For those of you New York Cityites who aren’t going to Toronto, MoMA has come to the rescue in a very big way. Beginning Thursday, September 10th, and running through the 18th, MoMA unveils their latest filmmaker tribute. This time, it’s Swedish visionary Roy Andersson, whose You, The Living just dazzled audiences a few miles away downtown at the Film Forum (read my glowing review here).
As with his fellow world cinema maestro Bela Tarr, Andersson didn’t always make such stylistic audacious work. His earlier films were much more grounded in what we call “realism,” yet gradually, Andersson became disillusioned with that superficial realism and began to forge a realism of his very own. He built a studio—24 Studio—which enabled him to retain a precious amount of control over every single element of his films, bringing the painstaking care of an animator to his live-action opuses and mini-opuses.
As for those mini-opuses, Andersson’s career as a commercial director has gotten him the most worldwide attention. Fittingly, MoMA has fashioned a program devoted to these award-winning works, as well as short films, which will confirm for the uninitiated that Roy Andersson is, indeed, a master of the craft.
Visit the official MoMA page, Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson, for the schedule.
Watch this clip from You, The Living…
And watch these commercials…
Thank you, MoMA.
— Michael Tully
