A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (2014): Review

Stub • 273 Words • Film • 11/22/2025

⚠️ This post contains a rougher cut of my thoughts on the topic and may be updated in the future. Please forgive any mistakes or lack of polish!

A film rich in style:

• drab colors
• depth in frame and dynamic backgrounds
• fixed camera one shot scenes
• doors and windows or mirrors
• It’s Not Easy Being Human – The Living Paintings of Roy Andersson | Film Qualia on YouTube
• The Magnificent Anders(s)ons - The Look of Reality

Repetition:

• The sales pitch
• “I’m happy to hear you’re doing fine”
• Battlefield hymn of the republic
  • That war-chant in “A pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence” | r/TrueFilm
• One sided phone calls

Tone: eerie, uncomfortable, awkward/cringe

Usage of Humor:

• This movie is funny, but in a heady way that doesn’t produce any huge laughter (at least in my experience).
  • This is a real study in absurdity and how just incongruity can provide some spontaneous laughter but that anticipation really does a lot of the heavy lifting in humor.
• Deadpan surrealist nordic humor = whimsy??
• I think the absurd/surreal is definitely to showcase the inherent absurdity of life.
  • “You can’t feel the day of the week”

Contrast:

• The miserable novelty toy salesmen is a good humorous contrast.
• “i’m happy to hear you doing fine” and all the different contexts it could be said
• charles xii and current time
• the main characters mostly experience misfortune but then in the vignettes:
  • little moments of beauty; helping an old man put a coat on, little girls blowing bubbles, a mother playing with her baby
  • the vignettes don’t really follow the style of the movie they seem almost outside of it

I do think that some things are played purely for shock value.

• Animal cruelty
• Sexual assault (kinda played for laughs?)
• Murder/ethnic cleansing (could’ve been a dream technically)