photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
#Venezia 76 -
La Biennale di Venezia - Film Festival
Roy Andersson – Om det Oandliga – About Endlessness
A reflection on
human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality. We
wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator.
Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a
couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father
stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance
outside a café; a defeated army marches to a prisoner of war camp.
Simultaneously an ode and a lament, Om
det oandliga presents a
kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the
vulnerability of existence.
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
"The horn of plenty is a mythological goat’s horn filled with
items that signify wealth and abundance. It is usually depicted as overflowing
with a profusion of produce and fruits of all kinds, a bounty that, as myth
would have it, never dwindles, that is the very embodiment of infinite
inexhaustibility. The Greek myth inspired me to gather all these scenes, all
these themes in the same film. I want to emphasize the beauty of being a human,
of being alive; and in order to show that, you need to have a contrast, to also
show the ugly side. This film is about the endlessness of the signs of
existence.”
Roy Andersson
Director’s
statement
photograph - courtesy
La Biennale di Venezia
Roy Andersson – Om det Oandliga – About Endlessness
Contessanally: The vignettes or tableaux
vivants are minimal yet not – a sort of Edward Hopper meets Swedish life –
appreciated the scenography and design, though loved more his Golden Lion Award
winning film - A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence - five years ago, at the Venice Film Festival.
