Synopsis
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.
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Cast
- Håkan AngserThe Psychiatrist
- Eric BäckmanMicke Larsson
- Patrik Anders EdgrenThe Professor
- Björn EnglundThe Tuba Player
- Lennart ErikssonThe Man on the Balcony
- Pär FredrikssonThe Carpet Dealer
- Elisabeth HelanderMia
- Gunnar IvarssonThe Businessman
- Leif LarssonThe Carpenter
- Jessika LundbergAnna
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
There’s joy in watching a movie like You, the Living. It is flawless in what it does, and we have no idea what that is. It’s in sympathy with its characters. It shares their sorrow, and yet is amused that each thinks his suffering is unique. - 100
The New York Times
The film is slow, rigorously morose and often painful in its blunt reckoning of disappointment and failure. It is also extremely funny. - 88
New York Post
Andersson has a one-of-a-kind style that not all viewers will appreciate. His humor is not at all like Hollywood’s. His is leisurely and cerebral — two words never heard in La La Land. - 88
Slant Magazine
Humor and sorrow are equally immediate emotions throughout, whether in the writer-director's traditionally structured setup-punchline scenes or his strange non sequiturs - 80
Village Voice
You, the Living flips through 50-some single-panel vignettes, many very funny. - 80
Empire
Recalling the work of Jacques Tati, this is a grim but amusing and ultimately successful effort. - 70
L.A. Weekly
Andersson particularly delights in left-outs: the guy who can’t squeeze into the bus stop during a downpour; the natty little suitor getting his bouquet smashed in a slamming door. The sum total is the reflection of a worldview -- sad sack, bordering on “Everybody Hurts” black-velvet sad-clown bathos -- rather than any narrative. - 70
Los Angeles Times
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.
