Songs From The Second Floor
Framed as a sort of dream-like plotless assortment of vignettes and scenes, we drift through the life of one man in particular, Kalle (Nordh), a heavyset middle-age man whose life is crumbling around him, as the world also seems to be at the brink of a chaotic disruption of logic.
Songs From the Second Floor, which shared the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, is an indescribably surrealistic examination of the pointlessness of modern life in a nameless city full of directionless people. Throughout a series of unrelated vignettes, all marked by absurd black humour, the film's characters stand witness to an utterly motionless traffic jam, the pathetic firing of a 30-year employee, a magic trick gone horribly wrong, and the failed business ventures of a crucifix salesman. The tone of Swedish director Roy Anderssen's highly original and challenging project recalls such bleak visionaries as Samuel Beckett and Luis Buñuel, and though it certainly perplexed audiences, it also left them laughing uncontrollably.
Certificate: 15
Key cast / credits
Dir: Roy Andersson
Cast: Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Torbjorn Fahlstrom, Sten Andersson, Lucio Vucino
Running time: 97 mins
Release date: July, 2002
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish w/English subtitles
Format available: 35mm/digi
Jury Prize (tie), Cannes Film Festival 2000
"Songs From the Second Floor, an example of an unsung genre, is a heartbreakingly thoughtful minor classic, the work of a genuine and singular artist." Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times