Morose Scandinavian lyric farce-- regional specialty
A movie that induces jaw-drops and yawning within the same extended, unmoving shot, SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR leaves you plenty of time to think about what you're watching. You'll think about Swedish carpenters building one nearly identical set after another; you'll think about Edward Hopper's green-tinted interiors (a lot), and maybe about the late hilarious films of Luis Bunuel. I know nothing about director Andersson, but this film had some aspects of personal exorcism-- witness an extraordinarily exact recreation of Nazis executing two young Russian resistance fighters. This is not a film I want to watch again, but anyone seeing it projected adequately will carry a few of its images in memory for the rest of his life: my inadvertant selection includes a late shot of a gaping airport concourse that looks like some new kind of bourgeous Hell for corrupt executives.
- jwarthen-3
- Sep 6, 2002