“I don’t believe you should leave a film feeling reconciled. Hollywood and business interests want that. You leave feeling good, reconciled. I’d like to see films that didn’t try to reconcile audiences. There is no such thing and it would soften the impact of the film. I want it to be harsh. You’re supposed to reflect on the issues.”
~ Roy Andersson, from the commentary of his film Songs from the Second Floor
“I’m not scared that I don’t have a finished script, because I can very quickly find the humor and poetry and drama in situations. It’s there all the time in life.”
~ Roy Andersson, from “Calling It as He Sees It, in Great Detail,” by Dave Kehr, New York Times Sunday Magazine (July 26, 2009)
Therefore rejoice, oh thou living one, blest in thy love-lighted homestead,
Ere the dark Lethe's sad wave wetteth thy fugitive foot.
~ Goethe, from Roman Elegies
You, The Living
(A film about the grandeur of existing)
by Roy Andersson
“Man is the fascination of man, in big things and small. Life itself bears witness to this. Art confirms it. Spectacular and dramatic events and destinies captivate us. But so does sitting at a street café and watching people wordlessly go by. As compelling as Delacroix's passionate depictions of battle scenes are the paintings by Millet or van Gogh of peasants at work, of a pair taking an afternoon nap in the shade of a haystack, or a family sitting in a kitchen eating potatoes -- pictures that are so precise, empathetic and carefully executed as to give you the feeling that there is nothing more important to relate than this.”
Daron Larson
Freelance Contemplative
