MovieChat Forums > Sånger från andra våningen (2000) Discussion > This is what the movie is about!!!

This is what the movie is about!!!

posted 19 years ago by jeremyforfilm-1
18 replies | jump to latest

After watching this film four times, I think I have an idea of what it means to me. The film is, in a sense, Purgatory. Our main character died in the fire that burnt down his company. He is in purgatory because he started the fire. Nearly everybody in the movie is lost, cant find someone, or stuck in the traffic jam.

Also think of the bar scene. The girl who cant get up probably broke her neck and died, now she is in purgatory. The guy throwing up at the bar probably died of some poison, also, everybody is yelling " Where are we at?!"

The main character confronts the dead of his past(train station)... To make a long entry short, in the last scene, They come to take him away...and by the looks of all the "demonlike" figures that stand up in the field and the other characters who come towards him, they`re taking him to Hell.!!!!!

Jeremy

[–] Anscules 19 years ago

this is a good interpretation, but why would the girl who was sacrificed be the one to come get him? unless the sacrifice itself meant something in this way.

this would also be a good reason why the first camera movement in the film is when a 'ghost' actually shows up. the emphasis is self-explanatory from that angle.

"Rampart: Squad 51."

[–] jaimemartin17 19 years ago

the first 1/2 of the film to me seems like random acts...like commercials gone bad. but honestly, after watching it for the first time i had no idea what it was about. i didn't care. it was beautifully done, and it kept my attention the whole way.

towards the end...???

**SPoiLERS****

to me it was a man dealing w/death or a man haunted by ghosts(?) either way the outcome can't be good. but i loved it-2 things i hear most about SFTSF (1.) most everyone says how much they want to view it again. not to mention the (2.)major mind *beep* it gives them!!!
BLAH

[–] jepe2503 18 years ago

Actually, Roy Andersson is a commercial film director who had the good taste to turn some of his aestethics from his commercial films into this great, poetical film.

[–] jaimemartin17 18 years ago

well put..

BLAH

[–] advantage6000 18 years ago

I have to disagree...slightly.

The direction of your thinking is right, but your logic is a tiny bit off. If we think about life as being comprised of "floors" (as the film does imply), then logically (or rather religiously) it would look something like this:

FIRST FLOOR = HELL

THIRD FLOOR = HEAVEN

SECOND FLOOR = BETWEEN HEAVEN & HELL

Now, this "between" heaven and hell could translate into several things depending on your interpretation of the film, but in all likelihood it is either Purgatory/Limbo....or simply life itself (as in, the life we live every day...above hell...and below the heavens)

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Skrzypek 18 years ago

With the "Songs" being the stories and events that happened.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] sartyn 18 years ago

When the director, Roy Andersson, worked with this masterpiece he heard music coming from the second floor. If I remember it correctly, some musicians were rehearsing. Easy as that.
Now, if one wishes to see heaven and hell in all things, go ahead. Sånger från andra våningen is so much more than that, it is a statement and a portrait of the lonely human being's place in a world were mistakes strike right back at you. It is a portrait of my home country, and what our parents and their parents have done to it.

We are the youth, sacrificed since we can't afford for people to work anymore.

[–] rollingpix 18 years ago

Great movie. Good comments. Especially, sartyn.

Cut from the same cloth/same ballpark: Take a look at GREASER'S PALACE (1972) made by Robert Downey. That's Robert Downey Senior, Junior's dad. He made another good movie called PUTNEY SWOPE. He also did a great CBS-TV adaptation of David Rabe's stageplay, STICKS & BONES. He appears as an actor in TO LIVE & DIE IN L.A.

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR is a remarkable achievement, and the most bizarre movie I've seen in a long time. Bizarre=different from the usual crap=good.

[–] zanjar-unity 18 years ago

The only reason this movie is titled Songs from the second floor is that it was shooted mostly on the second floor.

[–] trancemissionxxi 17 years ago

I agree with your view. The sacrificing of the young girl points very well to it. Also, the woman telling her that all these old men have read all the books and they are so knowledgeable.

It seemed to me this movie portrays a society where people do not know where they are going, they are confused. Even the economists need to be crystal-ball gazers; the gypsy in the conference room is more rational and stays put when all the others run for the door. Only one person in the room was actually doing (or at least expected to do) something, which is actually 4% of the people in the room. All the other people that talk point out to what the others have agreed on, which is very vague. The test before the killing of the girl kind of alludes to the inefficient and meaningless actions that these people take for achieving something that does not produce anything but death.

Religion is dead and cannot guide anymore.

I think the dead are within the living. The people living are not living anymore, they are dead because they do not have a goal, they do not have a journey. Their spirit for action and meaning is dead. They sit blind and deaf, looking at how other peoples get beaten.

[–] SantinoGotShot 17 years ago

Very interesting readings, everyone.
Naturally, the film is subjective and however you take it is "right" (for you, and that's all that matters).
Me, the idea that the characters are in hell, or purgatory or even real life, but either way they are trapped.
I love films like this, because there can be a 2 page message board filled with posts, each having a diffrent reading.
Good stuff.

[–] rclindros 17 years ago

Since he's in purgatory and has contact with his family throughout the film, are we to assume that his family is dead as well? And, the guy that sold him the crosses?

[–] pauelm 17 years ago

I don't think it's about anyone that's dead or not. It's simply a collection of thoughts about the society that Roy Andersson lives in. And the people around him.

[–] Mattsby 14 years ago

Well-thought analysis. I can certainly see this working, and it is very clever. Also makes you wonder about the title..

[–] Imdbidia 13 years ago

I completely agree. There are so many clues about the fact that the people who have white make up on their faces are recently dead, in a sort of limbo or purgatory (in a non-Christian Purgatory, though, as the last scenes with the crucifixes point out that out clearly; listen to the dialogue and you'll see that is about the expectations of heaven and god in the afterlife and the realization by the "businessman" that there is not), in which they are trying to make sense of a world that all of the sudden looks so surreal.

One of the most clear examples that this movie is not as surrealistic as might looks is in the dialogues, about Sven finding his old friend, who committed suicide in the past at the train station, and also a Russian boy whose sister was killed in the WW2. All walking together, past and present, the Russian boy with his rope still around his neck. In fact, we see the leaving and the dead in the same world, but the living do not have white make up, as only dead people lose the colour of their face.

Sven goes to visit his mad son to the hospital and his son does never talk to him, but he sometimes utters words to his brother. That is because Sven is dead and his brother is not.

There are many clues from the make-up section, to the dialogues that support your interpretation, sometimes so obvious that are difficult to ignore. This is not to say that the movie is also a reflection on our broken hopes, our expectations about life, the meaning of life and of death, the meaning of religion, and other philosophical matters, which is also true.