SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR
SANGER FRAN ANDRA VANINGEN



Sweden, 2000, 97 min, color

Songs from the Second Floor is completely unusual, with its non-linear structure and elaborate surrealist images. Rather than a conventional plot, the film progresses through a series of 46 discontinuous episodes, all taking place over a period of months in the new millennium. Andersson films without a script or shooting schedule, works from scene to scene supervising the smallest details (which often involve pre-computer special effects) and draws his actors from the street.

"One of the most highly crafted movies in recent memory, Songs From the Second Floor rapidly wears out its welcome after the first few reels to finish up as a perplexing objet d'art. Described by writer-director Roy Andersson as an "episodic, slice-of-life pastiche of modern urban society," the film is shot in deliberately toned-down, drab colors, with each scene a continuous take with a fixed camera, the film has the look of an abstract, slightly Kafkaesque Central Euro allegory, with Scandinavian precision and straight-faced wit."