Directed by: Roy Andersson.
Written by: Roy Andersson.
Starring: Holger Andersson (Jonathan), Nils Westblom (Sam), Viktor Gyllenberg (Karl XII), Lotti Törnros (Flamenco Teacher), Jonas Gerholm (Lonesome Lieutnant), Ola Stensson (Captain / Barber), Oscar Salomonsson (Dancer), Roger Olsen Likvern (Caretaker), Mats Ryden (Man at the busstop), Göran Holm (Bargäst).
Swedish
director Roy Andersson has made a career out of making one, very specific kind
of film – the type that critics like to bring out other directors to try and
explain – most often, in Andersson’s case, that he’s like “Jacques Tati meets
Ingmar Bergman” (some will say Buster Keaton inside of Tati, and others – who
don’t know what the hell they’re talking about will say Chaplin – although
Bergman usually stays, probably because of the whole Swedish thing). It’s not a
bad comparison – as Andersson’s films do call filmmakers like those to mind.
The films are often hilarious – in a deadpan way, like Tati or Keaton – but
also delve into some very serious subject matter. They are made up of
individual scenes – often completely unconnected to the rest of the movie
(although, he will come back to certain characters) – and his camera doesn’t
move, and each scene is one shot. His films offer little vignettes of life, death,
comedy, tragedy, etc. His breakthrough film was Songs from the Second Floor
(2000), and it took him seven years to follow that up with You, the Living, and
another seven before he made his latest A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on
Existence. Andersson, I think, is rather lucky that it takes so long between
films. There is a limited as to what one can do with films like these – and
Andersson has reached that limit. But the long gaps in between mean he is
greeted with a little more enthusiasm than if, say, he released these three
films in three straight years.
There
is nothing wrong with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (that
title, by the way, has to be a joke, right – as if Andersson decided to name
his film as if he had made the most pretentious art film in history). The film
works in its individual scenes – and there are a few near the end when
Andersson completely forgoes the comedy to create some of the more disturbing,
and haunting, images you will likely see in a theater this year that I’m still
trying to wrap my head around (should they be there? Is Andersson saying
anything here, or doing it for shock value? I’m honestly not sure).
For
the most part, I enjoyed the purely stand alone scenes best – like a trio at
the beginning about three unrelated deaths, that are tragic and hilarious in
equal measure, or the flashback of an old man to his war days in the same bar
which turns into a musical number. Andersson comes back – repeatedly – to a two
salesman, trying to sell the sadness novelty joke items imaginable – and it’s
probably too often, as he establishes that they are pathetic, and doesn’t do
much else with them.
But there is, as I said, a limited to how well a film like this can ever work – and personally, I think there is a law of diminishing returns at work here. I remember watching Songs from the Second Floor around the time it came out on DVD – and being amazed by it. I was in college at the time, and had never seen anything quite like it. But with this film, I feel like I have seen it before – and that Andersson is simply repeating himself. The film works – I had fun for the most part, and the film certainly does offer a memorable experience, something that cannot be said about a lot of films. Still, the thrill of seeing something new is gone with Andersson – and one hopes that he tries something different next time out.
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