“Like a collaboration between Monty Python and Samuel Beckett in the last days of the Neue Sachlichkeit. You just have to watch it, then grab a net and try to coax your soul back down from the ceiling.” (Robbie Collin, The Telegraph)
“A cavalcade of oddness, humour, banality and even horror...manages the uniquely Anderssonian trick of not just making you notice the absurdity of existence, but reminding you to love that absurdity as well. Life is unlikely, humans are ridiculous, and the world is cruel: isn’t it great?” (Jessica Kiang, IndieWire)
“A cross between a Where’s Waldo cartoon and a Gregory Crewdson photograph, the best way to approach it is as you might a large-canvas painting or a Jacques Tati film. Where other directors seek out exceptional moments, Andersson endeavors to capture the poetry of the mundane.” (Peter Debruge, Variety)
Concluding the trilogy on being human (along with Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living), A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE follows Sam and Jonathan, a modern-day Don Quixote and Sancho, two travelling salesmen peddling grotesque party masks and quarrelling continuously. Sam, who considers himself the brains of the operation, ceaselessly patronizes his companion. Jonathan is slow and phlegmatic, finding happiness in the simple act of eating. Taking us on a kaleidoscopic wandering through multiple human destinies, the two inspire hilarity as much as gravity. We wander through the film, tasting the beauty and absurdity of the moment, surrounded by others all too much like ourselves. It is a journey that unveils the beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humour and tragedy hidden within us, life’s grandeur as well as the ultimate frailty of humanity.
