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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781567303377
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1567303374
Label: New Yorker Video
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 23, 2004
Running Time: 98 minutes
Sales Rank: 43107
Studio: New Yorker Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Editorial Review:
Description:
One evening somewhere in our hemisphere, a strange series of illogical events take place: a clerk is made redundant in a degrading manner; a lost immigrant is violently attacked in a busy street; a magician makes a terrible error in his act…sleep on this night does not come easily to the citizens of this town.
The following day, the signs of chaos are taking hold as the madness grips a board of directors and the city itself is strangled by a horrendous traffic jam. In the midst of this mayhem, one person stands out: Karl - covered in soot from the fire he had set to burn down his furniture store in order to get the insurance money.
While the new millennium is casting its web and creating a vast mental breakdown, Karl gradually becomes conscious of the absurdity of the world and realizes just how difficult it is to be human.
Amazon.com:
While it falls squarely into the precious category of love-it-or-leave-it art-house oddities, the hypnotically absurd Swedish comedy Songs from the Second Floor is certainly unlike any other movie you've ever seen. That alone is reason to check it out, and many pleasures await those who are receptive to director Roy Andersson's conspicuously offbeat worldview, presented here as a series of marginally connected vignettes illustrating a bleak world that has literally ground to a halt. A perpetual traffic jam lurches through an urban landscape imbued with post-apocalyptic atmosphere, a ghost town populated by pale, shell-shocked citizens bereft of hope and teetering on the edge of collective madness. Characters and plot are nonexistent in any conventional sense; it's as if Andersson has cast himself as a detached God, gazing upon these lost souls from a distant remove, as if they were fish in a tank, lumbering through their oppressive city like zombies at the dead-end of civilization. Described by critic J. Hoberman as 'slapstick Ingmar Bergman,' this highly unusual film is certainly not for everyone, but if you're on its wavelength it's sure to prove unforgettably amusing. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Songs From the Second Floor
Embedded somewhere in Andersson's mind-boggling, deadpan "Songs" is a satire aimed at religion, politics, careerism, and the terrifying emptiness of office life. Imagine an Ingmar Bergman film directed by David Lynch and you have some inkling of just how surreal this exercise in gloomy comic absurdity gets. Swedish director Andersson might be giving us a glimpse of society's end, especially with his haunting final shot, but his razor-sharp sense of humor make these Nordic "Songs" more than a one ... Read More
Rating: - Swedes can be funny, too....
I remember seeing a preview of this film on Ebert and Roeper's show, and the clip they showed was so mesmerzing and unique (it reminded me of Fellini) that I kept an eye out for it (for the record, Roger and Richard recommended the film highly). It finally appeared about six months later, and I went with great enthusiasm. The film exceeded my expectations expotentially. The audience for the film looked a little bit conservative at first, but after the film started, they were rolling in the aisles ... Read More
Rating: - somewhere between kafka and monty python
this is a crazy and hilarious piece of work.. wow.. the dialogue the visuals.. this is a nice portrait of our 'modern world'.. I just love this comedy.. and at the same time it is so relevant and disturbing.. watch for the crosses at the end..
Rating: - Very Striking
Let me begin by saying this is one of the most striking films I have managed to catch in a while and that, for that reason alone, film buffs will not want to miss it. It has an attention to detail that is rarely found, and makes repeated viewings worthwhile However, even for those who are not necessarily interested in "artsy" films, there are still good reasons to see this film.
One reviewer below notes that, having listened to the director's commentary about the symbolic meaning of much ... Read More
Rating: - What's all this about a second floor?
This film is about as complex and clinically cut as its creator, the not-easy-to-read Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson.
It's a long series of still tableaus, combinging the solitude and desolation of Edward Hopper with a sneery touch of absurdsim as can be found in the best works of Lynch, Brothers Quay, Beckett, the French slaptick of Jacques Tati and Kafka.
We witness, very often form a distance, strange happenings, sometimes apparently without a point, sometimes plain dull, but at ... Read More
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