One critic described this film as being "Slapstick Ingmar Bergman"; it's a great joke, and in many ways a true one. I've never seen a movie like this before, and I haven't laughed so hard at one in years. Every single scene has something off-beat or funny happening in it, so that you may want to see it more than once. (I watched it twice in one day!) The best bit occurs when the businesspeople decide on a rash course of action to save the faltering economy. I won't spoil it for you but trust me, it's one of the blackest comic moments in all of film. Don't miss it!
115 Reviews
Sweedish Opera
monk_venkman30 April 2004
Songs From The Second Floor has been described as a poem put to film, but after viewing this emotional work of art, I can't help but to feel that a Swedish Opera put to film is a more accurate description.
Directed and written by Roy Anderson, Songs From The Second Floor is a visual and emotional masterpiece. Showing Swedish and to a greater extent all of society, through grey colored glasses.
The cast primarily consists of non actors who made an impression on Roy upon him seeing them in everyday life. All of whom make similar impressions on us the viewers upon seeing them in this film.
Kalle (Lars Nordh) is the heart and star of this movie. It's through his story (one of several) that we fully experience this Swedish Opera. The pain, sadness, guilt, and hopelessness of Songs From The Second Floor, can be felt in every slow moving moment of his life.
Religion, love, poverty, and poetry are all common themes throughout this film. Giving it an identity all of it's own. You could watch a hundred films with similar descriptions, and still consider Songs From The Second Floor the strangest and most original film you've ever seen......Highly recommended for those who liked Northfork and Russian Ark.
Directed and written by Roy Anderson, Songs From The Second Floor is a visual and emotional masterpiece. Showing Swedish and to a greater extent all of society, through grey colored glasses.
The cast primarily consists of non actors who made an impression on Roy upon him seeing them in everyday life. All of whom make similar impressions on us the viewers upon seeing them in this film.
Kalle (Lars Nordh) is the heart and star of this movie. It's through his story (one of several) that we fully experience this Swedish Opera. The pain, sadness, guilt, and hopelessness of Songs From The Second Floor, can be felt in every slow moving moment of his life.
Religion, love, poverty, and poetry are all common themes throughout this film. Giving it an identity all of it's own. You could watch a hundred films with similar descriptions, and still consider Songs From The Second Floor the strangest and most original film you've ever seen......Highly recommended for those who liked Northfork and Russian Ark.
Very well made but depressing allegorical satire.
taikman28 April 2002
This film won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award in 2000, and it is indeed very well made. But damn, it's not what you'd want to take someone to on a date. Unless they have odd tastes.
Songs is a kind of allegorical black comedy about capitalism and the brutalising effects of modern society. The cast is mainly depressed middle-aged men in bad suits and there are multiple storylines and little scenes that all add up to one big condemnation of the Western world: a man who hasn't missed a day in 14 years and decides to go to work rather than have sex with his wife, then gets fired. A poet/taxi driver driven insane by the misery around him. His father, who burnt down his store for the insurance and spends most of the film covered in soot. You get the picture.
The film is full of powerful symbols, like a heap of cheap plastic Christs being thrown onto a rubbish heap, or the eternal traffic jam, and moments of absurdity that made me laugh out loud, such as when the Swedish high command gather to honour a retired commander who is so senile his bedpan gets emptied while they give him a speech. But the even the humour is bleak - there isn't a single happy moment in this film. Frankly I didn't buy it. Life may sometimes be dull, bad things do happen to good people, capitalism can suck, but it just isn't that awful. Forgive me for getting lyrical, but life is too full of hope and friendship and beauty to get sucked down in to this grey, dreary view of the world.
RATING: 7/10
Songs is a kind of allegorical black comedy about capitalism and the brutalising effects of modern society. The cast is mainly depressed middle-aged men in bad suits and there are multiple storylines and little scenes that all add up to one big condemnation of the Western world: a man who hasn't missed a day in 14 years and decides to go to work rather than have sex with his wife, then gets fired. A poet/taxi driver driven insane by the misery around him. His father, who burnt down his store for the insurance and spends most of the film covered in soot. You get the picture.
The film is full of powerful symbols, like a heap of cheap plastic Christs being thrown onto a rubbish heap, or the eternal traffic jam, and moments of absurdity that made me laugh out loud, such as when the Swedish high command gather to honour a retired commander who is so senile his bedpan gets emptied while they give him a speech. But the even the humour is bleak - there isn't a single happy moment in this film. Frankly I didn't buy it. Life may sometimes be dull, bad things do happen to good people, capitalism can suck, but it just isn't that awful. Forgive me for getting lyrical, but life is too full of hope and friendship and beauty to get sucked down in to this grey, dreary view of the world.
RATING: 7/10
a modernist masterpiece
the red duchess15 March 2001
Warning: Spoilers
One of capitalism's favourite pretences, especially when making bogeymen of alternative ideologies, is that is is natural, the obvious orientation for any society, the inevitable result of progress, while all other systems are theoretical, foreign, applied. 'Songs from the Second floor', which could be subtitled 'Fall of the Western Empire', takes this assumption literally , and makes late capitalism the natural environment in which its drama plays itself out.
