You, The Living
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - You, The Living
OR:
You, The Living on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

''You, the Living'' () is a 2007 Swedish
black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
comedy-drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, illness, betrayal, grief, etc. ...
written and directed by
Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedes, Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdism, absurdist humor and Melancholia, melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by ...
. The film is an exploration of the "grandeur of existence", centered on the lives of a group of individuals, such as an overweight woman, a disgruntled psychiatrist, a heartbroken groupie, a carpenter, a business consultant, and a school teacher with emotional problems and her rug-selling husband. The basis for the film is an
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
proverb, "Man is man's delight", taken from the ''
Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...
'' poem ''
Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ''Hávamál'',Unnormalised spelling in the Codex Regius:''Title'': hava mal''Final stanza'': Nv ero Hava mál q''ve''ðin Háva hꜹ''l''lo i ..classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of Hávi he H ...
''. The title comes from a stanza in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe">Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
's ''Roman Elegies'', which also appears as a title card in the beginning of the film: "Therefore rejoice, you, the living, in your lovely warm bed, until Lethe's cold wave wets your fleeing foot." The film consists of a fluent succession of fifty short sketches, most with a tragicomic undertone. The cast is mostly non-professional, and alienating techniques are employed such as presenting the characters in grim make-up and having them talk directly to camera. The financing was difficult and the shooting took three years to complete. The film won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Direction at the 2007
Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
and has received critical acclaim. The film also received the Georges Delerue Award for Best Soundtrack/Sound Design at
Film Fest Gent Film Fest Gent, also known as International Film Fest Gent, is an annual international film festival in Ghent, Belgium. The festival held its first edition in 1974, under the name Internationaal Filmgebeuren Gent, and has since grown into the la ...
in 2007. ''You, the Living'' was also Sweden's submission for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
at the
80th Academy Awards The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2007. The award ceremony took place on February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During t ...
, but it was not selected as a nominee. It is the second film in a trilogy, preceded by '' Songs from the Second Floor'' (2000) and followed by '' A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence'' (2014).


Plot summary

There is no plot, but some of the vignettes connect loosely. All the stories show the essential humanity of the characters and address themes of life, existence and happiness. The film makes repeated use of distinctive cinematic techniques. One of these is dreams and how they reflect the fears and desires of the characters. Another is the use of music, in conjunction with dialogues and editing, both as background music and as performed on camera. The film starts with a monologue which ends up being sung to
Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...
jazz music being played by lone musicians, each in a different room in a different part of the city. Stories in the film include: * A middle-aged woman (Elisabeth Helander) laments her misfortunes while being completely self-absorbed. Her boyfriend ( Jugge Nohall) tries to comfort her and invites her to dinner. The woman later rejects an admirer in a trenchcoat (Jan Wikbladh) who tries to give her a bouquet of flowers. * A carpenter (Leif Larsson) has a dream in which he is condemned and executed for breaking a 200-year-old china set while trying to perform the tablecloth trick. * A pickpocket (Waldemar Nowak) steals the wallet of a high roller (Gunnar Ivarsson) at an expensive restaurant before he has paid the bill. * A psychiatrist (Håkan Angser) has lost faith in people's ability to be happy because of their selfishness, and now only prescribes pills. * A business consultant (Olle Olson) gets his hair butchered by an angry barber (Kemal Sener) before attending a meeting where the CEO (Bengt C. W. Carlsson) dies of a stroke. * A sousaphone player (Björn Englund) earns money by playing in funerals, including that of the CEO. * A girl (Jessika Lundberg) finds her musical idol Micke Larsson ( Eric Bäckman) in a tavern. He invites her and her friend for a drink, but ditches her by giving her the wrong directions to his band rehearsal. A while later at the tavern, she tells the people at the bar of the dream she had about him. In the dream, they have just married, and their apartment building travels on a railway into a station where people cheer for the happy couple. * A husband and wife (Pär Fredriksson and Jessica Nilsson) have a fight and they both dwell on it, causing them to get into trouble at work. The film ends with a montage of characters who stop in the middle of everyday chores to look up into the sky. Dixieland music is once again played as the camera is put on the wing of an airplane. A large formation of
B-52 The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Ai ...
bombers appears in front of the camera as they fly menacingly in over a large city. This bookends with the opening scene where a man wakes up and tells the audience that he had a nightmare about bombers coming.


