A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence | |
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![]() Swedish film poster | |
Directed by | Roy Andersson |
Written by | Roy Andersson |
Produced by |
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Starring | Holger Andersson Nisse Vestblom Charlotta Larsson Viktor Gyllenberg Lotti Tornros Jonas Gerholm Ola Stensson Oscar Salomonsson Roger Olsen Likvern |
Cinematography | István Borbás Gergely Pálos |
Edited by | Alexandra Strauss |
Production company | Roy Andersson Filmproduktion ABCoproduction Office |
Distributed by | TriArt Film (Sweden) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 101 minutes |
Countries | Sweden Norway France Germany Denmark |
Language | Swedish |
Box office | $5.8 million[1] |
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Swedish:En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron) is a 2014 internationally co-producedblackcomedy-drama film written and directed byRoy Andersson. It is the third installment in his "Living" trilogy, followingSongs from the Second Floor (2000) andYou, the Living (2007). It premiered at the71st Venice International Film Festival[2][3] where it was awarded theGolden Lion for Best Film.[4] It was selected as the Swedish entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.[5][6] It was released in Sweden on 14 November 2014, by TriArt Film.[7]
Its title is a reference to the 1565 paintingThe Hunters in the Snow byPieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting depicts a rural wintertime scene, with some birds perched on tree branches. Andersson said he imagined that the birds in the scene are watching the people below, wondering what they are doing. He explained the title of the film as a "different way of saying 'what are we actually doing', that's what the movie is about."[8] At the Venice Film Festival, Andersson said that the film had been inspired by the 1948 Italian filmBicycle Thieves byVittorio De Sica.[9]
Theslow cinema movie, hyper reality, consists of a series of mostly self-containedtableaux, sometimes connected by recurring themes or characters. The story loosely follows two travelling novelty salesmen, Jonathan and Sam, who live in a desolate flophouse, and their unsuccessful attempts to win customers for their joke articles (vampire teeth, laughing bags and a monster mask).[10] Although there is no main storyline in the traditional sense, all scenes are connected.[11]
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence received an 89% rating onRotten Tomatoes, based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The consensus reads: "Expertly assembled and indelibly original,A Pigeon Sat on a Branch concludes writer-director Roy Andersson's Living trilogy in style."[12] The film also received a score of 81 out of 100 onMetacritic, based on 23 reviews.[13] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Det är egentligen bara en slags omskrivning för 'vad håller vi på med egentligen', det är det som filmen handlar om.