du levande still courtesy SIFF.

When SIFF says that it is a great audience festival part of what they mean is that they can almost fill the Egyptian on a Monday night at 9:30 pm for a Swedish film about meaninglessness. Further, a few dozen of these people will laugh uproariously at nearly every line or tiny sight gag: whether it is a solitary tuba player, a picture frame falling into an aquarium, a depressed woman yelling at her boyfriend, a depressed woman yelling at her boyfriend’s mother, a depressed woman yelling at a bar full of strangers, a depressed teacher crying in the hallway, a depressed psychologist breaking the fourth wall, or a depressed man complaining about his failing retirement savings plans while barely noticing that he is being fucked by a large woman wearing a shiny helmet.

About halfway through Du levande (You, the Living), which won Roy Anderssen a handful of awards including three Guldbagges, I started to wonder what it might mean to sit through an entire film about meaninglessness looking for meaning. As the short loosely-connected segments featuring unattractive uninteristing characters set in the large-looking unpleasant small spaces shot with stationary wide lenses began to pile up, I increasingly found myself thinking about how I was nearly out of toothpaste. With a little under a half hour left in the running time, I stepped outside into the rain and went to Walgreen’s, where they were closing up the cash registers and buffing the floors. I don’t feel great about leaving, but I don’t feel horrible either. As much as I doubt that anything in the last third could or should have redeemed the first hour, I am certain that I will be happier to have clean teeth in the morning than a resolution to the film tonight.

Du Levande screens a second time on Friday 6 June at 4:30 pm[siff]

see also: “What does SIFF say about Seattle?” [hotsplice]