“Roy Andersson's beautifully deadpan Living trilogy comes to an end – as, I am sure he would remind you, all things must - with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. Once again he has successfully mined life for its most absurd and darkly comic moments and assembled them as a series of tangentially related vignettes to (dis)comfort us and it is a lovely and drab parade. Populated by depressed novelty salesmen, hobbled barmaids, and King Charles XII of Sweden, Andersson's work continues to occupy a territory unlike anything else and the borders of that territory are all drawn with the thin line between triumph and utter indignity.
“Not to make it sound like a miserable slog. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's often quite incisive and funny. The awkwardness of claiming a dead man's drink (it is paid for, after all), King Charles XII hitting on a bartender, a girl stealing a bow at a school assembly that is otherwise boring her – in each of these instances, and many others like them, Andersson's characters are staking their claim. They are reaching out, however modestly, and grabbing life, and often comically so. When you relax and admit to yourself how ridiculous the whole notion of being alive on this planet actually is, it's downright hilarious.
“Andersson is concerned with more this time around, though. History has finally crept into the Living trilogy and it certainly sets this entry apart. The King Charles segment, the reminiscence that conjures up Limping Lotta and the finale, which takes on the inherent horrors of colonization, give Pigeon a scope lacking in the two previous films. Those episodes manage to simultaneously throw mundane daily struggles into sharp relief when juxtaposed against the rich backdrop of history and remind us that those struggles are no different, perhaps, than they have ever been. The finale does up the ante, though. As the colonizers force the colonized into a torture device that makes music from their screams, we have no choice but to reconsider everything Andersson has shown us and exactly how much pleasure we have taken in watching everyone navigate their trials. We are complicit, and it can't be funny all the time.
“Andersson has a singular ability. No other filmmaker makes me feel so simultaneously connected to and disconnected from the rest of the world (which I mean in the best way). What I mean is that he is equally skilled in reminding us that we are ultimately alone, yet making me feel complete sympathy for everyone else's little situations the entire time. He is occasionally bleak, but never mean-spirited and absolutely never dishonest.
“Grab those fleeting moments, man. A good one can carry a guy through sixty years.” ~ Cole Roulain
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