The ethics of capitalism are figured in architecture, in the way people compartmentalise and miniaturise their lives, the way they treat other humans, the mechanical way they move. The film's look is updated Kafka - the nightmarish bureaucracy, the endless corridors, where the individual is arbitrarily humiliated, furtively watched by a frightened audience behind adjacent doors. The recurrent motif of the film, besides the endless triangles, is of frames - there is not a single composition that doesn't give onto other frames: windows, doorways, corridors, elevators, streets, etc. - like a kaleidoscope, the mere switching on of a light can radically reconfigure these spatial arrangements. This might seem to open up a very claustrophobic world, suggesting another world beyond the rigid frame we watch; rather, it creates a hall of mirrors effect, one world reflecting itself, in a whole city, society, culture - a never-ending repetition of the same lifeless tableaux that comprise this way of life; a prison literalised in the infantilising case of the senile military commander.
Because this way of life is made to seem natural, feeding into the very buildings in, and gestures with, which people live, its collapse is not sparked by an external force, but results in an implosion of the environment, buildings toppling, the ground tilting like a sinking ship, the body, mind and society breaking down, a whole world grinding towards sterility and inertia.
This is where Andersson's career as the 'world's greatest advertising director' (dit Bergman) comes in. Normally a career in advertising results in films of glossy shallowness. Andersson takes a theme of Fellinian decadence - think 'Satyricon', 'Casanova', 'Ship of Fools' - where a sophisticated society begins to decline, where immutable buildings begin to crumble, crowd hysteria is let loose, where public rites frame primitive barbarism (the sacrifice of young girls to appease the pagan gods) are all filmed like an Ikea advertisement, full of antiseptic sheen.
The film could be described as 'The FAst Show' directed by Bunuel. The narrative consists of connected, but self-contained vignettes or sketches with a recurring set of characters. Most of them would be simply funny jokes in a TV show - the magician who really saws a volunteer's chest etc. All have the concentrated brevity of an advert, all the visual imagination and surprise necessary to capture the viewer's attention. But what the film is advertising is the decline of a soulless consumer society, a society where the minimalist surroundings reflect minimalist humanity, where human relationships (especially in families) are grotesquely alienated.
Despite its post-modern sheen, the film's source are very - gloriously old-fashioned modernist or classic auteurist - Fellini (especially the scene at the airport, where the escapees are bogged down by bulging luggage), Dreyer (the sensitive poet gone mad because of his society); Godard (the apocalyptic traffic jam and barbaric bourgeois behaviour); Antonioni. BUt the presiding spirit is Bunuel, with the 'Milky Way'/'Phantom of Liberty'-like surrealist picaresque narrative, full of bourgeois-baiting and random violence; the 'Exterminating Angel' scene where the civic and clerical worthies are paralysed in the hotel, frothing like distempered dogs; the perverse anti-clericism that convincingly creates a vision of hell climaxing in an ambiguous scene of resurrection (the crouching crowd in the fields) and despair (the rubbish heap of crucifixes).
What Andersson truly shares with Bunuel, however, is a skewed comedy, never letting the Big Themes get in the way of the rich detail - the wonderful scene with the tramp, rats and ex-girlfriend especially. For all its alienated style and dehumanisation, 'Songs', like Bunuel, is devastatingly, humanly angry, and somehow very moving. the meticulous smoothness of the filming actually creates an oppressive violence in the viewer, a desire to smash the whole glasshouse down.
The ethics of capitalism are figured in architecture, in the way people compartmentalise and miniaturise their lives, the way they treat other humans, the mechanical way they move. The film's look is updated Kafka - the nightmarish bureaucracy, the endless corridors, where the individual is arbitrarily humiliated, furtively watched by a frightened audience behind adjacent doors. The recurrent motif of the film, besides the endless triangles, is of frames - there is not a single composition that doesn't give onto other frames: windows, doorways, corridors, elevators, streets, etc. - like a kaleidoscope, the mere switching on of a light can radically reconfigure these spatial arrangements. This might seem to open up a very claustrophobic world, suggesting another world beyond the rigid frame we watch; rather, it creates a hall of mirrors effect, one world reflecting itself, in a whole city, society, culture - a never-ending repetition of the same lifeless tableaux that comprise this way of life; a prison literalised in the infantilising case of the senile military commander.
Because this way of life is made to seem natural, feeding into the very buildings in, and gestures with, which people live, its collapse is not sparked by an external force, but results in an implosion of the environment, buildings toppling, the ground tilting like a sinking ship, the body, mind and society breaking down, a whole world grinding towards sterility and inertia.
This is where Andersson's career as the 'world's greatest advertising director' (dit Bergman) comes in. Normally a career in advertising results in films of glossy shallowness. Andersson takes a theme of Fellinian decadence - think 'Satyricon', 'Casanova', 'Ship of Fools' - where a sophisticated society begins to decline, where immutable buildings begin to crumble, crowd hysteria is let loose, where public rites frame primitive barbarism (the sacrifice of young girls to appease the pagan gods) are all filmed like an Ikea advertisement, full of antiseptic sheen.
The film could be described as 'The FAst Show' directed by Bunuel. The narrative consists of connected, but self-contained vignettes or sketches with a recurring set of characters. Most of them would be simply funny jokes in a TV show - the magician who really saws a volunteer's chest etc. All have the concentrated brevity of an advert, all the visual imagination and surprise necessary to capture the viewer's attention. But what the film is advertising is the decline of a soulless consumer society, a society where the minimalist surroundings reflect minimalist humanity, where human relationships (especially in families) are grotesquely alienated.
