Astrid van Nimwegen - draft review Roy Andersson

Draft review

About the work of Roy Andersson, a swedish filmdirector. Roy Andersson made a lot of commercials in which he seems to develop his personal style for making his feature films 'Songs from the second floor' and 'You, the living'. In my review I want to discuss his use of only 'long takes' and his significant absurdistic style and the difference in content and concept in the commercials when you compare them to his feature films. I think his feature films are a lot stronger then his advertisement spots because of how he structures time to create a complete second reality.

Review - (begin) Roy Andersson’s films and commercials are immediately recognized by their significant absurdist style. Andersson uses only long wide takes, shot from a fixed camera point. His films are also recognizable by their raw atmosphere, carefully constructed scenes display everyday environments with depressed looking people in it. Every element in each shot is deliberately choosen, ‘Why else shoot it?’ Roy Andersson said once in an interview. The reoccurring theme in Andersson’s work is humiliation and the vulnerability of the human being. In this review I want to focus on ‘A world of glory’, a feature film that surpasses in content, compared to his advertisement spots.