Underplayed Gems

Giliap (1975)

Giliap poster
Directed by
Roy Andersson
Genre
drama film
Country
Sweden
Runtime
2h 17m
Rating
5.5 of 10 from 22 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A man takes a job as a waiter at a hotel. He tries to find his place in a cold and indifferent world.

bleakmelancholicslow-burnintrospectiveatmosphericunsettlingsubduedrestrained

What happens

Giliap is a 1975 Swedish drama film directed by Roy Andersson, starring Thommy Berggren as a man who takes a job as a waiter at a hotel. It was a financial and critical failure, and it led to Andersson's not making another feature film for 25 years. Andersson admitted that the film contains flaws, and he said that the main reason for them was that he was not completely in control of the production, and therefore he had to compromise in several scenes. He also suggested that the audience was not ready for the film, expecting it to be more similar to his previous film A Swedish Love Story: "I think they didn't understand what I was doing. Later, when Kubrick came out with Barry Lyndon, people accepted that – it's the same mood. But these things take time." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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