Despite its post-modern sheen, the film's source are very - gloriously old-fashioned modernist or classic auteurist - Fellini (especially the scene at the airport, where the escapees are bogged down by bulging luggage), Dreyer (the sensitive poet gone mad because of his society); Godard (the apocalyptic traffic jam and barbaric bourgeois behaviour); Antonioni. BUt the presiding spirit is Bunuel, with the 'Milky Way'/'Phantom of Liberty'-like surrealist picaresque narrative, full of bourgeois-baiting and random violence; the 'Exterminating Angel' scene where the civic and clerical worthies are paralysed in the hotel, frothing like distempered dogs; the perverse anti-clericism that convincingly creates a vision of hell climaxing in an ambiguous scene of resurrection (the crouching crowd in the fields) and despair (the rubbish heap of crucifixes).
What Andersson truly shares with Bunuel, however, is a skewed comedy, never letting the Big Themes get in the way of the rich detail - the wonderful scene with the tramp, rats and ex-girlfriend especially. For all its alienated style and dehumanisation, 'Songs', like Bunuel, is devastatingly, humanly angry, and somehow very moving. the meticulous smoothness of the filming actually creates an oppressive violence in the viewer, a desire to smash the whole glasshouse down.
Bizarre and brilliant
Beast-53 February 2005
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR is honestly one of the best films I have seen so far in my years of cinematic appreciation. Alice, below, nailed it in her analysis, and there's little I can add that would be useful. I also agree with the critics who compared it to what would happen if Monty Python set their sights on Bergman. The film is both a character study and a meditation on humanity, filled with transcendent moments of beauty that left me completely stunned. It is also a biting satire of corporate greed and its effects on society, and the search for hope in a dying, empty world filled with people who've basically given up. SONGS is a great film that everybody should see.
Plotless director
magda_butra18 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR is the most incisive of Andersson's films. Every theme that we see in his later productions started here on a high note. In contrast to You, the Living and Pigeon. Here you might notice the plot, which evolves around furniture salesman Kalle (Lars Nordh) - even if you could see plot in movies reviewed above, I don't think it mattered there, but here one person is clearly in the spotlight. Two technical components are kept throughout all trilogy: scenes with no cut, directed from one angle and the silence.
When it comes to themes, present in Andersson's movies, religion and Nazism, here they are extremely exposed. With the former I even had a feeling like the director was referring to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal through the figure of flagellants. At the same time he feels perfectly fine with mocking the religion but not as a philosophy or ideology, but it's symbols or people associated with it. So a priest, to which Kalle comes, seeking some sort of council, responds like an entrepreneur. So selling figures with Christ on a cross is a great business. People gather around a former general to celebrate his 100th birthday and he, perceiving this as an elevated moment, wants to send greetings to Göring and does heil Hitler.
Roy allowed himself to be bigger. He uses monumental frames and engages enormous amount of people. Neither of this is seen in the other two movies, where scenes are mostly from shot from a flat with couple of characters. Emotions grew with the size of the scenery and the crowd. Not like in You, the Living and the Pigeon here anger and despair are shown, not just articulated. I'm not judging whether is better or worse approach - although seeing all the emotions phlegmatic and stable shocked me more than all the expressions and outbursts.
This is the weakest Andersson's movie in terms of interpretation possibilities. Scenes have either very clear message (an airport with bunch of people, dragging a pile of luggage is a criticism towards consumptions, people present there want to leave Sweden permanently and it's obvious, still they inform the viewers about that) or characters present directly their thoughts on life (life is a market; we cannot decide on our jobs, on anything, everything is controlled by fate). Andersson shows Kalle's compunction through conversations with a deadman and we don't have to guess that he did something to rush his descent.
When it comes to themes, present in Andersson's movies, religion and Nazism, here they are extremely exposed. With the former I even had a feeling like the director was referring to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal through the figure of flagellants. At the same time he feels perfectly fine with mocking the religion but not as a philosophy or ideology, but it's symbols or people associated with it. So a priest, to which Kalle comes, seeking some sort of council, responds like an entrepreneur. So selling figures with Christ on a cross is a great business. People gather around a former general to celebrate his 100th birthday and he, perceiving this as an elevated moment, wants to send greetings to Göring and does heil Hitler.
Roy allowed himself to be bigger. He uses monumental frames and engages enormous amount of people. Neither of this is seen in the other two movies, where scenes are mostly from shot from a flat with couple of characters. Emotions grew with the size of the scenery and the crowd. Not like in You, the Living and the Pigeon here anger and despair are shown, not just articulated. I'm not judging whether is better or worse approach - although seeing all the emotions phlegmatic and stable shocked me more than all the expressions and outbursts.
This is the weakest Andersson's movie in terms of interpretation possibilities. Scenes have either very clear message (an airport with bunch of people, dragging a pile of luggage is a criticism towards consumptions, people present there want to leave Sweden permanently and it's obvious, still they inform the viewers about that) or characters present directly their thoughts on life (life is a market; we cannot decide on our jobs, on anything, everything is controlled by fate). Andersson shows Kalle's compunction through conversations with a deadman and we don't have to guess that he did something to rush his descent.
wonderful and touching movie about the misery of human life
jozsefbiro8 January 2002
This film makes you probably sad and depressed, but it is a wonderful and touching movie about the misery of human life: the ultimate loneliness and hopelessness, which we do not like to think of, but have to face. As the film is based on poetry (by the to me unknown Cesar Vallejo), it does not have a straightforward story. Rather, it is a collection of scenes that all move you at an emotional level, as you see the vulnerability of all the people. The film is moving from reality towards surrealism, although you could see the strong surrealistic pictures as the real and hidden nature of our society, which fails to offer any help to these eternal problems. I should probably go to see this movie again so that I could grasp more from its symbolism, enjoy its excellent and unique film-making, and last but not least to feel it again. This film does not give you hope, but perhaps it makes you more sympathetic to other people, let them be alcoholics, immigrants, old, stupid, mentally ill or just simple "boring philistines".
