vallejo
This is an outstanding, surreal, nightmarish, apathetic, absurd, indelible, and at times, darkly amusing picture from Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. The film offers us a selection of chaotic, compelling and haunting still sequence shots (the camera doesn't move once throughout the entire film), each of them wonderfully presented in dull, lifeless colours and framed in stylish composition. Most of the people in the film seem to be disenchanted nomads, lost in a futile world. Their faces are very pale, as though they have been white-powdered to death. The film is affecting because it is stationary, yet it's conveying so much forceful emotion. It wants to move but it can't. It's stuck in a state of perpetual inertia, just like the constant gridlock of traffic that is strangling the city.
The film opens with a man talking to a man under a sun bed (we can only see his feet), who tells him, "Everything has its day. What's the point of staying where there's only misery? When that day comes I'll be long gone... and so should you!". Shortly after this we see the man who was in the opening scene firing one of his staff of thirty years service. The man hangs around his leg, pleading with him, and is dragged along while the boss tries to walk away (he's in a hurry has he's got a game of golf to play). The next sequence shows a man stabbed and beaten by a group of men in an unprovoked attack, whilst a line of people stood at a bus stop look on regardless. The next scene offers some dark humour. A magician attempts to cut a volunteer in half but it all goes terribly wrong. We then briefly see the the poor chap in hospital and later at home with his wife, groaning in agony.
The central figure of the film, though, is Kalle, the portly owner of a furniture shop. He sets his shop on fire to get the insurance money. The first time we see Kalle is on a tube train. The sequence is in slow motion and the other passengers on the train open their mouths in unison to classical music. Kalle is distraught and disillusioned with his world. "It's hard being human", he moans. One of his sons has, in Kalle's words, "Wrote poetry till he went nuts". His son now resides in a mental hospital. Kalle's other son is a taxi driver whose wife has left him. One scene has Kalle being questioned by two insurance investigators while a group of flagellants walk past his furniture shop in the road outside. Kalle is tormented by dead people following him, including his associate Sven who committed suicide, and a Russian boy hanged by the Nazis.
Other memorable scenes include one at an airport where a line of overloaded trolleys, piled high with towers of luggage, are all being attemptedly pushed by people (with great difficulty). A former general on his 100th birthday gives a Nazi salute to some military personnel who are visiting him in a rest home. A man tries to set up a business selling crucifixes but finds the business venture fails - "He's just a crucified loser", the man says. A young girl is blindfolded and pushed over a cliff in an act of sacrifice by a religious sect. A man's hand gets trapped in a train door. A man vomits on a bar while an inebriated woman clasps a stool, unable to find her feet. The film reminded me of Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty. It's a magnificent film that will linger in the mind of the spectator for quite some time. Unique surreal cinema.
This is an outstanding, surreal, nightmarish, apathetic, absurd, indelible, and at times, darkly amusing picture from Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. The film offers us a selection of chaotic, compelling and haunting still sequence shots (the camera doesn't move once throughout the entire film), each of them wonderfully presented in dull, lifeless colours and framed in stylish composition. Most of the people in the film seem to be disenchanted nomads, lost in a futile world. Their faces are very pale, as though they have been white-powdered to death. The film is affecting because it is stationary, yet it's conveying so much forceful emotion. It wants to move but it can't. It's stuck in a state of perpetual inertia, just like the constant gridlock of traffic that is strangling the city.
The film opens with a man talking to a man under a sun bed (we can only see his feet), who tells him, "Everything has its day. What's the point of staying where there's only misery? When that day comes I'll be long gone... and so should you!". Shortly after this we see the man who was in the opening scene firing one of his staff of thirty years service. The man hangs around his leg, pleading with him, and is dragged along while the boss tries to walk away (he's in a hurry has he's got a game of golf to play). The next sequence shows a man stabbed and beaten by a group of men in an unprovoked attack, whilst a line of people stood at a bus stop look on regardless. The next scene offers some dark humour. A magician attempts to cut a volunteer in half but it all goes terribly wrong. We then briefly see the the poor chap in hospital and later at home with his wife, groaning in agony.
The central figure of the film, though, is Kalle, the portly owner of a furniture shop. He sets his shop on fire to get the insurance money. The first time we see Kalle is on a tube train. The sequence is in slow motion and the other passengers on the train open their mouths in unison to classical music. Kalle is distraught and disillusioned with his world. "It's hard being human", he moans. One of his sons has, in Kalle's words, "Wrote poetry till he went nuts". His son now resides in a mental hospital. Kalle's other son is a taxi driver whose wife has left him. One scene has Kalle being questioned by two insurance investigators while a group of flagellants walk past his furniture shop in the road outside. Kalle is tormented by dead people following him, including his associate Sven who committed suicide, and a Russian boy hanged by the Nazis.
Other memorable scenes include one at an airport where a line of overloaded trolleys, piled high with towers of luggage, are all being attemptedly pushed by people (with great difficulty). A former general on his 100th birthday gives a Nazi salute to some military personnel who are visiting him in a rest home. A man tries to set up a business selling crucifixes but finds the business venture fails - "He's just a crucified loser", the man says. A young girl is blindfolded and pushed over a cliff in an act of sacrifice by a religious sect. A man's hand gets trapped in a train door. A man vomits on a bar while an inebriated woman clasps a stool, unable to find her feet. The film reminded me of Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty. It's a magnificent film that will linger in the mind of the spectator for quite some time. Unique surreal cinema.