Songs from the Second Floor

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.

Possibly incomprehensible to those who have never lived in Sweden, where whole hours somehow manage to lose themselves in a meditative calm that exists nowhere else. Songs from the Second Floor is truly Ingemar Bergman meets Monty Python, as Roy Andersson non too gently deflates the pretentious, the pompous and the self important. The sparse dialogue and hugely tongue-in-cheek solemnity will either offend the spectator to the point of rage, or scratch the itch that nothing else quite reaches. I adored it. Like raw oysters, broccoli or goat milk - you'll either connect with the Roy Andersson brand of iconoclastic insanity and love this one ... or you'll hate it with a passion. There'll be no fence-sitting with this Nordic treasure.

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!

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.

Of the 11 films I saw at this years Vancouver International Film Festival, this was one of the best. Definitely not a film for the masses, but if you're tired of seeing so-so hollywood formula and you and don't mind a shot of bizarre, then this is the film for you. I doubt it will come back for a commercial run, as it is not the kind of film the multiplex crowd would appreciate. If, however, like me, you are a fan of Terry Gilliam and don't mind a slower pace, there is much to recommend this film. Made up of a series of short vignettes, some related and some not, it weaves a story of apocalyptic chaos. A story some of us were expecting to happen Jan.1,2000.

The unmoving camera stares into the lives of a society on the brink. Maybe ours in the near future. A movie that will demand discussion afterwards.A bomb shelter in the blighted landscape of Californication.