Surrealism for realists?
bastard_wisher28 January 2006
The reason this films works as well as it does is because each of it's outlandish, completely surreal scenarios is presented in such a straight-forward, almost deadpan way. What could have been, in other hands, something along the lines of an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, instead comes across like a series of Monty Python sketches filtered through the minimalistic sensibilities of filmmakers like Ulrich Seidl and Tsai Ming-Liang. As a result, the film (thankfully, in my opinion) plays less like an absurdist farce and more like a particularly strange very black comedy. Although I am generally not a fan of films with such an obviously meticulous, very "designed" production design (being a fan of a more spontaneous, natural approach myself), this managed to pull it off chiefly by being just so damn funny. I don't usually look to European films for their humor (being that subtitles rarely translate comedy effectively anyway), but nonetheless this is undoubtedly one of the funniest European films I have seen. In truth, there is very little to the film besides it's parade of eye-catching set pieces (the fairly frequent dialogue comes across mainly as pretentious and is never particularly engaging, although very easy to ignore, and "character" is almost an irrelevant concept in a film like this), so it's a good thing that just about every single one of them work brilliantly.
A breathtaking masterpiece
emma-ekstrom26 May 2003
I would just like to say that, those who don´t like this movie must have a heart of stone and a mind that´s so blocked that you can´t see the connections to our society and the ways of man. Our loneliness, our longing for love, our inability to communicate. This film broke my heart, but at the same time it was a wholesome experience, and I was glued to the screen for as long as it lasted. I will never forget the pictures from this film, they still linger inside of me. It´s just so beautiful.
I recommend everyone to see this film! If you´re prepared for an inner journey.(And I know that some people are afraid of this kind of "deep" stuff)Not if you just want entertainment for the moment. If you want to see an action-loaded flick or a nice love comedy instead, fine, do so. But I say: If you´ll only see one and only one more film in your life, see this one!
I recommend everyone to see this film! If you´re prepared for an inner journey.(And I know that some people are afraid of this kind of "deep" stuff)Not if you just want entertainment for the moment. If you want to see an action-loaded flick or a nice love comedy instead, fine, do so. But I say: If you´ll only see one and only one more film in your life, see this one!
If you loved Fassbinder and Herzog....
Pidgey116 January 2005
I was instantly bought back to the early eighties. Sitting in large cold theaters with about 9 other people, watching German films that seemed endless, stupid, amazing and hysterical simultaneously.. And that, is very hard to replicate, but Music From the Second Floor seems to pull it off. Oh, and throw a little Nordic tinged Monty Python in too. This is not an easy movie to watch it takes some effort and perseverance. Yet that has been what is lacking, and is one of the problems with most popular film over the last twenty years . Music from the Second Floor is gritty and gray, and you have to be present while you are watching it. No daydreaming or internal conversations that may distract you from the full on experience. So, if you were one of the other nine watching all of Berlin Alexanderplatz in a two day sitting, this one's for you.
Postmodern society uncovered
dan-2876 November 2003
"Songs from the Second Floor" is the ultimate film about the postmodern society. It shows uniform people, caught in the treadmill. Everyone gets stuck: in traffic jams, in drawers or in their beds, all symbolizing the inability to do something about their situation. We are all in the hands of the institutions and the global market powers. This is a world where the old generation sacrifice their young and where you cannot invite everyone to your birthday party (because then each guest would only get a small crumb, and that wouldn't be fun, would it?). The main character turns to the institutions for answers, but the church cannot help him, nor can the university or the clueless government. The only sane person in this movie has been put in a mental institution, because of his ability to write poems and to sit down, not participating in creating the constant traffic jams in the city without name (the city representing the postmodern world).
The film also has a religious theme. It pictures Jesus as a man without any gift for business, a loser who was crucified because of his kindness. Jesus didn't profit on other people, and therefore he has no place in postmodern culture. We have cast away all that is good so that our meaningless lives in the treadmill won't be challenged.
This film is really about sitting down, about rethinking your way of life before it's too late. It urges you to discover values other than making profits or being the soulless slave of the postmodern society. I think it's a masterpiece!
And I almost forgot: the film's got excellent acting and photo as well. This is the best Swedish movie since... Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" I guess.
The film also has a religious theme. It pictures Jesus as a man without any gift for business, a loser who was crucified because of his kindness. Jesus didn't profit on other people, and therefore he has no place in postmodern culture. We have cast away all that is good so that our meaningless lives in the treadmill won't be challenged.
This film is really about sitting down, about rethinking your way of life before it's too late. It urges you to discover values other than making profits or being the soulless slave of the postmodern society. I think it's a masterpiece!
And I almost forgot: the film's got excellent acting and photo as well. This is the best Swedish movie since... Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" I guess.
Watching a Piece of ART
S_man285 April 2003
Songs from the second floor is a piece of art. Very weird movie
that makes human life look sad. Makes Religion look stupid and
Fiction. They kill a girl for god thinking it would improve the place
they live in. They try to sell Jesus crosses to make money thinking
god is answer to there problems. These human lie, they cheat,
and steal the heart of sad human beings. Sometime this movie is
hard to watch and shows that human life sucks. You work so hard
just to put a little food on table and then you get old, like the old
person in the cage thats 100 and rich. This place is a surreal
world that tells the truth about how human beings are greedy with
a Artistic touch that makes it ART.
that makes human life look sad. Makes Religion look stupid and
Fiction. They kill a girl for god thinking it would improve the place
they live in. They try to sell Jesus crosses to make money thinking
god is answer to there problems. These human lie, they cheat,
and steal the heart of sad human beings. Sometime this movie is
hard to watch and shows that human life sucks. You work so hard
just to put a little food on table and then you get old, like the old
person in the cage thats 100 and rich. This place is a surreal
world that tells the truth about how human beings are greedy with
a Artistic touch that makes it ART.