Production

From very early on there was trouble with the financing. Andersson had to make regular visits to a pawn shop and several times the team paused production to make commercials, using the proceeds for the film. After being refused funding from the
Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute () (SFI) is a statutory body located in Stockholm, Sweden that supports the Swedish film industry. Founded in 1963, the institute is responsible for administering the annual Guldbagge Awards, and for managing the Swed ...
, Roy Andersson accused the consultant of
nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...
after he instead gave the money to a film directed by his father-in-law.Dükler, Hannes (2007-08-29)
Roy Andersson Interview
(in Swedish). ''
Nöjesguiden ''Nöjesguiden'' (Swedish language, Swedish for "the entertainment guide") is a Nordic free-of-charge young adult monthly magazine, available in the major cities in Sweden, which was established in 1982. It is also published in a similar format ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-04-18. That film eventually ended up receiving poor reviews. Eventually, with eighteen organizations from six different countries involved in financing the production, the total budget amounted to slightly over five million euros.The progress with 'You, the Living'
." Royandersson.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-22 For the casting, Andersson or an assistant approached people on the street and asked them to participate. Amateurs were preferred to professionals because of the greater selection and the problem of asking renowned actors to take small parts.Cederskog, Georg (2007-09-23)
De förtrycktas försvarare
" (in Swedish). ''
Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-04-18. The exception was Bengt C.W. Carlsson, a professional actor, in the role of the CEO.Gustafsson, Annika (2007-09-15)
Roy Andersson släpper loss det oväntade
" (in Swedish). ''
Sydsvenskan ''Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten'', generally known simply as ''Sydsvenskan'' (, ), is a daily newspaper published in Scania in Sweden. History and profile ''Sydsvenskan'' was founded in 1870. In 1871 the paper merged with ''Snällposten'' ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-07-31. Actors from Andersson's previous feature films and commercials were also reused. Crew posing on the large city model used in the film's final shot. The film was shot in Roy Andersson's own studio in
Östermalm Östermalm (; "Eastern city-borough") is a 2.56 km2 large district in central Stockholm, Sweden. With 71,802 inhabitants, it is one of Sweden's most populous and exclusive districts. It is an extremely expensive area, having the highest ho ...
,
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
. The filming of the scenes took three years to finish. "It is not the shooting itself that takes time, but the work on creating the environments. We built almost all the sets in the studio, even those that took place outdoors. Most of the time we started from Roy's sketches," said Johan Carlsson, production manager. There is one single scene that wasn't shot in studio, featuring a bus shelter in heavy rain. It had to be shot outdoors because of the huge amount of running water. Nothing in the film was made with
computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
. The city seen from above in the final shot was a large model built solely for that scene. The colour scape was designed to have a minimum of contrast, which the director believed would create more intensity. Lighting was arranged to leave no shadows: "I want light where people can't hide in – light without mercy." Andersson is famous for his many takes of each scene, although this time he claimed it went smoother than usual: "max. 40–50 takes and sometimes under ten!"


