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Movies & TV TIFF 2019

TIFF review: About Endlessness (Om Det Oandliga)

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS (Om Det Oändliga) MAST D: Roy Andersson. Sweden/Germany/Norway. 75 min. Sep 11, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank 2 Sep 14, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank 3 Sep 15, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 13. Rating: NN


The arrival of a new Andersson movie every few years should be heralded as an event, even if the idiosyncratic Swedish auteur seems to be running out of things to say.

2014’s A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence and 2008’s You, The Living seemed like decent companion pieces to 2000’s masterful Songs From The Second Floor, finding interesting new ways to work within the absurdist tableaux format that is Andersson’s preferred mode of expression.

But About Endlessness feels thinly sketched and not especially insightful. 

Once again, Andersson tells stories through elaborate single-take vignettes in which an assortment of doughy Scandinavian everyfolk struggle with petty jealousies, class envy or some personal apocalypse – like a priest’s ongoing crisis of faith – until the scene ends in a blackout.

But it’s hard to ignore that most of this film’s vignettes are all setup and no punchline, leaving us wondering how, or if, the various pieces are meant to fit together, and what statement is being made.

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