On The External Form And Connotation Of "Static" In Roy Andersson’s Films

Swedish director Roy Andersson has attracted much attention for his unique image style and humanistic care in his works such as A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence and About Endlessness in recent years.Most of his works are short film collections composed of 30 or 40 independent clips,this paper notices that these images showing absurd,humorous and poetic life scenes contain a "static" style that is different from most films.This metaphysical "static" is relative to the essence of image motion and deserves attention both in external expression and connotation.On the external performance level,Andersson weakens the dynamic feeling in the picture through low saturation,low contrast tones and light and shadow,forming a flat visual style;by canceling montage and close-up,the obvious director’s intention in ordinary films is weakened,and the telephoto lens is fixed in a constant position similar to watching dramas,so as to encourage the audience to observe the whole scene and think independently;through the ingenious setting Andersson can build a hypothetical reality situation,such as Maeterlinck’s static drama which focuses on the presentation of static space rather than dynamic events to characters.On the connotation level,the film fuzzies the image and personality of the characters,interprets various living predicaments that modern people can’t get rid of in ordinary and trivial urban segments,and has something in common with Maeterlinck’s daily tragedy theory and Beckett’s absurd drama.In fact,Andersson sought to express the texture and rich levels similar to painting in films,and completed the image expression of this painting characteristic in a static style.This paper will refer to Andersson’s personal experience and views,analyze the external multiple forms of "static" in his films,and explore the deep connotation behind it with the help of static drama theory and existentialism philosophy,etc.