Film Forum

“Like a cross between a ‘Where’s Waldo’ cartoon and a Gregory Crewdson photograph… A master class in comic timing.” – Peter Debruge, Variety. Acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson completes his trilogy (joining SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR and YOU, THE LIVING, both Film Forum premieres), with this meticulously crafted, dreamlike black comedy. Traveling novelty salesmen Sam and Jonathan (“a comedic duo who would be right at home in a Samuel Beckett or Tom Stoppard play” – Variety) take us on a kaleidoscopic tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy, unfolding in absurdist episodes: a sing-along at a 1940s beer hall, a randy flamenco teacher, a thirsty King Charles XII of Sweden en route to battle, and a diabolical metaphor for the horrors inflicted by European colonialism. With compositions inspired by the paintings of Otto Dix and Georg Scholz, Andersson underscores both the tragic and the trivial. Winner, Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival. 

SWEDEN • 2014 • 100 MINS. • IN SWEDISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES • MAGNOLIA PICTURES

Reviews

"Every stroke of Roy Andersson's cinema is a wonderful sonic canvas that reveals our fragile humanity. It has a unique pace, vision and imagination without losing the beauty of the realism that surrounds it."
– Alejandro González Iñárritu (director of BIRDMAN)

“THE WITTIEST, MOST ENGAGING BLACK COMEDY I’VE SEEN IN AGES. Impeccably crafted and visually arresting. At once dour and hilarious, deadpan and dead-serious, it might be that of Ingmar Bergman in prankster mode.”
– Tony Pipolo, Artforum.com

“IT’S CINEPHILE CHRISTMAS. It brings Roy Andersson into the company of Beckett and TS Eliot, and captures the awful, glorious absurdity of being a human.”
– Jessica Kiang, The Playlist

[5 out of 5 stars]
“GLORIOUS. What a bold, beguiling and utterly unclassifiable director Andersson is. He thinks life is a comedy and feels it’s a tragedy, and is able to wrestle these conflicting impulses into a gorgeous, deadpan deadlock.”
– Xan Brooks, The Guardian (UK)

“It's impossible to not to get some joy out of just gawking at his films.”
– A.A. Dowd, The Onion/AV Club

“A master class in comic timing.”
– Peter Debruge, Variety

[5 out of 5 stars]
“IT’S HEAVEN. You just have to watch it, then grab a net and try to coax your soul back down from the ceiling.”
– Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

[5 out of 5 stars]
“A comedy as weird and wonderful as its title. It exists in some surreal place where Ingmar Bergman meets The Office.”
– Kate Muir, The Times [UK]

“Andersson is in a class of his own.”
– Tim Grierson, Paste

“TRULY ASTOUNDING. Andersson is an artist to treasure.”
– Nicholas Barber, BBC.com

“A+.  A sort of Saturday Night Live of the soul.”
– Catherine Bray, HitFix