You, the Living (Du levande), A Dryly Humorous, Surreal And Unforgettable Swedish Film Opens On SFFS Screen At Sundance Kabuki Cinemas September 25
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 17, 2009 under Film Festival, Foreign Film | 
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In You, the Living (Du levande, Sweden 2007, San Francisco International Film Festival 2008), opening Friday, September 25 on San Francisco Film Society Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Roy Andersson continues to display his unique take on humanity in this amalgamation of encounters and tableaux covering various facets of existence.
“According to the folks who study such things, Sweden is a perennial contender for the status of most depressed nation. So it’s the perfect setting for a pre-apocalyptic comedy about isolation, alienation and interdependence. You, the Living, Roy Andersson’s deadpan burlesque, disdains narrative convention and character development in favor of a series of elegantly composed, absurdly funny tangentially linked tableaux. A man awakens with a start as the soundtrack rumbles, spooked by a nightmare of bombers approaching. A grammar school teacher sobs in front of her students, stricken that her husband called her a hag. A woman on a park bench chases off her boyfriend with an angry cascade of self-pitying laments — then breaks into song. An aged psychiatrist bemoans the pointlessness and exhaustion of treating mean people. And in the upper reaches of an office building, the laconic Louisiana Brass Band rehearses propulsive New Orleans jazz. Alas, it has to narrow its repertoire when called on later to play a funeral. One may detect the faintest echoes of Beckett and Pinter, leavened with a pinch of Ionesco and Tati. The casting of nondescript nonprofessionals with profoundly ordinary demeanors and deliveries enhances the effect. Andersson, a genuine iconoclast, almost never moves the camera, pinpointing his characters within a fixed frame to emphasize how stuck they are. On a couple of occasions, someone intones semi-optimistically, ‘Tomorrow is another day.’ Ah, but what if tomorrow doesn’t come? Either way, Andersson suggests, it behooves us, the living, to show kindness, express our love and be joyful-today.” –Michael Fox
Written by Roy Andersson. Photographed by Gustav Danielsson. With Jessica Lundberg, Elisabet Helander, Björn Englund. In Swedish with English subtitles. 90 min. Distributed by Palisades Pictures.
Coming soon to SFFS Screen
September 4: The Beautiful Person Loosely based on a famous 17th-century French novel, Christophe Honoré’s new film tracks an ensemble of Parisian high school students as they navigate through the turbulent imbroglios of young love.
September 11: Tony Manero Set in 1978 Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, Pablo Larrain’s drama focuses on a man whose obsession with John Travolta’s character from Saturday Night Fever reflects the troubled state of Chilean society at that time.
September 18: The Headless Woman Lucrecia Martel, a major figure in contemporary Argentine cinema, directs this complex and exquisite film about a bourgeois woman who may have been involved in a hit-and-run accident.
October 2: Oblivion Heddy Honigman’s sharp, tender, funny stories of Peruvian waiters and bartenders reflecting on politics and governmental corruption are woven together in a documentary about pride and self-respect, glory long gone, love, art and politics.
October 9: The Wedding Song The Nazi occupation of Tunisia strains the bonds of friendship between a Muslim woman and a Sephardic Jewess who are both preparing for their marriages in Karin Albou’s second feature.
October 18: Birdwatchers Tensions escalate when a tribe of indigenous Guarani Indians attempts to re-inhabit their ancestral land — which lies on the border of a wealthy landowner’s fields — in Marco Bechis’s powerful critique of contemporary life in the Amazon.
October 23: The Vanished Empire Karen Shakhnazarov’s coming-of-age drama, set in the 1970s, profiles a group of young Russians dealing with love in turbulent times. The main character, a callous youth, can be seen to represent Russia at this turning point in her history.
For full, complete and up-to-date information on all SFFS Screen programming, including ticket purchasing, visit sffs.org. Information and tickets are also available at sundancecinemas.com.
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