The Films of Roy Andersson

This is a combination of two previous posts related to the following four films from Roy Andersson:

Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
You, The Living (2007)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
About Endlessness (2019)

The first three films in the above list are part of his “Living Trilogy” while About Endlessness feels like an epilogue to the trilogy. All four films contain similar style and themes such as usage of deadpan humour and an existentialist theme.

Singing songs en route to Godot

Songs from the Second Floor is a cinematic twist on Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot. In the famous play, two characters quietly wait for Godot because they believe Godot will make everything better and provide happiness. In Songs from the Second Floor, characters are always in motion looking for happiness but since they move ever so slowly, their motion can be considered as a painful never ending waiting period. For example, the lives of some characters are taken up by an almost never ending traffic jam which leads them to complain about spending 8 hours stuck in traffic, while on other occasions, the traffic gridlock is shown to exist across multiple days. There are empty streets all around the one gridlocked main street but no one seems to be driving on the other side streets. Instead, everyone just stays trapped in one street, moving a few yards, every few minutes and never arriving to their destination on time. An officer on the way to a millionaire general’s 100th birthday comes up with this wisdom:

“Life is Time and time is a stretch of road. That makes life a journey, a trip.” He goes on to add that heritage, tradition and history are maps and compasses that accompany a person on their journey. As the cars inch their way slowly down the never ending road, people have the illusion of getting closer to their end goal.

Another line that is often repeated in the film is “Beloved be the one who sits down.” Since everyone is always in motion, sitting down to rest appears to be a dream, a goal.

The persistent sentiment in Songs from the Second Floor and You, The Living feature characters who are exhausted and tired of their lives. In Songs from the Second Floor, Kalle (Lars Nordh) repeatedly shouts that he cannot take it anymore and in his desperation to better his life, he burns his own shop down hoping to collect the insurance money. In You, the Living, a psychologist admits he cannot continue in his job because he cannot stand listening to people complain. Characters in the film come off as carrying a huge burden on their shoulders. This extra baggage is demonstrated near the end of Songs.. when characters are shown pulling tons of luggage en route to possibly heaven where their souls will get the rest they failed to get on earth.

They, the dead

Death is a persistent element present in the “Living Trilogy” either in the form of the walking dead (zombies, ghosts) or characters on verge of dying or those that actually pass away in A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. There are many characters who have had enough of their lives and are contemplating suicide. In many cases, it appears that death is walking side by side with these people seeking to collect the worn out and tired physical body of the living beings.

Songs from the Second Floor depicts an end of the world scenario where inhabitants are on the verge of extinction, so it is not surprising to see death hovering over the inhabitants. And just to make sure that death does not miss a single person, a fleet of bombers heads towards the city at the end of You, the Living so that no person is forced to continue living their miserable life. As depressing as the topic of death sounds, Andersson’s films are anything but a downer. In fact, they are packed with plenty of dry/dark humour and absurd situations which may not induce a full out laugh but a disbelieving smile and a shake of the head. Each frame contains enough fascinating action in both the foreground and background which ensures no misery is taken too seriously. In one scene in Songs from the Second Floor, Kalle is upset about his burned down shop but in the background, a procession of office employees walk flagellating themselves. The same employees are then found walking in the background when in the foreground an officer is philosophizing about the meaning of life. In You, the Living an elderly man narrates how he lost a huge chunk of his money but his sad story does not garner too much attention as the man is being humped by a woman in a viking hat who is moaning with pleasure.

Jokes completed 7 years later

Each film in the “Living Trilogy” is spaced out by 7 years and stand as separate films but they are tied together with the same dry humour style and are a study of miserable characters in a city on the verge of extinction. In the first two films of the trilogy, some jokes that start off in the first film are visually depicted in the second film. For example, in Songs from the Second Floor a business meeting is interrupted when an employee points to a neighboring building that is moving. The moving building is never shown but in You, the Living a moving house is shown, which may have been mistaken for the moving building in the first film.

The traffic congestion from the first film is still found in the second film You, the Living.

In Songs.. characters are shown to be escaping the city with their luggage. One interpretation of that escape is that it refers to people carrying their baggage as they head to heaven. Another explanation is provided by the ending of You, the Living when fighter airplanes are seen heading towards the city. The aerial shot of the planes indicate they are going to bomb the city into destruction, which would mean that the luggage scene in Songs.. is an attempt by the residents to escape their city before it is destroyed.

The misery of the characters in the first film continues in the second film as well.

Epilogue

About Endlessness, released 5 years after A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, appears to be an epilogue to the “Living Trilogy” but has a more bleaker look due to the greyish palette complete with overcast skies.

The opening sequence stands out as two characters fly over a city in ruins. That is just one of a series of vignettes in the film which doesn’t interleave characters like the “Living Trilogy”. Instead, some segments are linked together by an unseen female narrator’s voice-over such as “I saw a man…”. There is the expected deadpan, some gags, inclusion of religious elements and some attempts to tackle contemporary issues. Although, one of the contemporary segments about honour killing doesn’t have the intended impact and stands out as tone-deaf.

The “Living Trilogy” and About Endlessness were released over a long duration of 19 years. The world changed significantly over these two decades yet Andersson has largely maintained a similar style over this duration with a few tweaks. Unfortunately, I find the last two films weaker in comparison to Songs from the Second Floor and You, The Living. That could be more due to the high bar by those two earlier films or perhaps my changing perspective.