"Giliap"

I remember how this film feels - vividly. I watched it at age 14 or 15 and was completely overwhelmed by it. Slowmoving, yes, magisterial, but brimming with sensibility and content. After being condemned to the periphery of the film industry after the commercial failure of 'Giliap', director Andersson had a belated and very much deserved international comeback with 'Songs from the Second Floor' and 'You the Living'.

Since then 'Giliap' is among a handful of films that I have been clamoring for on DVD, alongside Resnais' 'Providence', Stroheim's 'Greed', the original 'Island of Lost Souls' etc. etc. And alongside the great masterworks of Swedish director Bo Widerberg. So far, no luck ... Please, give us 'Giliap' on DVD, it remains - I sincerely believe - among the most magical of European films.

I was about 17 when I saw Giliap for the first time. Now I'm 41 years old and it have never left me. It's a poetic tale about dreams in a gray and joyless world. It's epic in a way you almost never see, a slow tempo and very carefully chosen pictures. Giliap is a forerunner for Roy Andersson's "Sånger från andra våningen (2000) If you like that, I recommend this one too.

The first thing that strikes you after watching this movie, is that you've wasted two hours of your precious time. This is because the plot is extremely slowly paced: I usually don't mind watching pictures where there's not a lot of action, but then I want content! There also seems to be no connection between the ending and the rest of the movie, something which ought to disturb most viewers. Taking all this into consideration, there's really no wonder that the revenues from this movie only covered about 1/20 of the budget!

Arriving at the dreary Busarewsky Hotel (the name, to Swedes, sounds both vaguely Central European and like a pun on 'busar', "goons") the young waiter Giliap soon finds himself in a maze of silent rules, gossip, violence and budding, pathetic revolt. But who can he trust? The film appears to be both absurd and over-the-top serious, and watching it you'll find yourself asking just where is it dead serious and where does satire or (self-)parody start? The slow tempo and long, brooding silences before sometimes outrageously weighted lines, the gloomy lighting and the sudden hysterical swings of the people in the film - all of this was certainly intended, but the purpose of the film is by no means clear, so the viewer has to decide for himself just what enemy Giliap is fighting or what he is searching.

If you've seen "Songs from the Second Floor" you'll recognize some of the style - the long, slow shots, the blunt, searching or unresponsive dialog lines, the dreary, somehow naked and unprotected facial expressions. This is the antithesis of "Beverly Hills 90210", but a very rewarding and sometimes weirdly funny movie experience.