An utterly fascinating and truly quite devastating observation of humanity and its absolute absurdity. This is my first feature from Roy Andersson and I am blown away, this film is so magical on many levels: stylistically it’s a masterpiece, the painting-like washed out colours and the sheer bleakness of the static shots, the bizarre but awkwardly human performances and experiences, the intense weirdness in the dialogue and in the story. Every shot felt like a beautiful photograph, perfectly composed and just eerily still; many of the compositions weirdly reminded me of Gregory Crewsdon’s work, maybe it’s the ‘natural’ staged aesthetic to it. The discontented scenes that were strangely interwoven by reoccurring characters and similar themes were so well put together and created such a uniquely engaging atmosphere full of mundane emotions and an odd charm. Everyone in this film seemed to be slightly off, everyone looked unwell and were intensely socially distant, it’s an exploration of the unimportant, boring human life to an extreme. What a fantastic film, a true arthouse masterpiece of Scandinavian cinema.
An utterly fascinating and truly quite devastating observation of humanity and its absolute absurdity. This is my first feature from Roy Andersson and I am blown away, this film is so magical on many levels: stylistically it’s a masterpiece, the painting-like washed out colours and the sheer bleakness of the static shots, the bizarre but awkwardly human performances and experiences, the intense weirdness in the dialogue and in the story. Every shot felt like a beautiful photograph, perfectly composed and just eerily still; many of the compositions weirdly reminded me of Gregory Crewsdon’s work, maybe it’s the ‘natural’ staged aesthetic to it. The discontented scenes that were strangely interwoven by reoccurring characters and similar themes were so well put together and created such a uniquely engaging atmosphere full of mundane emotions and an odd charm. Everyone in this film seemed to be slightly off, everyone looked unwell and were intensely socially distant, it’s an exploration of the unimportant, boring human life to an extreme. What a fantastic film, a true arthouse masterpiece of Scandinavian cinema.
