Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This could be a good test to identify the top one percent of art house movie fans. For an average movie goer this film is a real hell to sit through. Don't expect a fun movie by looking at the "comedy" tag. It is an absurdist comedy, set in a bleak, gloomy city filled with pale people who are somehow devoid of humanity. It will leave a bitter taste in your mouth and probably haunt you. I myself wasn't in the mood for such a thing at the time I watched it and didn't enjoy it at all but I can see why some people like it. While I wouldn't give songs from the second floor a very high rating I suggest Roger Ebert's positive review, it sums up this movie pretty well.

some men wonder about ultimate meanings, and usually they are not found, other movies did that. some of them on a simpler scale_ like "the Seventh Seal"_ and some did it the hard way like this movie, here are symbols, some of them were simple to catch some were not as they were dug deep out of the memories and dreams of the artist, do we sacrifice our young ones to keep the elder as they are?, but are the elder comfortable with that?, do they live!!?, does any one who is ultimately good in our world always get accused and crucified?, do I have to live in an asylum if I'm a poet without a sense of trading?, do economists and old men with ties and ((experience)) actually understand a hick or is it all vomit?, do we have to carry all of our old trash with us no matter how heavy it is thinking that this is how we will get to the better moments?, funny!!, but happens!!, does it happen all the time?, in other words is this view universal or is it just a view out of the scope of one cinematographer?, very few will be able to decide.

I have seen a lot of movies, but recently not many have completely blown me away. Songs from the Second Floor did. The film does look accomplished, the scenery is stunning and the cinematography is done with deliberate disquietingly static insistence. The pace is meditative, again deliberately done to perhaps give the characters more humanity, but it is never dull. The story is told with a haunting and somewhat surrealistic atmosphere with some biting satirical elements, and even more impressive is its ability to effectively convey modern life's coldness and chaos. Songs from the Second Floor is directed beautifully and while completely improvised there is not an amateurish note in sight. In conclusion, an astounding film really. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I saw this movie at a theater in Stockholm, and i am really sorry, but when 1/3 of the audience starts booing and leaving the place in the middle of the movie, it wont go to the history as a fantastic film. The reason I saw it was off course the GREAT criticism it received by all the Swedish critics, the creme de la creme of movie lovers, as they say.I, painfully, saw the whole movie, but since about 2 minutes into the movie I wanted to leave and so did almost everybody in the theater. I've talked to so called "smart" people about this movie, and they say that it has a deep meaning, about the everyday stress that drives people crazy, but all I really think is that this movie is totally crap. Do not see this movie. You will feel bad afterward. Roy Anderson makes fantastic commercial movies though =)