Our take
We’ve seen anthology films with three, four, sometimes even five parts, but Songs from the Second Floor comprises forty six separate vignettes, quickly shifting in and out without any connecting thread inbetween, except for the dull gray color palette. Yet, even as the film abruptly transitions between vignettes, from tanning beds, construction sites, cars, trains, or buildings, writer-director Roy Andersson crafts meticulously framed breakdowns of modern day living, some of which works based on individual experiences, but all coming together as several miniature portraits of how absurd and depressing our lives have become. Songs from the Second Floor is a bold way to return after a twenty five year hiatus.
What it won
Cannes
1 win
The story
A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.
Through a series of forty six vignettes, quotes from Peruvian poet César Vallejo, and an unnamed gray city in modern day Sweden, everything goes wrong for the city’s inhabitants.
Everything?
I don’t even know what to say, guys. I just wanna stop contemplating today’s horrors.
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
