''A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence'' () is a 2014 internationally co-produced

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

comedy-drama film written and directed by

Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedes, Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdism, absurdist humor and Melancholia, melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by ...

. It is the third installment in his "Living" trilogy, following '' Songs from the Second Floor'' (2000) and ''

You, the Living ''You, the Living'' () is a 2007 Cinema of Sweden, Swedish Black comedy, black Comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Roy Andersson. The film is an exploration of the "grandeur of existence", centered on the lives of a group of ind ...

'' (2007). It premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival where it was awarded the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

for Best Film. It was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated. It was released in Sweden on 14 November 2014, by TriArt Film. Its title is a reference to the 1565 painting '' The Hunters in the Snow'' by

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...

. The painting depicts a rural wintertime scene, with some birds perched on tree branches. Andersson said he imagined that the birds in the scene are watching the people below, wondering what they are doing. He explained the title of the film as a "different way of saying 'what are we actually doing', that's what the movie is about." At the Venice Film Festival, Andersson said that the film had been inspired by the 1948 Italian film '' Bicycle Thieves'' by

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...

Plot

The

slow cinema Slow cinema is a genre of art cinema characterised by a style that is minimalist, observational, and with little or no narrative, and which typically emphasizes long takes.Steven RoseTwo Years At Sea: little happens, nothing is explained ''The Guar ...

movie, hyper reality, consists of a series of mostly self-contained tableaux, sometimes connected by recurring themes or characters. The story loosely follows two travelling novelty salesmen, Jonathan and Sam, who live in a desolate flophouse, and their unsuccessful attempts to win customers for their joke articles (vampire teeth, laughing bags and a monster mask). Although there is no main storyline in the traditional sense, all scenes are connected.

Cast

* Holger Andersson as Jonathan * Nils Westblom as Sam

Reception

''A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence'' received an 89% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The consensus reads: "Expertly assembled and indelibly original, ''A Pigeon Sat on a Branch'' concludes writer-director Roy Andersson's Living trilogy in style." The film also received a score of 81 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, based on 23 reviews. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

References

External links

* * * *
''A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting on Existence'' on kinocritics.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, A 2014 films 2014 black comedy films Films directed by Roy Andersson Golden Lion winners European Film Awards winners (films) Cultural depictions of Charles XII of Sweden Swedish avant-garde and experimental films Swedish black comedy films Swedish drama films Swedish independent films Non-narrative films 2010s avant-garde and experimental films 2010s Swedish films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links