Event

You, the Living

2007, Dir. Roy Andersson
With Elisabeth Helander, Jörgen Nohall and Jan Wikbladh
95 min, 35 mm

Based on the Old Norse proverb "Man is man's delight," taken from the medieval poem Hávamál, the second chapter of Roy Andersson's "human trilogy" is a tragicomic exploration of the grandeur of existence. A series of vignettes follows a group of colorful charactersincluding a pickpocket, a sousaphone player, a heartbroken rock groupie, a school teacher with emotional issues and her rug-selling husband as well a psychiatrist who has lost faith in people's ability to be happy because of their selfishness and now only prescribes pillsas they attempt to reconcile the positive and negative influence of happiness in their lives. Shot on Andersson's trademark elaborately crafted handmade sets, You, the Living continued to cement the director's status as one of the most original and poetic artists working in cinema today.