Roy Andersson's Political Aesthetics

Halmstad University Post-Print

The language of the complex image: Roy Andersson’s political aesthetics

Dagmar Brunow

N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original article.

Original Publication:

Brunow, D. The language of the complex image: Roy Andersson’s political aesthetics. Bristol: Intellect Ltd.; Journal of Scandinavian Cinema. 2010;1(1):83-86.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jsca.1.1.83_1 Copyright: Intellect Ltd. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk

Post-Print available at: Halmstad University DiVA http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-5839 JSCA 1 (1) pp. 83–86 Intellect Limited 2010

short subject

DAGMAR BRUNOW Halmstad University/Hamburg University

The language of the complex image: Roy Andersson’s political aesthetics

ABSTRACT The opening of Swedish director KEYWORDS Departing from the opening scene of Roy Andersson’s short film Härlig är Roy Andersson Roy Andersson’s 1991 short Härlig jorden/World of Glory (1991) is almost film style är jorden/World of Glory, the arti- certainly one of the cruellest scenes political aesthetics cle gives an overview of the director’s in film history. A group of naked Holocaust political aesthetics outlined in his book men, women and children is being André Bazin Vår tids rädsla för allvar. Through shoved into an open van in order to Martin Buber the use of static long shots, stylization be slowly gassed under the unmoved and the condensation of time and space gaze of bystanders. Yet, while other Andersson attempts to activate reflec- directors would try to cause a shock tion upon existential questions such as effect through the use of montage of solidarity and the individual’s respon- close-ups, Andersson presents the sibility. In this scene from World of scene as a static tableau in one single Glory Andersson links these ideas with long shot. This scene, I would argue, a critique of Swedish passivity during contains Andersson’s political aes- the Holocaust. thetics in a nutshell.

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RoyAndersson/Studio24

In the sense of Godard’s famous reminded of Gillian Rose’s critique dictum according to which every (1996) of Schindler’s List (Spielberg, camera angle is a moral statement, 1993), the sentimentality of which Andersson explains his political also aroused Roy Andersson’s aesthetics (and ethics) in his book scepticism (cf. Andersson 2010: 277). Vår tids rädsla för allvar/‘Our Time’s Rose suggests that a film should Fear of Seriousness’ (1995/2009) strive to make the audience identify outlining his concept of what he not only with the victims, but also terms ‘the language of the complex with the perpetrators. Viewers image’. Following André Bazin, should ask themselves: ‘What would Andersson advocates the long I have done instead?’ The mise-en- shot as a means of objectifying scène employed in World of Glory, the image. In World of Glory no as well as its lack of sentimentality, close-ups evoke identification and activates the audience and invites it empathy with the victims, and no to reflect on its own standpoint. Or, montage or camera angles guide; as Andersson puts it in Vår tids rädsla instead, the spectators themselves för allvar: have to critically analyse the image. During the gassing, one of the How should we deal with this witnesses of the scene turns around knowledge of what humans are and looks obliquely behind him where capable of? Is it possible to escape the camera is positioned at eye level this knowledge? Is it possible to as a stand-in for another spectator. prevent it from happening again? His gaze can be said to address the How could it ever happen? Are audience as if to ask about his own we able to understand why? Why as well as others’ moral responsibility does history repeat itself? as bystanders to the killing. One is (Andersson 2010: 276)

