Claus Mueller

In more than 30 interrelated segments Andersson offers a somber, acerbic interpretation of everyday life in modern society reaffirming his rank as one of the most innovative European film directors. As Lars von Trier observed, Andersson is the only film maker whose Palme d’Or competition he fears. Having been involved in film making for more than forty years Andersson has produced many commercial spots and relatively few features.  A PIGEON … offering panoramic reflections about our existence is the third feature film about human beings preceded by SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (2001) and YOU THE LIVING (2007). What they all have in common is the depiction of interactions with behavior which can range from the absurd, the paradoxical to the surreal. There are no metaphysical dialogues. Because there is frequently a grim semi comedic mode his presentations Andersson has been labeled A ‘Slapstick Ingmar Bergman’ or a director of the burlesque. But this is only a distant approximation of his genius. Our despair is not rooted in the silence of God as Igmar Bergman showed nor is burlesque the driving element. After all, acts born in despair or depression do not call for laughter nor do communicative ruptures. Our image loaded world predicates appearances which scratch the surface only. Anderson goes beyond it and presents reality avoiding the surface with images staying in our consciousness long after his films end. There is reflection following the laughter, laughter which provided relief from Andersson’s depressing vignettes.  The context of his films is presented by sets meticulously built by Andersson and his staff in his Stockholm studio. The settings seem institutional with mostly muted grey and dark tones. With few exceptions his characters are not prone to laugh nor are there any flowers or colors embellishing the sets.

The film has 35 interrelated segments or vignettes tied together not by a linear  sub plotted story like most features have but by the underlying dark purgatory  sentiment reflected in most of them and some characters making their appearance in several vignettes . There are two salesmen Sam and Jonathan, whose facial expression and demeanor belies the fun they try to peddle through vampire teeth, laughing bags and a one tooth plastic mask. They do not sell nor can collect the money owed to them. The tone for the film is set early on in three segments about how death is met, on overweight man has a heart attack while opening a bottle while his wife busily prepares their meal, a mother on her death bed  holds onto her bag of jewelry while her grownup  children try hard to take it away pleading that she cannot take it to heaven, a man is dead on the floor of a hip restaurant and the waitress wonders what to do with the meal he paid for until one of the spectators from the gawking audience agrees to drink his beer.  Intermittently we listen in to phone conversations in other vignettes  where the caller is assured by the speaker, no matter how dire  the speaker’s situation might be that he is happy that the caller is doing fine’.  We encounter a dance instructor groping a male students who breaks up with her in a restaurant, a uniformed man in front of the restaurant who is repeatedly at a loss about meetings he thinks he has,, an old man in a restaurant who is hard of hearing and told he should be happy not being able to hear anything and a young girl trying to recite a poem to a group of apparently disabled children and their parents. There are two segments set in a contemporary restaurant of King Charles XII accompanied on his way to defeat the Russians and returning having lost half of his army. In the first the king propositions a young waiter to share his tent. In the second the king is barely alive but cannot use the bathroom because it is occupied. 

In his drab hotel room, Jonathan listens to sad songs and declares that he does not want to meet his parents in heaven. His fellow salesmen Sam blames him for causing their failure and walking like a zombie. Except for two scenes with playing children and a babysitter they do not convey warmth or love. In a telling vignette a cheese shop keeper maintains that he is a very kind person but his worker signals immediately that he is mad. In the hotel A Homo Sapiens reminder on the screen introduces a medical lab scene where a screaming monkey is tortured in an experiment while the lab assistant is on the phone assures the other party that she is happy that everything is fine.

The final sequences of the film are most disturbing. A group of colonial soldiers and their officers force naked Africans and their children into a giant copper drum which has numerous exhaust vents mounted on it. Boliden, the name of a Swedish mining and metal producing corporation is inscribed on the drum. The door is closed and the soldiers light a fire under the drum. It starts rotating slowly with banging on its walls and smoke released through the exhaust pipes. The reflections of the drum is on a large glass portal which opens slowly and a number of tuxedoed men and their female companions step out who have been following the murder through a curtain. They are all very old and frail, dressed in black and white and served champagne by Jonathan. Later in Jonathan’s room he cannot share his horrible experience. He does not know if it was a dream but mutters that no one asked for forgiveness and that it is not right using people just for your own pleasure. Sam reminds him that they need to work next day.

In 1991 Roy Andersson produced WORLD OF GLORY with a similar sequence set in the presence. . A group of nude women and children are forced into a giant diesel truck and their screams can be heard even after the doors are shut.  A large hose from the exhaust of the truck is attached to an opening at the back and the truck starts moving around. There is a group of well-dressed middle aged people placed next to the truck who watch the operation, some in the distance select and do pick up discarded cloth. An individual up front turns his head to the camera looking into it and makes the viewer of the film an unwitting accomplice of the event. Andersson commented that such massacres can also happen in Sweden.

Undoubtedly Andersson’s film making approach is unique and not emulated by any other director. His ability to raise fundamental questions about modern existence using carefully constructed vignettes, static camera work, with perfectly synched sets, and scarce dialogue has no parallel. His images convey in brief sequences more content and questions than most full length features do. He is a brilliant film maker.

Claus Mueller

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