Roy Andersson is a filmmaker I have never heard of before. He is one that appears to have been around for quite a while now, operating in the European areas of film with what I can only assume is a library of some of cinema's strangest but intriguing films to have been released. I should start this review by stating that I am certainly, without a doubt, not the target audience for this film, and getting through it was incredibly difficult, but that is not to say it is a bad film. Just that it successfully managed to make me both confused and utterly miserable with its tones and downright strange series of events. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is a film that aims to confuse. It is one that aims to make you feel uncomfortable. And by doing so it refers to social commentary in which, whether you enjoy the film or not in the end, is most certainly accurate.
That social commentary being one that pokes fun at society's inability to laugh and enjoy life. A society that takes itself far too seriously and as a result loses all personality and colour to it. What makes it appealing, however, is how the film makes you, the viewer, feel no different to the soulless beings it displays within its obscure scenes throughout its near two hours of runtime. It displays the monotone, and the lonely. In a way that impacts you directly, and I am always appreciative of films that are capable of conveying such emotions to a point in which they're felt by an audience, rather than simply told to them through narrative.
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
So how do we define such a film? One that is utterly bizarre for its entire runtime and intentionally aims to make you feel both confused and utterly miserable as it mocks your inability to enjoy life, by taking each and every moment so seriously. Where humanity has lost its inability to laugh and as a result has been reduced to not much more than machines that work tirelessly for nothing.
The truth is: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is a film that I cannot truly define. I have never really seen anything quite like it. As a result, I both utterly hated it and thoroughly enjoyed what it had to say about the world we live in, the world I am very much part of and contribute to.
To say it has a narrative is, well, a stretch: the film follows some salesmen around as they attempt to sell small products of joy to various locations. These items contain everything a cloud would need for a regular day at work. As you'd expect, as our characters roam around to different locations, nobody is really interested in purchasing these items of supposed laughter. And every now and then, we are met with a phrase that tells us of their goal: "we want to make you smile."
Such an expression is forever delivered without any charisma, of course. For even these men are void of laughter. They deliver their lines no different to the rest: slow, quiet, and monotone. I found it interesting that these characters attempting to sell their items of joy are completely void of joy themselves. Beaten down by society and incapable of enjoying the very items they are attempting to make a living from.
Though it is insanely unsettling to witness. Particularly as obscure events that make absolutely no sense begin to unfold within these regular environments; even a series of historical army men riding through buildings and the streets removing women from establishments for seemingly no real reason whatsoever other than to mix up the scenes and provide weirdness to an already weird world. It's through these moments that I truly felt lost and uncomfortable by the film. Where both nothing happens but everything happens at the same time, within a frame of green, grey, and brown.
It is here that A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence made me feel like a human sitting at his desk reflecting on his existence and questioning just what I was doing watching this film. Though, that is precisely the point of it: to make you realise the absurd nature of reality. To make you step back and ask: "Well, isn't this all a bit weird?"
I still do not know if I enjoyed it or not
As I sit here and write my thoughts out on the film, I still truthfully do not know whether A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence was a film I could say I actually enjoyed, and would happily recommend to someone else. I feel, for the most part, that there is no scenario where this film could be suggested to another. Only if you to not fail to mention that it is a film you most likely will not enjoy and is riddled with obscure events and will most certainly make them feel uncomfortable within the first fifteen minutes. It is a film that, once it ends, you will not know what to think of it. You know full well what the general idea of it was, and that it truly achieved at that. But that as a film, you are simply lost.
I cannot fail to mention that A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is a film that is beautifully shot, however. Each frame appears like a still photograph. With beautiful composition that I could say resembles the types of paintings you would find in an art gallery; and I suspect much of this was clearly intentional. There are many stories, even outside of the obscure in-your-face ones, that could be told within many of these frames, and it displays the reality of our lives: so many people within one room, with so many events unfolding all at once, all completely oblivious to the majority of us.
In fact, it can even speak of humanity's inability to communicate with each other. Where we sit in silence within rooms filled with others, but rarely do we engage with them and share ourselves. This is another highlight of the film's ability to display loneliness and reflect upon our society that aims to be alone and in silence, albeit completely unaware of just how depressing that really would be.
