Un Certain Regard: “You, the Living” by Roy Andersson

Cannes Jury Prize winner in 2000 with Songs from the Second Floor, Swedish director Roy Andersson is back on the Croisette with a Un Certain Regard showing of You, The
Living. This film “is about the human being,” explains the director, “about her greatness and her miserableness, her joy and sorrow, her self-confidence
and anxiety. A being with whom we want to laugh and also cry. It is a simply a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy about us.”

Concerning the narrative structure, Roy Andersson elaborated: “When I make a film, I don’t rely on a classic screenplay, but rather on a theme, a philosophical concept or a
particular atmosphere. For You, the Living, I created tableaux that put characters in commonplace, everyday life situations with great attention to detail. Together these
scenes form a whole resembling the chaotic structure of a bustling marketplace. First and foremost, I wanted to set up the scenes in a way that left them open to development that allows for
surprise and the unexpected. The scenes are linked by recurring lines of dialogue and situations.”

Photo Copyright Anne-Laure Bigot