Soundtrack

For the musical score, Roy Andersson originally approached former
ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...
member
Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamm ...
, who composed the theme for the director's previous film, '' Songs from the Second Floor''. Benny Andersson was however occupied with the '' Mamma Mia!'' film adaption, and declined. Some of Benny Andersson's music from ''Songs from the Second Floor'' was rearranged and used. Much of the music is played as
march music A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's ...
and traditional jazz. "I have played this type of music myself and thought it was about time it got featured in a film. Moreover, I am fascinated by the unsuspecting music that existed in the 1930s when Nazism emerged," Andersson explained in an interview. A melody featured on several occasions is "En liten vit kanin", in English "A Little White Rabbit", a song that was recorded by
Edvard Persson Carl Edvard Persson (17 January 1888, in ''Sankt Pauli'' parish, Malmö, Scania – 19 September 1957, in Helsingborg, Scania) was a celebrated Swedish actor, director and singer. During his time, he was well-known in the entire country, but thro ...
in the 1930s and became very popular in Sweden. Another song used is the religious "Jag har hört om en stad ovan molnen", literally "I Have Heard of a City above the Clouds", originally based on a Russian folk melody and often played at funerals in Sweden. This song was originally planned to be used during the ending sequence, but eventually Andersson decided to use a more energizing jazz tune instead: "I want the audience to leave the theater with a little more lust for opposition." Other songs include the German university song "O alte Burschenherrlichkeit" with Swedish lyrics by August Lindh, and the original song "Motorcykel", performed by Stockholm Classic Jazz Band and with lyrics by Roy Andersson.


Release

''You, the Living'' premiered at the
2007 Cannes Film Festival The 60th Cannes Film Festival was held from 16 to 27 May 2007. British filmmaker Stephen Frears served as jury president for the main competition. Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d'Or for the drama film ''4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 ...
, as part of the
Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
selection. It subsequently played at several other film festivals, including
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
on 7 September 2007 and
Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
on 8 October 2007, where Roy Andersson was awarded the Silver Hugo for Direction "for his extraordinary, quirky vision and humor."2007 Winners
.
Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
. Retrieved on 2009-04-15. On 21 September 2007, the film was released in Sweden. It was sold to fifty countries, including the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
where it was released on 28 March 2008. On 29 July 2009 it premiered in the United States, limited to
Film Forum The Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It is a four-screen cinema open 365 days a year, with up to 250,000 annual admissions, nearly 500 seats, 60 employees, over ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.Scott, A. O. (2009-07-29)
Life: Perplexing, Painful, Precious
" ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-08-04.


Reception


Critical response

The film was well received by Swedish critics, with an aggregate rating of 4.1 out of 5 based on 22 reviews at Kritiker.se, which made it by far the highest rated Swedish film of 2007. Carl-Johan Malmberg at ''
Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...
'' called Andersson "the black diamond of comedy in Swedish film life." Further, he compared the casting to
Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...
's 1948 film ''
Bicycle Thieves ''Bicycle Thieves'' (), also known as ''The Bicycle Thief'', is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which h ...
'', and the usage of the cast to "a fastidious
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
". The international response was also positive. The film holds a 98% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Composed of humorous sketches of human behavior, Roy Andersson's ''You, the Living'' is an eccentric but highly entertaining and unforgettable work." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...
at ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' gave it 4 out of 5 and called it "the work of a real original – I might almost say a genius. He is radically different from anyone else, with a technical, compositional rigour that puts other movie-makers and visual artists to shame. And he really is funny." In an early Cannes review for ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', Justin Chang was mainly positive although he still found that "a certain repetitiveness does eventually seep into the structure, and one could complain that the individual scenes don't ultimately build to anything (or that the arrangement of scenes is fairly arbitrary)." Mexican director
Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker primarily known for making modern psychological drama (film genre), psychological drama films about the human condition. His most notable films include ''Amores perros ...
listed the film in his top ten favorites for the 2022
Sight and Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...
poll.


Accolades

In addition to the awards and nominations, ''You, the Living'' was also Sweden's submission for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
at the
80th Academy Awards The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2007. The award ceremony took place on February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During t ...
, but it was not selected as a nominee.TT Spektra (2007-09-25)
'Du levande' svenskt Oscarsbidrag
(in Swedish). ''
Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-05-19.


See also

* List of submissions to the 80th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film * List of Swedish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film


References


External links


Official website
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:You, The Living 2007 films Swedish black comedy films Swedish independent films 2000s Swedish-language films Films directed by Roy Andersson Best Film Guldbagge Award winners Films whose director won the Best Director Guldbagge Award Georges Delerue Award winners Films scored by Benny Andersson 2000s Swedish films 2007 black comedy films 2007 independent films