Songs from the Second Floor (Swedish: Sånger från andra våningen) is a Swedish black comedy-drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 6 October 2000,[2] written and directed by Roy Andersson. It presents a series of disconnected vignettes that together interrogate aspects of modern life. It uses quotations from the work of Peruvian poet César Vallejo as a recurring motif.
Songs from the Second Floor | |
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![]() Original Swedish poster | |
Directed by | Roy Andersson |
Written by | Roy Andersson |
Produced by | Lisa Alwert Roy Andersson Philippe Bober Sanne Glæsel Johan Mardell |
Starring | Lars Nordh Stefan Larsson Bengt C.W. Carlsson Torbjörn Fahlström Sten Andersson |
Cinematography | István Borbás Jesper Klevenas Robert Komarek |
Edited by | Roy Andersson |
Music by | Benny Andersson |
Release dates |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
Countries | Sweden Norway Denmark |
Language | Swedish |
Budget | $5.5 million[1] |
It is the first film in a trilogy, followed by You, the Living (2007) and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014).
A man is standing in a subway car, his face dirty with soot. In his right hand he carries a plastic bag with documents, or rather, the charred leftovers of them. In a corridor a man is clinging desperately to the legs of the boss who just fired him. He is screaming: "I've been here for thirty years!" In a coffee shop someone is waiting for his father, who just burned his furniture company for insurance money. Traffic jams and self-flagellating stock brokers are filling up the streets while an economist, desperate for a solution to the problem of work becoming too expensive, gazes into the crystal ball of a scryer. The main men all have goals but their destinations change during the story.
Film critic J. Hoberman from The Village Voice concluded about the film: "Easier to respect than enthuse over, Andersson's rigorous personal vision is not only distanced but distancing."[3] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "You may not enjoy it but you will not forget it."[4] Anton Bitel, writing for Eye for Film, felt that "the heavy symbolism overwhelms the storytelling."[5]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 89% approval rating, based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.[5] On Metacritic, the film was given a score of 76 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[6]
Wins
Nominations
Films directed by Roy Andersson | |
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Feature films |
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Other films |
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Swedish submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film | |
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1956–1975 |
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1976–2000 |
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2001–present |
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