A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence *** (2014, Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Viktor Gyllenberg) – Movie Review

You can tell this film is going to get irritating and wear out the novelty of own its welcome just from the title. Writer-director Roy Andersson’s film opens with three short stories about bizarre deaths. This should be depressing, and it is, but it’s also the funniest part of the movie.

So the film starts well and is funny for a third, then continues interesting for its second third, but then becomes boring and alienating in its last third.

However, that’s just me. Andersson’s very Swedish absurdist and morbid sense of humour is very much to taste. If it’s yours, you could be laughing delightedly throughout. Visually it’s very striking and overall Pigeon has to rate as weirdly impressive. The series of vignettes is loosely linked by a structure in which a pair of travelling salesmen peddle novelty items.

I’d happily watch the first bit again, and even dip into a bit more of it, but some of it is like watching a smart but strange colour of paint drying.

Holger Andersson stars as Jonathan and Nils Westblom is Sam.

It is the third part in his ‘living’ trilogy, following Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living. It premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film. I kind of get that, it’s the sort of film you’d want to give prizes to. At the festival, Andersson bizarrely said the film was inspired by Bicycle Thieves (1948).

The title refers to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1565 painting The Hunters in the Snow, depicting a rural wintertime scene, with some birds perched on tree branches. Andersson imagined the birds are watching the people below and wonder what they are doing.

En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron is the original title.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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