"I felt like I couldn't walk the same path any more...It is difficult to be exact. "

Scandanavian filmmaker Roy Andersson's working methods differ radically from the conventional ones. He works without a script, without a shooting schedule. He shoots almost exclusively in the studio with trompe l'œil, models, special effects in the old sense. He repeats, modifies, puts the finishing touches to his scenes right up to the point where they are 'exact'. "Songs from the Second Floor" is an example of how he perfected his craft.  It is his third film in 30-years, took four years to make, has no major story line, and was shot in 46 discontinuous scenes and 46 shots with the camera and many of the actors remaining stationary for most scenes.

Born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1943, he studied Literature then Film, graduating with a diploma from the Swedish Film Institute in 1969. The following year he completed his first full length feature, "A Swedish Love Story", which won the Grand Prix at the Berlin International Film Festival.  "Giliap", his second feature, was presented at the Director's Fortnight of the Cannes Film  Festival in 1976.

In 1976 he started to work making unusual commercials in which he developed a very personal style - staging the stereotypes of our society in long shots, taken at a wide angle, in a single take and a rather burlesque manner. Those films have been presented with the most important awards, notable 8 Golden Lions at Cannes.

In 1981 he founded Studio 24, an independent production company based right in the heart of Stockholm, specially designed to accommodate his needs. Equipped with two sets, an editing studio, sound studio, a film theatre, a scene dock and wardrobe and particularly with a loyal team, this convivial workshop allows Roy Andersson to produce and make his films in total freedom and thus affords the film-maker a unique position in the film industry.

Andersson believes that films should have eternal references and with "Songs from the Second Floor" he has made a portrait of humiliation in a materialistic society anywhere from 1950 until now. He claims we are responsible for the circumstances that make us helpless.

"Songs from the Second Floor" is a prophetic nightmare to stop the chains of guilt and humiliation," says Moira Sullivan for Movie Magazine International in Sweden. "The scenes become one grand kaleidoscope where memories of each vignette spill over to the next…"

"A challenging and ambitious film, one that raises many issue regarding the depiction and critique of the place or lack of religion in modern western society," says Yoram Allon from The Wallflower Press in London.

"One of Song from the Second Floor's central tasks is to meditate upon the relationship between the living dead of today and the actual dead of yesterday… References to lost traditions are not the reactionary musings of a simple nostalgia but rather a searching philosophical accusation that the ideals of the Enlightenment have been surrendered to such an extent that people's humanity has become defined by their resistance or capitulation to the vagaries of the stock market…"

"The film demands that you work with it, that you get fully involved with its way of telling the story," says William Pretorius of News 24. "...the fact that Andersson has created a series of stunning, almost universal images, from a depressing theme is, for me, exciting and an affirmation of film's potential."

a conversation with roy andersson

when did you first have the idea for "songs from the second floor"?
The idea for some scenes go back as far as twenty years ago but you could say that the whole film is at once old and new, for the simple reason that my main source of inspiration is life itself. Painting also inspires me tremendously. I wanted to make a film which couldn't be driven by a conventional Anglo-Saxon form, rather it would be 'associative'. I think that in a sense I haven't been completely successful because it's not easy to escape from it into a more or less linear structure.

why defy such conventions?
I wanted to do something with a difference and I had grown tired of the style of my first two full length features - they were conventional enough. I felt like I couldn't walk the same path any more."

did you ever think at the start it could take four years to complete?
No, I thought it would take about three years. The first year was very tough as we didn't have financing of any sort and we were forced to take time out. Otherwise I was unsure about how the story-line should develop. There were some serious issues which I wanted to fit into the film and it was difficult to combine all of these subjects naturally. Time also afforded me to ponder on all that without undue pressure. I matured and I was able to solve the scenery problems, letting me get down to the  essentials. Matisse once said that he had to remove everything that was not absolutely necessary on the canvas. The longer it ages, the more direct and simple it becomes. It is difficult to be exact. It is essential to maintain self-confidence."

what has been the principal difficulty on this epic shooting?
Putting the financing together. I did not have a very conventional script and the institutions are used to standard ones. There's no chance for discussion. I couldn't make them understand what it was I wanted to do. And so I decided to make part of the film simply to show what it would look like. I waited to be able to finance the first fifteen minutes myself, to serve as an example. After that, may wanted to take part in it, the Nordic broadcasters and institutions first of all, then the French and German. I would have obviously preferred it to have happened much quicker.

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