"Tomorrow is another day"

Goethe: poet, dramatist, author, scientist, theologan, humanist, philosopher... film director?

I have never read any of Goethe's works, but from what I have read about him, he was concerned primarily with trying to understand humanity, however bleak and sorrowful it may be. This is exactly what Roy Anderssen has done in You, The Living (Du Levande). He's raked the Hollywood leaves off the muddy ground, resulting in a beautiful black comedy resembling an Edward Hopper painting.

Sounds grim, eh? No. Not once does this very slow paced film get boring. The lack of explosions and sex scenes does not detract from the film at all. In fact, the only sex scene involves a very old, rather dead looking couple and was one of the most memorable I have seen. An end shot, reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove which overlooks the whole city seems to be inserted to announce that the film documents all of our lives.

The cinematography is stunning, the stories slightly disjointed yet all craftfully told, the music haunting yet merry, the pace rich and delightful. A dream sequence evokes sadness, a nightmare horror and and humour, and all the other events evoke relief, relief that we are not the living dead as the characters of this film seem to be.

Anderssen has only made 6 films in his life time, this being the only one I have seen, but I'm glad he doesn't churn out films like a butter factory churns out butter, because they would become as monotonous as the lives of he characters in his films. We may think our lives do not follow the same patterns as those of the nameless characters in this picture, but this isn't popcorn munching fun...it's a reality check in disguise. He is documenting the harsh reality of life, the triviality of events, the significance of relatioships. In You, The Living, he's documenting each of our lives, and sadly for us, he tells the complete truth; there are no explosions and gratuitous sex scenes but greyness, sadness, bizarreness and brass music leading us to the grave.