Torrent du levande

Despite the fact that the film lacks a plot in the traditional sense of the word and there are no main characters as such, the different characters who appear and reappear in different scenes still meet each other and their stories are inevitably intertwined. What most of these characters have in common is their apparent loneliness despite being surrounded by other people. People speak to each other but it is as if they speak past each other.

They try to reach out to the others but shut the others out when those try to reach them. The society it portrays is Sweden, its artistic language and the people displayed are generally unmistakably Nordic.

Yet, the subject it deals with, namely, the misery of the humankind in a selfish world, reaches far beyond this hemisphere. Despite the seriousness of its theme, the film itself seems a lot more cheerful and laden with humour than one might have expected. Hence, this film is a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy, depending on your sensitivities, and not a depressing black reality tour of the human nature. It is unusual in its language and structure, but if you can think outside the box and enjoy it, you will certainly find this film both entertaining and meaningful at the same time.

After the film was shown in the Salle Debussy, the 1, strong audience gave it a standing ovation for several minutes. Do I need to say more? Here is a short film about the making of "Du levande". And here you can watch a video clip for The Reckoner, a Radioheads song which uses scenes from the film. Posted by Andrejs Visockis at pm. Labels: Sweden. Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom.

These days, I just prescribe pills. The stronger, the better. Sign In. Original title: Du levande. Comedy Drama Music. You, the Living is a film about humankind, its greatness and its baseness, joy and sorrow, its self-confidence and anxiety, its desire to love and be loved.

Director Roy Andersson. Roy Andersson. Top credits Director Roy Andersson. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Elisabeth Helander Mia as Mia. Jan Wikbladh The fan as The fan. Birgitta Persson Tubaspelarens fru as Tubaspelarens fru. Lennart Eriksson Man on the balcony as Man on the balcony. Jessika Lundberg Anna as Anna. Jessica Nilsson The teacher as The teacher. Leif Larsson Carpenter as Carpenter. Gunnar Ivarsson The businessman as The businessman. Waldemar Nowak The pick-pocket as The pick-pocket.

Kemal Sener The barber as The barber. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. A series of scenes that focus specially on a single idea, emotion or act us. In the absence of interfering qualities this film is able to take one factoring influence and amplify it to absurd and hilarious proportions.

Each scene gives us an uninterrupted view at some of the more unglamorous characteristics that in the end determine who we are, both as individuals and as a thread in the patchwork of the collective human unconscious.

Not Rated. Did you know Edit. Trivia As a child, Roy Andersson witnessed the moving of about houses from the bay of Skarvik to Gothenberg to facilitate the building of a new harbor. This involved putting the houses on logs and then rolling them to their new location. This is the inspiration behind the vignette of the rock star and his new bride whose cosy domestic scene appears to be on train tracks.

Quotes The psychiatrist : Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Soundtracks Pulsation Written by Benny Andersson. User reviews 65 Review. Top review. I really didn't see this one coming. Roy Andersson had me pegged out, I am the perfect sucker for a static camera long live King Borowczyk!

You have to be a brilliant man to make self-pity hilarious. Andersson reminds me of the third mate on the Pequod in Moby Dick, Flask, a man who took the whole of life to be a practical joke that the good lord Himself is playing on us. And the web of egotism in this movie is truly hilarious. The level of satire is at fever pitch, you have one deluded self-pitying dreamer harp on about the cruelty of the world and then totally ignore a spiritual self-reflection crying out in agony.

The very depths of egotism are plumbed. I really never thought it possible to go further than Bergman's "The Silence" in this respect. However the grotesqueness of the self-love and self-regard, by every single character in this film, is staggering. We are shown an existence where the talentless and the idle rail against a world they believe has been unjust towards them, they truly are legends in their own living rooms.

The human beings in this film make self-deception and self-delusion a great artform! Only one woman in the film appears to have any sort of understanding of what is going on. An old woman who refuses to leave a chapel, knelt down praying for the forgiveness of all mankind, her speech is the most electrifying condemnation of the modern world I have ever heard.