Du levande (2007)

Director:

Roy Andersson

Writer:

Roy Andersson (writer)

Release Date:

21 September 2007 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Music

Plot:

You, the Living is a film about humankind, its greatness and its baseness, joy and sorrow, its self-confidence and anxiety, its desire to love and be loved. |

Plot Keywords:

Bathtub | Train | Loneliness | Absurdism | Song

Awards:

10 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jessika Lundberg	...	Anna
Elisabeth Helander	...	Mia (as Elisabet Helander)
Björn Englund	...	Tubaplayer
Leif Larsson	...	Carpenter
Olle Olson	...	Consultant (as Ollie Olson)
Birgitta Persson	...	Tubaspelarens fru
Kemal Sener	...	The barber
Håkan Angser	...	The psychiatrist
Rolf Engström	...	Trumslagaren
Gunnar Ivarsson	...	The buisnessman
Eric Bäckman	...	Micke Larsson
Patrik Anders Edgren	...	Professor (as Patrik Edgren)
Lennart Eriksson	...	Man on the balcony
Pär Fredriksson	...	The carpet dealer
Jessica Nilsson	...	The teacher
Jörgen Nohall	...	Uffe (as Jugge Nohall)
Waldemar Nowak	...	The pick-pocket
Jan Wikbladh	...	The fan (as Jan Wikblad)
Bengt C.W. Carlsson	...	CEO (as Bengt C W Carlsson)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fred Anderson	...	Guest at banquet

Directed by
Roy Andersson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Roy Andersson		writer

Produced by
Philippe Bober	....	co-producer
Håkon Øverås	....	co-producer
Pernilla Sandström	....	producer
Tom Winther	....	co-executive producer

Original Music by
Benny Andersson

Cinematography by
Gustav Danielsson

Film Editing by
Anna Märta Waern

Production Design by
Magnus Renfors
Elin Segerstedt

Art Department
Magne Pettersen	....	carpenter

Sound Department
Jan Alvemark	....	sound
Robert Hefter	....	sound recordist
Robert Sörling	....	sound

Special Effects by
Christian Niklasson	....	rain

Camera and Electrical Department
Fredrik Borg	....	first assistant camera
Christian Haag	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Magne Pettersen	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sofia Frykstam	....	costumer

Music Department
Johan Ahlin	....	music arranger
Robert Hefter	....	music editor
Robert Hefter	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Lena Hansson	....	film consultant: Swedish Film Institute (as Lena Hansson-Varhegyi)

Production Companies

• 4 1/2 Film (co-production)
• Canal+
• Det Danske Filminstitut
• Eurimages Council of Europe
• Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen
• Nordisk Film- & TV-Fond
• Norsk Filmfond
• Posthus Teatret
• Roy Andersson Filmproduktion AB
• Société Parisienne de Production
• Spillefilmkompaniet 4 1/2 (co-production)
• Studio 24
• StyleJam
• Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI)
• Sveriges Television (SVT)
• Thermidor Filmproduktion
• WDR/Arte
• arte France Cinéma

Distributors

• Filmes da Mostra (2009) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Look Now! (2007-2008) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Neue Visionen Filmverleih (2008) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Sponge (2008) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Zeta Films (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Gativideo (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Palisades Tartan (2009) (USA) (all media) (subtitled)
• Video Film Express (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• good movies! (2008) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

You, the Living (France) (festival title) (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Das jüngste Gewitter (Germany)
Du levende (Denmark)
Nous, les vivants (France)
Do ciebie, czlowieku (Poland) [pl]
Eseis oi zontanoi (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
La comedia de la vida (Argentina) [es]
Nous, les vivants (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Sinä elävä (Finland) [fi]
Teie, kes te elate (Estonia) [et]
Vocês, os Vivos (Brazil) [pt]

Runtime:

Argentina:95 min | Canada:95 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | USA:95 min

Country:

Sweden | Germany | France | Denmark | Norway | Japan

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Sweden:Btl | Finland:K-11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Japan:R-15 | Germany:6 | Singapore:R21 | Argentina:13 | South Korea:18 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

4 1/2 Film

Trivia:

Sweden's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

...and smash us all to bits!

I really didn't see this one coming. Roy Andersson had me pegged out, I am the perfect sucker for a static camera (long live King Borowczyk!) and I was laughing hysterically for the first fifteen minutes of the film, he hit me straight between the eyes. You have to be a brilliant man to make self-pity hilarious. Andersson reminds me of the third mate on the Pequod in Moby Dick, Flask, a man who took the whole of life to be a practical joke that the good lord Himself is playing on us. And the web of egotism in this movie is truly hilarious.

The level of satire is at fever pitch, you have one deluded self-pitying dreamer harp on about the cruelty of the world and then totally ignore a spiritual self-reflection crying out in agony. The very depths of egotism are plumbed. I really never thought it possible to go further than Bergman's "The Silence" in this respect. However the grotesqueness of the self-love and self-regard, by every single character in this film, is staggering. We are shown an existence where the talentless and the idle rail against a world they believe has been unjust towards them, they truly are legends in their own living rooms. The human beings in this film make self-deception and self-delusion a great artform!

Only one woman in the film appears to have any sort of understanding of what is going on. An old woman who refuses to leave a chapel, knelt down praying for the forgiveness of all mankind, her speech is the most electrifying condemnation of the modern world I have ever heard. She reveals through her prayers that what is wrong with the world is not to be fixed by mere tinkering, there are not a just a few faults, there is an abyss of corruption that can only be mended by immolation, and judgement day. Watching this movie puts me in the mind of a naked monk, stood waist deep in a cold river at midnight screaming out a thousand Kyrie eleisons for the sins of humanity. Another grand jape is that it is clear that her prayers are futile, and in fact she is stopping everyone going home at closing time.

This is not a film for the smug, no-one is spared, no idols are left on the altar, no one group of humans is harangued to the glory of another group. Never has there been a greater more transcendent more astonishingly beautiful summation of our sins. It is a film for the end of the world, it is the grand jest, the great hideous practical joke of human life!

From the catalogue of images it is too difficult to pick a favourite, I slapped my thigh and almost fell off my chair in the cinema, screaming with laughter as a man attempted to pull the tablecloth from under a set service. I won't spoil what happens, but the suspense builds up, and something truly unexpected occurs. It is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen in a cinema. I am quite reserved and I just couldn't control myself: that is the measure of the greatness of this film.

The shooting of "You, the Living" is impeccably formalist. We are shown the palette of an artist, dingy browns, yellows, greys, and sky blues set alive by the shock of luminous brass textures. There is never a tone out of place, it's like an hour and a half of symphonic Whistlerian colour-meld. The obsession that must have gone into putting that colour scheme in place is extraordinary. And no shot is wasted, as with all great movies, there is not a spare inch of celluloid.

Perhaps the best film I've ever seen.