David O'ConnellYou, the Living (Du levande)
May 7th 2009 02:53
This astonishing 2007 Swedish film, presented as a series of serio-comic vignettes, is the work of writer-director Roy Andersson. I’ve never had the privilege of seeing any of the other films of this veteran filmmaker whose intermittent output has totaled just nine works in over 40 years, but surely he’s reached his creative zenith here.
It’s not an easy task attempting to categorise You the Living; simply put it’s like nothing else you’ve ever seen. Each scene is short and sharp and virtually every set-up is a static one, but filled with fascinating, tiny details that speak of a meticulous attention to detail. It allows a painterly, dreamlike through-line to develop, like watching abstract works of art slowly come to life. Only twice in the entire film does the camera move.
The colours are muted and drab in this sunless world of mostly nameless, pasty-faced protagonists whose lives are played out in mournful, incremental advances. Andersson’s deadpan humour provides memorable surreal moments of suffering and joy, the avenging, repeating lines of these hapless, downtrodden souls insisting that “tomorrow is another day” regardless of their proximity to despair.
There’s a randomness of observation that borders on genius, and yet there are perfect moments of clarity too. Though a large ensemble of characters lives overlap without rhyme or reason, there is also the irreparable damage caused by acute isolation, more than one person bemoaning the fact that “nobody understands me!”
There are moments of poignant contemplation; in others, characters speak directly to the camera, whilst some seem to be speaking to a person who isn’t there. There’s a lovesick girl who pines for the lead singer of a rock group; an old doctor who’s fed up with unhappy patients he regards as beyond his help; a hilarious sex scene where a wife’s sporadic, ecstatic groans are drowned out by her husband’s continual dispassionate descriptions of the intricacies of his retirement funds.
There are dozens of others too, perhaps a few don't come off, but nearly every one is a gem in its own way - and ripe for rediscovery in a film that demands multiple viewings to re-assess its subtleties and vagaries.
You, the Living is unique and unconventional, pulled off with such startling precision that I'm tempted to label it a masterpiece, and yet one simmering with barely tangible notions.
It's a film so rich with minute, eccentric detail that it threatens to redefine the very nature of cinematic storytelling. Watch it and, like me, you’ll crave to see it again and again.
It’s not an easy task attempting to categorise You the Living; simply put it’s like nothing else you’ve ever seen. Each scene is short and sharp and virtually every set-up is a static one, but filled with fascinating, tiny details that speak of a meticulous attention to detail. It allows a painterly, dreamlike through-line to develop, like watching abstract works of art slowly come to life. Only twice in the entire film does the camera move.
The colours are muted and drab in this sunless world of mostly nameless, pasty-faced protagonists whose lives are played out in mournful, incremental advances. Andersson’s deadpan humour provides memorable surreal moments of suffering and joy, the avenging, repeating lines of these hapless, downtrodden souls insisting that “tomorrow is another day” regardless of their proximity to despair.
There’s a randomness of observation that borders on genius, and yet there are perfect moments of clarity too. Though a large ensemble of characters lives overlap without rhyme or reason, there is also the irreparable damage caused by acute isolation, more than one person bemoaning the fact that “nobody understands me!”
There are moments of poignant contemplation; in others, characters speak directly to the camera, whilst some seem to be speaking to a person who isn’t there. There’s a lovesick girl who pines for the lead singer of a rock group; an old doctor who’s fed up with unhappy patients he regards as beyond his help; a hilarious sex scene where a wife’s sporadic, ecstatic groans are drowned out by her husband’s continual dispassionate descriptions of the intricacies of his retirement funds.
There are dozens of others too, perhaps a few don't come off, but nearly every one is a gem in its own way - and ripe for rediscovery in a film that demands multiple viewings to re-assess its subtleties and vagaries.
You, the Living is unique and unconventional, pulled off with such startling precision that I'm tempted to label it a masterpiece, and yet one simmering with barely tangible notions.
It's a film so rich with minute, eccentric detail that it threatens to redefine the very nature of cinematic storytelling. Watch it and, like me, you’ll crave to see it again and again.
| 83 |
| Vote |
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic