Review: Du levande

De levande (You, the living)
A film by Roy Andersson

"Be pleased then, you the living, in your delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe’s ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


A man lies asleep on a small sofa in an apartment until he is woken from a terrible dream where he sees hundreds of bomber planes flying towards him.

A depressed woman wearing a leather jacket and leopard skin prints sits on a park bench in the middle of the city. Next to her is her overweight boyfriend with their little dog. As she sucks furiously on a cigarette, she pleads with them to go away because 'no one understands me'.

A pretty young girl sees one of her local rock idols in a pub and summons the courage to speak to him.

A psychaiatrist explains to us the sadness in his life as he has had to treat his patients over the years. He doesn't like them.

A muslim barber takes revenge on a racist client.

In the city an enormous thunderstorm arrives with lightning and rain drenching the building and streets as its people look to the sky and observe it coming down.

Shot with an austere, almost white-wash colour grade, this is one of the best films I have seen for a long while, not merely for its style but its menacing humour and awe-inspiring characters and scenes.

This is a movie, as the title says, about 'you, the living'. All of us in our habitats, all of us together and all of us alone.


There are many, many characters in the movie and all of them, they are representing themselves, of course, as individuals but they are also representing the human being and that's why I also want them to be not too individual, because I paint them. They have the white faces so they are more similar to each other. As a clown circus is always white and he's represents humanity, the human being.

Roy Andersson, interview with David Stratton


In one way, this is a theatrically delicious film full of the best of everything you want but rarely get from the stage. The sublety of movement, the structure of the direction, the tone, the mood, the plain speaking text, the characterisations and the brilliance of the intricate mise-en-scene.

This is a film of an epic quality, and quite frankly, I could go on and on and on and on about it....

So, do yourself a favour - go and see this film with a very good friend and a champagne in your hand. Because by god, you'll want more champagne after the film and a bloody good chat.