Screened as part of NZIFF 2001

Andersson's World of Glory 

65 minutes

Songs from the Second floor has brought international attention to its director for the second time in a most unusual career. Winner of the Grand Prix at Berlin for A Swedish Love Story in 1970 at the age of 26, Andersson made one other feature, Gillap, in 1975 and was so stung (creatively and financially) by its failure that he abandoned feature filmmaking for twenty years.

Instead he made some of the world's oddest television commercials and completed two astoundingly creepy short films.

Obesssions from the Second Floor 2000

Obsessions du deuxième étage

Director, Screenplay

Production co

One Line Productions

Producer

Philippe Bober

Photography, Editor

Martin Schvartzapel

Sound

Stéphane Lehembre
,
Martin Schvartzapel
France In French with English subtitles
26 minutes

Nicolas Schmerkin’s short documentary provides a lucid introduction to his work and ideas, and to the obsessive, four year labour that went into Songs from the Second Floor.

Something Happened 1987

Någonting har hänt

Director, Screenplay

Production co

Studio 24 Roy Andersson Filmproduktion

Producer

Stig-Ake Nilsson

Photography

István Borbás

Elsewhere

Sweden In Swedish with English subtitles
24 minutes

Andersson’s AIDS information film was commissioned at considerable expense by the Swedish Social Affairs Department, but it was not at all what they had in mind. Convinced that AIDS was the result of genetic manipulation, Andersson conjures up a nightmare vision of mad science.

World of Glory 1991

Härlig är jorden

Director, Screenplay

Production co

Studio 24 Roy Andersson Filmproduktion

Photography

István Borbás

Editor

Owe Svensson

Sound

Lars Malmström

Music

Allan Pettersson

Elsewhere

Sweden In Swedish with English subtitles
15 minutes

A work of warped brilliance and ineffable creepiness, Andersson’s tableaux of suited bureaucrats supervising genocide capture his vision of humanity at its blackest. This film astonished audiences and won awards at many short film festivals and can readily be seen as a preliminary study for Songs from the Second Floor.