One word: repetition, repetition, repetition.
rooprect29 August 2006
OVERALL: It's not really a 2/10. I'm just being exceptionally brutal because this film had so much potential, but it lost itself in a swamp of modernist absurdism which doesn't have a point. This is yet another film where the director chooses style over substance. The result is two hrs of gimmicky schlock which will intrigue the film school teachers, but those of us who are looking for a fulfilling literary experience (poetry, plot, theme, etc) will be highly disappointed.
SCRIPT: There are basically 10 lines of dialogue which are repeated a dozen times each. Count how many times someone says, "Beloved is the man who sits down." Literally about 12. Well, that's one Swedish phrase that's been etched into my brain for no good reason. Honestly I haven't heard so much repetition since the last time I sang "99 bottle of beer on the wall" round the campfire.
VISUALS: The entire film has a very drab, bleached white appearance which makes you want to smack the side of your VCR a few times. Yes, this is just another gimmick which is initially novel, but it gets old after 45 minutes of the same thing. Also, each scene was filmed entirely in one shot. Usually I consider that to be a huge plus (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope", Bela Tarr's "Werckmeister Harmoniak"). But in this case it was too obvious and excruciatingly dull. "Rope" and "Werckmeister" worked well with the continuous shot because the camera was dynamic and fluid, much like the human eye. But in this film the camera only moves once in the entire picture, so there are no dynamics at all. Combine this with the aforementioned bleached-white lack of contrast and shadow, and the result makes you feel like you're a security guard watching a video monitor at the mall. For 2 hours.
MUSIC: To all you ABBA fans, don't get your hopes up. It's true that Benny did the soundtrack for this film, but that only consists of about 4 chords and 12 notes played on a cheap synthesizer. It ain't no "Dancing Queen" that's for sure.
HUMOUR: This movie is so thick with situational sarcasm that I couldn't tell where the gags were. In that sense it is indeed like Monty Python (which others have pointed out), but--make no mistake!--this refers to the mood only. There are no funny lines in this film. So just imagine watching a Monty Python flick with the sound turned down, and there you have it. Not exactly a laugh riot anymore, is it?
HIGHLIGHTS: So what's left to like about it? I'll tell you what: it's just plain different. It's so different that it managed to hold my attention all the way through, as I was hoping that there would be some sort of payoff. In that sense, it may be refreshing to some of you. If you've been gorging yourself on Hollywood action flicks, this might be just what you need to cleanse the palate (just remember to spit it out afterward as wine connaisseurs do!). Doubtlessly, that is why Cannes showered it with awards--it's not good; it's just plain different.
But don't get me started on Cannes.
The sets are nice--very grand and oppressive like in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil". I should also add that that the final scene is somewhat impressive (visually), so if you do make the mistake of renting this film, don't chuck it out the window without fast forwarding to the end.
MY RATING: I would give this a 1/10, but that rating is generally reserved only for films with animal cruelty in them. Aside from a few gawd-awful nude scenes with old pasty fat people, there isn't anything personally offensive. So I'll give this film a 2.
SCRIPT: There are basically 10 lines of dialogue which are repeated a dozen times each. Count how many times someone says, "Beloved is the man who sits down." Literally about 12. Well, that's one Swedish phrase that's been etched into my brain for no good reason. Honestly I haven't heard so much repetition since the last time I sang "99 bottle of beer on the wall" round the campfire.
VISUALS: The entire film has a very drab, bleached white appearance which makes you want to smack the side of your VCR a few times. Yes, this is just another gimmick which is initially novel, but it gets old after 45 minutes of the same thing. Also, each scene was filmed entirely in one shot. Usually I consider that to be a huge plus (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope", Bela Tarr's "Werckmeister Harmoniak"). But in this case it was too obvious and excruciatingly dull. "Rope" and "Werckmeister" worked well with the continuous shot because the camera was dynamic and fluid, much like the human eye. But in this film the camera only moves once in the entire picture, so there are no dynamics at all. Combine this with the aforementioned bleached-white lack of contrast and shadow, and the result makes you feel like you're a security guard watching a video monitor at the mall. For 2 hours.
MUSIC: To all you ABBA fans, don't get your hopes up. It's true that Benny did the soundtrack for this film, but that only consists of about 4 chords and 12 notes played on a cheap synthesizer. It ain't no "Dancing Queen" that's for sure.
HUMOUR: This movie is so thick with situational sarcasm that I couldn't tell where the gags were. In that sense it is indeed like Monty Python (which others have pointed out), but--make no mistake!--this refers to the mood only. There are no funny lines in this film. So just imagine watching a Monty Python flick with the sound turned down, and there you have it. Not exactly a laugh riot anymore, is it?
HIGHLIGHTS: So what's left to like about it? I'll tell you what: it's just plain different. It's so different that it managed to hold my attention all the way through, as I was hoping that there would be some sort of payoff. In that sense, it may be refreshing to some of you. If you've been gorging yourself on Hollywood action flicks, this might be just what you need to cleanse the palate (just remember to spit it out afterward as wine connaisseurs do!). Doubtlessly, that is why Cannes showered it with awards--it's not good; it's just plain different.