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Another means Andersson uses to raise inspired by Martin Buber’s philosophy these questions is the condensation of dialogue. Especially his 1923 work of time and space. The mode of Ich und Du/I and Thou (Buber 2005) killing alludes to the Holocaust, outlines how we can relate to our connoting the 1940s German fellow humans in two ways, either occupation of eastern Europe when by regarding them as objects (a the German Nazis used gas vans to utilitarian approach that we find in the kill people in Poland and the Soviet most varied social systems, whether Union. However, the spectators or national socialism or late capitalism) bystanders in the scene are dressed in or as fellow subjects, as equals. The contemporary, rather timeless business scene also epitomizes existentialist suits (if the actors had worn uniforms, philosophy according to which every this would, according to Andersson, individual has a responsibility for have made it easier for viewers to his or her decisions (cf. Sartre 2007). distance themselves from them), while Thus, the cruelty of the scene does not multi-storey buildings can be seen in derive from the shocking effect of a the background. This anachronism montage of attractions, but from the condenses different layers of time uncanniness of the audience’s feeling into one single image. The filmic when it becomes apparent that the space has turned into a social space, film provides no instructions on what which is pervaded by political and to think. The film does not explain or historical discourses. Yet, in contrast to resolve its topic: ‘And it is exactly this neo-realism, for example, the spaces complexity that modern people seem in Andersson’s later films are highly to be afraid of: the experience lingers, stylized and defy any notion of social one cannot leave it behind’ (Andersson realism. I would argue that Andersson’s 2010: 277). Thus, World of Glory use of space can be regarded as a continues the project of developing Brechtian distancing device to oppose his political aesthetics that Andersson illusionism and activate the spectator. launched in 1987 with Någonting Andersson uses this technique to har hänt/Something Happened (1993). play out his critique of the Swedish These aesthetics, with their elaborate passivity, anti-intellectualism and use of sound, the faded colour scheme lack of historical consciousness that and the stylization of the setting pervades contemporary Swedish can be found both in Andersson’s society. Consequently, Andersson feature films Sånger från andra våningen/ became one of the organizers of the Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and exhibition ‘Sweden & the Holocaust’ Du levande/You, the Living (2007), and (2005–06), which critically examined not least – perhaps paradoxically – in Sweden’s passivity in the face of the his commercials, many of which Holocaust (Forum för Levande Historia have already become cult classics. 2010). According to Andersson, the attitude that led to the Holocaust – the ideology of the Übermensch, not facing REFERENCES responsibility for one’s decisions, Andersson, Roy ([1995] 2009), Vår fear of seriousness, contempt for tids rädsla för allvar, revised people – still lives on in our time, edition, Stockholm: Studio 24 with the retreat of the welfare state Distribution/Filmkonst. and its ideals of solidarity and —— (2010), ‘The Complex Image’, in mutual support. While echoing Elie M. Larsson and A. Marklund (eds), Wiesel’s statement that the opposite Swedish Film: An Introduction and of love is not hate, but indifference, Reader, Lund: Nordic Academic Andersson’s aesthetics are also highly Press, pp. 274–78.

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Buber, Martin (2005), I and Thou, SUGGESTED CITATION London: Continuum. Brunow, D. (2010), ‘The language Forum för Levande Historia (2010), of the complex image: Roy ‘Sverige och Förintelsen’, http:// Andersson’s political aesthetics’, www.levandehistoria.se/projekt/ Journal of Scandinavian Cinema sverigeochforintelsen. Accessed 1: 1, pp. 83–86, doi: 10.1386/ 13 August 2010. jsca.1.1.83_1 Rose, Gillian (1996), Mourning Becomes the Law: Philosophy and Representation, Cambridge: CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS Cambridge University Press. Dagmar Brunow has been a Sartre, Jean-Paul (2007), Existentialism lecturer in film studies at Halmstad is a Humanism, New Haven, CT: University (Sweden) since 1999 and Yale University Press. has also taught at the universities of Lund, Växjö (both Sweden) and FILM REFERENCES Hamburg (Germany). She is a board member of filmvet.se, the Swedish Andersson, Roy (1991), Härlig är national association of film studies. jorden, Sweden. Additionally she works as a literary —— (1993), Någonting har hänt, translator and as a host at the radio Sweden. station FSK 93.0 in Hamburg, and as —— (2000), Sånger från andra våningen, a contributor to the journal testcard, Sweden. Beiträge zur Popgeschichte. —— (2007), Du levande, Sweden. Contact: [email protected]

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