Du Levande (You, The Living) (2007)
89%RT Audience Score: 80%
Awards & Nominations: 10 wins & 7 nominations
Roy Andersson’s You, the Living is a cinematic masterpiece that defies traditional narrative structure and instead presents a series of loosely connected vignettes that capture the full range of human emotion. Andersson’s unique visual style and deadpan humor create a hypnotic and unforgettable experience that is both funny and sad, cruel and compassionate. The film’s exploration of the joy and pain of human connection is both profound and deeply satisfying, and its ability to capture the absurdity of existence is nothing short of genius. You, the Living is a must-see for anyone who appreciates intelligent, witty, and creative filmmaking that challenges and delights in equal measure.
You, the Living is like a fever dream that you can’t quite shake off. It’s a bizarre and hilarious journey through the human experience, with moments of both joy and pain. Director Roy Andersson’s unique style is on full display here, with deadpan humor and surreal visuals that will leave you scratching your head in the best way possible. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re in the mood for something truly offbeat, You, the Living is definitely worth a watch.
Production Company(ies)
Mosfilm Tvorcheskoe Obedinienie Pisateley i Kinorabotnikov
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
2007
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.66 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):Swedish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Jan 12, 2010
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Jessica Lundberg, Elisabet Helander, Bjorn Englund, Leif Larsson, Håkan Angser, directed by Roy Andersson, written by Roy Andersson, drama, $21.4K box office, reviewed by Donald Clarke, Ben Kenigsberg, Kevin Thomas, John Hartl, J.R Jones, Roger Ebert, Philip French, Jim Ross, Mattie Lucas, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Josh Larsen, Pernilla Sandstrom produced, MPAA rating, Swedish language, Lethe city, deadpan vignettes, fantasy honeymoon, rock guitarist, bomber planes, Dixieland jazz, absurd collection, human behavior, humorous sketches, unforgettable work, highly entertaining, eccentric, short sketches, businessman, pickpocket, psychologist, carpenter, 98% Tomatometer, 80% audience score, 42 reviews, 5,000+ ratings, 1h 35m runtime
Worldwide gross: $1,843,810
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $2,641,383
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,341
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 288,046
US/Canada gross: $21,438
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $30,711
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,780
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,924
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $9,919
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,707
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Elisabet Helander – Mia
Bjorn Englund – Tuba Player
Leif Larsson – Carpenter
Håkan Angser – Psychologist
Roy Andersson – Director
Director(s)
Roy Andersson
Writer(s)
Roy Andersson
Producer(s)
Pernilla Sandstrom
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
10 wins & 7 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (1)
In less skilful hands, such an enterprise could appear arch and disjointed, but Andersson allows certain common visual themes and stylistic ticks to bind the picture together into a profoundly satisfactory whole.
September 23, 2020
Donald Clarke
Irish Times
TOP CRITIC
November 17, 2011 | Rating: 1/5
Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
You, the Living suggests that we would do well to discover the joy we find in each other that so often goes along with the pain.
September 18, 2009 | Rating: 3.5/5
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Essentially indescribable, You, the Living offers little help to anyone trying to get a handle on it in terms of a traditional narrative. But it can be quite funny if you’re susceptible to Andersson’s curious way of capturing the human comedy.
September 10, 2009 | Rating: 3/4
John Hartl
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
“Keaton-esque” hardly begins to describe this brutally deadpan comedy by Swedish director Roy Andersson (Songs From the Second Floor), who seems to have translated the entire range of human misery into a loosely connected series of slapstick gags.
August 20, 2009
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
The result is in some ways a comedy with a twist of the knife, and in other ways, a film like nobody else has ever made — except for its director, Roy Andersson of Sweden. Andersson’s You, the Living is hypnotic.
August 20, 2009 | Rating: 4/4
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
TOP CRITIC
This is a funny, sad, cruel film, both crystalline and puzzling, hypnotic in its intensity.
September 23, 2020
Philip French
Observer (UK)
Every so often, you watch a film so strikingly different from anything else you have seen recently it can be quite a challenge to decipher your own reaction to it.
February 13, 2020
Jim Ross
TAKE ONE Magazine
A film that exists in that place of being between being asleep and being awake, seeming to make sense at first even though it really doesn’t.
July 6, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
It’s absurd theater, but not the Theater of the Absurd; Andersson isn’t hearkening back to Beckett, but past Molière and even Rabelais to Aristophanes and the old Greek comic poetry.
December 13, 2017
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
MUBI
The anguish of existence is the common thread here.
May 27, 2016 | Rating: 3.5/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
[The DVD] is an articulate compilation of extras and the insight given in the making-of featurette is startling in showing the filmmakers’ genius in tricking the eye to get the proper visual effects.
January 21, 2010 | Rating: A-
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews…
Plot
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past, accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music, in Roy Andersson’s eccentric but highly entertaining and unforgettable work, You, the Living.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The cast of You, the Living includes mostly unknown actors, with the exception of Roy Andersson, who directed the film.
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