But don't get me started on Cannes.
The sets are nice--very grand and oppressive like in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil". I should also add that that the final scene is somewhat impressive (visually), so if you do make the mistake of renting this film, don't chuck it out the window without fast forwarding to the end.
MY RATING: I would give this a 1/10, but that rating is generally reserved only for films with animal cruelty in them. Aside from a few gawd-awful nude scenes with old pasty fat people, there isn't anything personally offensive. So I'll give this film a 2.
an extraordinary examination of a society not so far away
axel-3228 February 2001
I have only seen this movie once and that is certainly not enough. The pictures contain more than our perception can handle. The general impression of the film is however, that Roy Andersson has performed a splendid diagnosis of our society, a society whose individuals no longer communicate, no longer interact. He shows us the result of a system that proclaims egoism and neglect. The message is clear: Only together, people can find a way to endure the tragedy of life, only together, we can enjoy the small fragments of happiness that life offers.
I encourage all non-Swedish people to see this film, 99,84% of the world population is not Swedish. This movie concerns all of you.
I encourage all non-Swedish people to see this film, 99,84% of the world population is not Swedish. This movie concerns all of you.
Never seen anything like it
Camoo21 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
One of the rare contemporary films that is fully deserving of the full ten out of ten! This is... is... I simply cannot describe it. Nobody makes films like this, and I wish more people would at least try to. On first viewing, I found myself having to adapt to a pace I am not used to in recent television-generation film-making; slow prolonged takes, all wide master shots (a single camera movement!), bizarre religious and political allegories reminiscent of Bergman and Tarkovsky... I've never compared a filmmaker with either of them, but I have to say those are who I was thinking of while I was watching this. The film is almost so surreal and contains so much dark comedy that I can't say that it is as touching or 'human' as either of their greatest films, but Andersson has crafted such a unique style that it's incomparable - and this statement sounds like a stretch but I am being completely sincere - with anything ever made. This will go down in history as one of the greatest films ever made. That is if history remembers him! This is the only one of his films widely available in the states, and I haven't met anyone who has seen it or has heard of him, I always seem to be the person introducing it to others. I think anyone with a remote interest in film or life itself would find this endlessly fascinating. He is so obscure and has made so few films, (plus he notoriously takes his sweet time to even get one off the ground), that it's not clear how many films he has left in him before he throws the towel in, seeing as the guys well over half a century old.... I'm not even going to bother with a synopsis here, I just finished watching it for the fortieth time, and I felt a compelling urge to praise it here!! Watch this now.
Pure Poetry
D-fens-66 November 2000
I don´t think you can have a "neutral" opinion about this movie. Either you hate it or, like me, love it. It´s like nothing else I´ve ever seen. Bizarre scenes in a futuristic, depressing environment, but not without warmth. Where are we heading? What takes to survive as a human being? I think everyone should think of which values that are rewarded in todays society.
This movie has been compared with a "poetry-evening", and to that I can only agree. One scene may appear strange (they are) but when you´ve seen the movie as a whole, you´re grateful to have shared this Roy Andersson creation.
This movie has been compared with a "poetry-evening", and to that I can only agree. One scene may appear strange (they are) but when you´ve seen the movie as a whole, you´re grateful to have shared this Roy Andersson creation.
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain14 December 2011
I loved some of the ideas presented here, but not so much the cold and empty execution. This is no fault of the film. It is just such a bizarre offering that its last concern is the audience. The film focuses on a bizarre city where time seems to have come to a halt. There are traffic jams, and people trying to get somewhere. However, very few seem to know where. One man is scared of the insurance men, after causing a fire, another has trouble with his stomach after an accident at a magic show. It's a film that requires you to sit and study, much like a poem. A lot of it is funny, such as the attention to detail. Seeing a parade of men in the background whipping each other is both unsettling but comical. It may have struck 10 years old, but a lot of the film has to do with accounts, brokers and businessmen. A repeated theme is the cost of business. This is still true, even more so today. Bizarre and interesting, but certainly a challenge.
Perfect.
david_nelander31 January 2003
This movie is stunningly beautiful. It seems like each scene has been thought over for decades to make it perfect. The movie itself contains a series of smaller scenes all resembling something, what it resembles you have to find out for yourself, much like Kafka's poems. The movie switches from realism to surrealism and is as I see it a reaction to the unpersonal modern day society. It is easily the best movie I have ever seen, and the movie that touched me the most too. Suits Europeans more then Americans in my opinion since Europeans have a more serious view on movies then Americans and because Europeans tend to be a bit brighter then Americans.
Technical a triumph but VERY VERY weird!!!!!
anton-615 October 2001
In Sweden most of the critics gave this film 5/5 and said that it was a Masterpiece.But I consider they were wrong!!!!
It´s a very strange film and some of the parts(there are 46 different scenes)are good,some of them just feels like Monthy Python but serious.Technical it´s a triumph and it was very expensive to make so it´s very beautiful.But some parts are just VERY weird.3/5
It´s a very strange film and some of the parts(there are 46 different scenes)are good,some of them just feels like Monthy Python but serious.Technical it´s a triumph and it was very expensive to make so it´s very beautiful.But some parts are just VERY weird.3/5
An impressive examination of alienation
djweaksauce27 August 2001
Warning: Spoilers
"Songs from the Second Floor" - the film's American title - is an incredible accomplishment. Its control in juxtaposing vast cityscapes and crowds with dimly-lit "quiet desperation" scenes is impressive. The film brings to mind the work of Kieslowski, Fellini, and (I'd even venture) Beat Takeshi - a world of flat surfaces, cold doorways, stone-faced mobs, and vast churches, train stations, and mental institutions that occasionally, and with great artistry, become the backdrop to scenes of hilarious deadpan humor or incredible humanity.
