Songs from the Second Floor

Songs from the Second Floor (Sånger från andra våningen) is a Swedish black comedy-drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 6 October 2000, written and directed by Roy Andersson. It presents a series of disconnected vignettes that together interrogate aspects of modern life. It uses quotations from the work of Peruvian poet César Vallejo as a recurring motif. The film was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 73rd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.

It is the first film in a trilogy, followed by You, the Living (2007) and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014).

Plot
A man is standing in a subway car, his face dirty with soot. In his right hand he carries a plastic bag with documents, or rather, the charred leftovers of them. In a corridor a man is clinging desperately to the legs of the boss who just fired him. He is screaming: "I've been here for thirty years!" In a coffee shop someone is waiting for his father, who just burned his furniture company for insurance money. Traffic jams and self-flagellating stock brokers are filling up the streets while an economist, desperate for a solution to the problem of work becoming too expensive, gazes into the crystal ball of a scryer. The main men all have goals but their destinations change during the story.

Cast

 * Lars Nordh as Kalle
 * Stefan Larsson as Stefan
 * Bengt C. W. Carlsson as Lennart
 * Torbjörn Fahlström as Pelle Wigert
 * Sten Andersson as Lasse
 * Rolando Núñez as the foreigner
 * Lucio Vucina as the magician
 * Per Jörnelius as the sawed man
 * Peter Roth as Tomas
 * Klas-Gösta Olsson as the speechwriter
 * Nils-Åke Eriksson as patient
 * Hanna Eriksson as Mia
 * Tommy Johansson as Uffe
 * Sture Olsson as Sven
 * Fredrik Sjögren as the Russian boy

Critical response
Film critic J. Hoberman from The Village Voice concluded about the film: "Easier to respect than enthuse over, Andersson's rigorous personal vision is not only distanced but distancing." Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "You may not enjoy it but you will not forget it." Anton Bitel, writing for Eye for Film, felt that "the heavy symbolism overwhelms the storytelling."

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 89% approval rating, based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. On Metacritic, the film was given a score of 76 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The film is featured in "Ari's Adventures in Moviegoing", a collection of films on the Criterion Channel that were handpicked by Ari Aster, director of Midsommar (2019) and other horror films. Aster states that he saw this film in the theater with his mother at the age of 14, and states that the impact of this film on him was "seismic", citing the film as a major influence.

Awards and nominations
Wins


 * Bodil Awards
 * Best Non-American Film (Bedste ikke amerikanske film) Roy Andersson (director)
 * Cannes Film Festival
 * Jury Prize (Roy Andersson)
 * Brothers Manaki International Film Festival
 * Audience Award István Borbás
 * Norwegian International Film Festival
 * Norwegian Film Critics Award Roy Andersson
 * Guldbagge Award
 * Best Film (Bästa film) Lisa Alwert
 * Best Direction (Bästa regi) Roy Andersson
 * Best Screenplay (Bästa manuskript) Roy Andersson
 * Best Cinematography (Bästa foto) István Borbás and Jesper Klevenas
 * Best Achievement (Bästa prestation) Jan Alvemark

Nominations


 * Cannes Film Festival
 * Golden Palm
 * British Independent Film Awards
 * Best Foreign Independent Film - Foreign Language