Swedish auteur Roy Andersson has been quietly growing an international fanbase for himself since the mid-’60s with a series of irreverent features and short films, including Songs from the 2nd Floor; You, the Living; and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting Existence. Most of those features are actually collections of short vignettes about humanity, and that’s also the case with his latest film, About Endlessness.
In fact, the description of the movie — just released by Magnolia Pictures in a combination of theaters, both physical and virtual — is:
“A reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, About Endlessness presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.”
Usually, at this point, we would set up the clip by sharing the plot of the movie up until this point, but trying to do that with a Roy Andersson film may be a fool’s errand. Instead, we’ll just say that it shows a group of young women walking down the street and hearing a bouncy tune from a nearby café and doing what comes naturally.
You can find out how to watch the rest of About Endlessness on the Official Site.
