Songs from the Second Floor – Sånger från andra våningen (2000)

Directed by: Roy Andersson | 100 minutes | drama | Actors: Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Tommy Johansson, Jöran Mueller, Bengt CW Carlsson, Torbjörn Fahlström, Sten Andersson, Rolando Núñez, Lucio Vucina, Per Jörnelius, Peter Roth, Hanna Eriksson, Sture Olsson, Fredrik Sjögren

On the one hand, it’s a shame that Swedish director Roy Andersson works so terribly precisely. He therefore takes a very long time to deliver a film. On the other hand, his way of working makes him unique and when a film is finally made, the film shows a complete universe of its own. Without a real script, with just the scenes in his head, Andersson makes preliminary studies of each scene, trying every possibility until he finds the best one. He doesn’t let the camera move, only the people in the image. And he gets those people from shops, restaurants and from the street, which makes for a very unusual cast. These people look perfectly normal and crazy at the same time. And they can act too.

The universe of ‘Songs from the Second Floor’ is hopeless and bizarre, everyone wants to leave but no one moves forward, while there is a constant sense of impending doom. It’s not easy being human, says the fat Kalle. The consoling line of poetry “beloved are those who sit down” (Vallejo) is repeated by Kalle’s youngest son, his eldest son has gone mad because of the poetry. It’s hurt or hurt in ‘Songs from the Second Floor’. The magician and the man he cuts in half, the boss and the fired employee, the martyrs and the martyrs, the living and the dead. The blame for the suffering of others seems to haunt people, in Kalle’s case literally. The dead Sven (to whom he was in debt) comes after him, also a victim of the Nazis and many other dead. Kalle throws crucifixes at them, but they keep coming back. At another time, a large company – complete with bishops – is pushing a young girl into an abyss to get drunk in a hotel afterwards: we have sacrificed a thriving youth, can we do more? There’s no answer.

‘Songs from the Second Floor’ should actually be viewed as a symbolic work, if you don’t, only a series of loose absurdist sketches remains. There is no normal tension, no beginning-mid-end where each scene has to do with the next. So it takes some adaptability to watch this movie and not everyone will appreciate this. But Andersson’s eye for detail makes each statue look like a painting, with a careful composition and without bright colours: brown, grey, blue and light yellow predominate. With its disturbing yet amusing madness, Anderson’s universe is reminiscent of Monty Python’s, but with severe depression. ‘Songs from the Second Floor’ is a work of art in which escape is impossible.