The biblical element is strong here, but, as with many great modern works (think Ulysses), biblical stories serve more of a narrative purpose than a moral one (mild spoilers ahead). The story centers loosely around a Job-like figure (he's covered with literal ashes in several scenes); a crucifix salesman goes for the millennial hard-sell (claiming champagne is already oversold); white-clad mental patients debate the character of Jesus. Despite the transgressive nature of some of these takes on Christianity, though, the movie is never sacrilegious simply for the sake of being so. Its take on the Crucifixion, which features a literal cast of thousands and is centered around a young girl, would have been incredibly disturbing in a lesser director's hands, but in this film it comes across with such an eerie reality that it's hard to recall the scene as anything but dream-like.
Finally, note the film's insistence, on all levels, upon the tyranny of repetition: travel outward (i.e. out of the city) is impossible, but a cab driver exhausts himself driving back and forth through the city; the dead refuse to stay buried; a poem by Cortazar reappears throughout the film; and humans, seemingly, are doomed to play out the same ancient rituals time and time again. Andersson seems to suggest, in scene after scene, that claustrophobia and agoraphobia, generally considered opposites, are essentially based on the same emotion: a visceral fear, shared by all humanity, of being utterly alone.
The biblical element is strong here, but, as with many great modern works (think Ulysses), biblical stories serve more of a narrative purpose than a moral one (mild spoilers ahead). The story centers loosely around a Job-like figure (he's covered with literal ashes in several scenes); a crucifix salesman goes for the millennial hard-sell (claiming champagne is already oversold); white-clad mental patients debate the character of Jesus. Despite the transgressive nature of some of these takes on Christianity, though, the movie is never sacrilegious simply for the sake of being so. Its take on the Crucifixion, which features a literal cast of thousands and is centered around a young girl, would have been incredibly disturbing in a lesser director's hands, but in this film it comes across with such an eerie reality that it's hard to recall the scene as anything but dream-like.
Finally, note the film's insistence, on all levels, upon the tyranny of repetition: travel outward (i.e. out of the city) is impossible, but a cab driver exhausts himself driving back and forth through the city; the dead refuse to stay buried; a poem by Cortazar reappears throughout the film; and humans, seemingly, are doomed to play out the same ancient rituals time and time again. Andersson seems to suggest, in scene after scene, that claustrophobia and agoraphobia, generally considered opposites, are essentially based on the same emotion: a visceral fear, shared by all humanity, of being utterly alone.
songs from the second floor
marmar-6978025 April 2020
Songs from the second floor was a very long watch to me which is weird since this film isnt so long but to me it felt like it lasted for three hours and i almost fall asleep while watching it,but that isnt immedietly a bad thing sometimes this kind of films are supposed to be like that and its story and long dragging can help movie in a lot of ways,it is true true that i found this film to be completly lifeless but it was supposed to be,right ? actors did a good job but characters were boring to me,dialogue wasnt nothing special but it worked for this movie,songs from the second floor was a hard watch and it will pull a lot of people out of it,but once in a while it is good to see something like this
Forceful, nightmarish & brilliant surreal cinema
Afracious7 August 2001
'Beloved be the one who sits down.' - Cesar Vallejo
This is an outstanding, surreal, nightmarish, apathetic, absurd, indelible, and at times, darkly amusing picture from Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. The film offers us a selection of chaotic, compelling and haunting still sequence shots (the camera doesn't move once throughout the entire film), each of them wonderfully presented in dull, lifeless colours and framed in stylish composition. Most of the people in the film seem to be disenchanted nomads, lost in a futile world. Their faces are very pale, as though they have been white-powdered to death. The film is affecting because it is stationary, yet it's conveying so much forceful emotion. It wants to move but it can't. It's stuck in a state of perpetual inertia, just like the constant gridlock of traffic that is strangling the city.
The film opens with a man talking to a man under a sun bed (we can only see his feet), who tells him, "Everything has its day. What's the point of staying where there's only misery? When that day comes I'll be long gone... and so should you!". Shortly after this we see the man who was in the opening scene firing one of his staff of thirty years service. The man hangs around his leg, pleading with him, and is dragged along while the boss tries to walk away (he's in a hurry has he's got a game of golf to play). The next sequence shows a man stabbed and beaten by a group of men in an unprovoked attack, whilst a line of people stood at a bus stop look on regardless. The next scene offers some dark humour. A magician attempts to cut a volunteer in half but it all goes terribly wrong. We then briefly see the the poor chap in hospital and later at home with his wife, groaning in agony.
The central figure of the film, though, is Kalle, the portly owner of a furniture shop. He sets his shop on fire to get the insurance money. The first time we see Kalle is on a tube train. The sequence is in slow motion and the other passengers on the train open their mouths in unison to classical music. Kalle is distraught and disillusioned with his world. "It's hard being human", he moans. One of his sons has, in Kalle's words, "Wrote poetry till he went nuts". His son now resides in a mental hospital. Kalle's other son is a taxi driver whose wife has left him. One scene has Kalle being questioned by two insurance investigators while a group of flagellants walk past his furniture shop in the road outside. Kalle is tormented by dead people following him, including his associate Sven who committed suicide, and a Russian boy hanged by the Nazis.
