Review of Giliap (1975) by Eric B — 10 Aug 2018

Before the world discovered Swedish director Roy Andersson with "Songs from the Second Floor" and subsequent films, he offered this 1975 tale about life in a miserable hotel restaurant. Appropriately, it begins with a funeral reception.

An unnamed, wholly desolate man arrives to work as a waiter. A cute waitress develops an attraction to him but, oops, a shabby co-worker (who ironically calls himself "The Count") already has a long-time, hopeless fixation on her.

Along the way, there's also an attempted criminal scheme that fails to add intrigue. Not much plot emerges beyond these scraps. The romantic struggles gain some heat in the last act, but most of the 130 minutes are spent on Andersson's typically dour, disconnected vignettes.

He hasn't quite nailed down his tone yet, however, so there's not that tricky, surreal mix of black humor and tragedy that becomes so unnerving in his later works. Laughs? Few to none in this overlong portrait of bedraggled, unsmiling characters.

On the other hand, "Giliap" has none of the shaky production values one might expect - Andersson was already a polished filmmaker. Keep your eye on the parrot.