You, the Living

Director: Roy Andersson

29 January 2024

See

Him: Du Devande in Swedish or You, the Living, a film by Roy Andersson in his signature vignette tableaux style, scenes playing out in front of the stationary camera, like surreal stylised set pieces of absurd observations and conversations. 

Think

Him: It reminds me more than a little of Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, the ordinary characters are leading bleak lives just getting by, but the darker and more dire their circumstances the funnier. Like the Middle-Eastern barber who had a bad day and enough of a businessman’s bigotry, and his subsquent business meeting.  Or the drunk girlfriend of a skinhead, who wants to leave him and their dog and is contantly complaining no one cares about her or understands her but doesn’t do anything about it, “If only I had a motorbike, I would ride away from this place.” Same babe. Except I have one.

Feel

Him: Watching Her recommendation intro to the last Anderson (sic) I realised I’d seen one before. A Pigeon Sat on A Branch Contemplating Life. We all do. Better with films like this.