Other memorable scenes include one at an airport where a line of overloaded trolleys, piled high with towers of luggage, are all being attemptedly pushed by people (with great difficulty). A former general on his 100th birthday gives a Nazi salute to some military personnel who are visiting him in a rest home. A man tries to set up a business selling crucifixes but finds the business venture fails - "He's just a crucified loser", the man says. A young girl is blindfolded and pushed over a cliff in an act of sacrifice by a religious sect. A man's hand gets trapped in a train door. A man vomits on a bar while an inebriated woman clasps a stool, unable to find her feet. The film reminded me of Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty. It's a magnificent film that will linger in the mind of the spectator for quite some time. Unique surreal cinema.
This is an outstanding, surreal, nightmarish, apathetic, absurd, indelible, and at times, darkly amusing picture from Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. The film offers us a selection of chaotic, compelling and haunting still sequence shots (the camera doesn't move once throughout the entire film), each of them wonderfully presented in dull, lifeless colours and framed in stylish composition. Most of the people in the film seem to be disenchanted nomads, lost in a futile world. Their faces are very pale, as though they have been white-powdered to death. The film is affecting because it is stationary, yet it's conveying so much forceful emotion. It wants to move but it can't. It's stuck in a state of perpetual inertia, just like the constant gridlock of traffic that is strangling the city.
The film opens with a man talking to a man under a sun bed (we can only see his feet), who tells him, "Everything has its day. What's the point of staying where there's only misery? When that day comes I'll be long gone... and so should you!". Shortly after this we see the man who was in the opening scene firing one of his staff of thirty years service. The man hangs around his leg, pleading with him, and is dragged along while the boss tries to walk away (he's in a hurry has he's got a game of golf to play). The next sequence shows a man stabbed and beaten by a group of men in an unprovoked attack, whilst a line of people stood at a bus stop look on regardless. The next scene offers some dark humour. A magician attempts to cut a volunteer in half but it all goes terribly wrong. We then briefly see the the poor chap in hospital and later at home with his wife, groaning in agony.
The central figure of the film, though, is Kalle, the portly owner of a furniture shop. He sets his shop on fire to get the insurance money. The first time we see Kalle is on a tube train. The sequence is in slow motion and the other passengers on the train open their mouths in unison to classical music. Kalle is distraught and disillusioned with his world. "It's hard being human", he moans. One of his sons has, in Kalle's words, "Wrote poetry till he went nuts". His son now resides in a mental hospital. Kalle's other son is a taxi driver whose wife has left him. One scene has Kalle being questioned by two insurance investigators while a group of flagellants walk past his furniture shop in the road outside. Kalle is tormented by dead people following him, including his associate Sven who committed suicide, and a Russian boy hanged by the Nazis.
Other memorable scenes include one at an airport where a line of overloaded trolleys, piled high with towers of luggage, are all being attemptedly pushed by people (with great difficulty). A former general on his 100th birthday gives a Nazi salute to some military personnel who are visiting him in a rest home. A man tries to set up a business selling crucifixes but finds the business venture fails - "He's just a crucified loser", the man says. A young girl is blindfolded and pushed over a cliff in an act of sacrifice by a religious sect. A man's hand gets trapped in a train door. A man vomits on a bar while an inebriated woman clasps a stool, unable to find her feet. The film reminded me of Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty. It's a magnificent film that will linger in the mind of the spectator for quite some time. Unique surreal cinema.
an example of what human mind ponder in its extremes.
vromos-458-52049724 August 2012
some men wonder about ultimate meanings, and usually they are not found, other movies did that. some of them on a simpler scale_ like "the Seventh Seal"_ and some did it the hard way like this movie, here are symbols, some of them were simple to catch some were not as they were dug deep out of the memories and dreams of the artist, do we sacrifice our young ones to keep the elder as they are?, but are the elder comfortable with that?, do they live!!?, does any one who is ultimately good in our world always get accused and crucified?, do I have to live in an asylum if I'm a poet without a sense of trading?, do economists and old men with ties and ((experience)) actually understand a hick or is it all vomit?, do we have to carry all of our old trash with us no matter how heavy it is thinking that this is how we will get to the better moments?, funny!!, but happens!!, does it happen all the time?, in other words is this view universal or is it just a view out of the scope of one cinematographer?, very few will be able to decide.
Probably the worst piece of crap i have ever seen
Soyabun14 December 2007
I saw this movie at a theater in Stockholm, and i am really sorry, but when 1/3 of the audience starts booing and leaving the place in the middle of the movie, it wont go to the history as a fantastic film. The reason I saw it was off course the GREAT criticism it received by all the Swedish critics, the creme de la creme of movie lovers, as they say.
I, painfully, saw the whole movie, but since about 2 minutes into the movie I wanted to leave and so did almost everybody in the theater. I've talked to so called "smart" people about this movie, and they say that it has a deep meaning, about the everyday stress that drives people crazy, but all I really think is that this movie is totally crap. Do not see this movie. You will feel bad afterward. Roy Anderson makes fantastic commercial movies though =)
I, painfully, saw the whole movie, but since about 2 minutes into the movie I wanted to leave and so did almost everybody in the theater. I've talked to so called "smart" people about this movie, and they say that it has a deep meaning, about the everyday stress that drives people crazy, but all I really think is that this movie is totally crap. Do not see this movie. You will feel bad afterward. Roy Anderson makes fantastic commercial movies though =)
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