roy andersson: filmaker with a camera reflecting on existence
The comedy of the absurd, grotesque surrealism, humanist choreography, pictorial cinema… Swedish film maker Roy Andersson accepts many different definitions for his cinema. At the last Venice Film Festival he won the Golden Lion for a movie with a strange name, a good example of how unusual his films are: En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence).
This peculiar title is a direct reflection on the main scene in the film. The most important film festivals compete to give the Swede their prizes, but Roy Andersson is unknown to most cinema goers. In 1969 En kärlekshistoria (A Swedish Love Story), his first film, won four prizes at the Berlin Festival. After this success, something very Bergman happened to Andersson: he became profoundly depressed. He stopped the film he was working on and started on another project. When he brought out the black comedy Giliap, the critics were merciless. Bergman’s influence was long-lasting and Andersson made no more films for 25 years.
Fortunately for us, though, he carried on filming. He has worked in advertising since then. He has made more than 400 spots and his work has been highly influential in the advertising world. Andersson’s particular style has been copied time and time again in adverts. You can see a lot of them on the Internet. In 1981 he set up a small production company and made two short films. Någonting har hänt (Something happened) was the first one; commissioned by the Swedish Health Ministry, it deals with AIDs. The project was stopped when the person in charge at the Ministry decided the approach to the subject was too dark. It wasn’t premièred until 1993. In 1991 he made his second short film, Härlig är jorden (World of Glory): it won, amongst others, the main prize at Clermont Ferrand.
Encouraged by his success, but in no hurry, he made a feature film, Sånger från andra våningen (Songs from the Second floor ) in 2000. That year it won the judges’ prize at Cannes. In line with Andersson’s style, there are 46 long fixed camera shots in which social critique hides behind naif, surrealist and high impact sequences: bureaucrats who look like Nazi soldiers; travellers in the underground shouting; a girl they throw off a cliff; a Christ nailed up in a rubbish tip… An astonishing jewel. Andersson uses long exposure for each sequence. As if they were large, panoramic paintings by Rembrandt, he composes
and directs the action, characters and objects until he gets the effect he’s after.
In 2007, in the same style, he filmed Du levande (You the Living) and, along with the Venice prize winning A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, it makes up a beautiful, original, highly personal trilogy. Which only a few people enjoy, unfortunately. Or fortunately. There are very few directors who have won so many prizes and are so little known.
This peculiar title is a direct reflection on the main scene in the film. The most important film festivals compete to give the Swede their prizes, but Roy Andersson is unknown to most cinema goers. In 1969 En kärlekshistoria (A Swedish Love Story), his first film, won four prizes at the Berlin Festival. After this success, something very Bergman happened to Andersson: he became profoundly depressed. He stopped the film he was working on and started on another project. When he brought out the black comedy Giliap, the critics were merciless. Bergman’s influence was long-lasting and Andersson made no more films for 25 years.
Fortunately for us, though, he carried on filming. He has worked in advertising since then. He has made more than 400 spots and his work has been highly influential in the advertising world. Andersson’s particular style has been copied time and time again in adverts. You can see a lot of them on the Internet. In 1981 he set up a small production company and made two short films. Någonting har hänt (Something happened) was the first one; commissioned by the Swedish Health Ministry, it deals with AIDs. The project was stopped when the person in charge at the Ministry decided the approach to the subject was too dark. It wasn’t premièred until 1993. In 1991 he made his second short film, Härlig är jorden (World of Glory): it won, amongst others, the main prize at Clermont Ferrand.
Encouraged by his success, but in no hurry, he made a feature film, Sånger från andra våningen (Songs from the Second floor ) in 2000. That year it won the judges’ prize at Cannes. In line with Andersson’s style, there are 46 long fixed camera shots in which social critique hides behind naif, surrealist and high impact sequences: bureaucrats who look like Nazi soldiers; travellers in the underground shouting; a girl they throw off a cliff; a Christ nailed up in a rubbish tip… An astonishing jewel. Andersson uses long exposure for each sequence. As if they were large, panoramic paintings by Rembrandt, he composes
and directs the action, characters and objects until he gets the effect he’s after.
In 2007, in the same style, he filmed Du levande (You the Living) and, along with the Venice prize winning A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, it makes up a beautiful, original, highly personal trilogy. Which only a few people enjoy, unfortunately. Or fortunately. There are very few directors who have won so many prizes and are so little known.
