What do writers see when they watch a film? What impressions do they take home from a museum? How are visual arts, film and literature connected through the writer? Every month Writers in the Dark invites a writer to have his or her favourite film screened. First, we discuss which impact images and film in particular have on the work of the writer. The writer tells how seeing and writing and literature and film are connected, using images and clips. In doing so, the writer not only offers a glimpse into the practice of writing, but also into ways in which literature and the visual arts differ or on the other hand how they overlap and complement each other.
On 13 December writer/poet Maarten van der Graaff will be our guest. Van der Graaff (1987) debuted in 2013 with his poetry collection Vluchtautogedichten, for which he received the C. Buddingh' Prize. His next, also award-winning, collection Doodwerk won the J.C. Bloem Prize. In 2017 he debuted as a novelist with Wormen en engelen. Van der Graaff will talk about Roy Andersson's award-winning 2000 film Songs From the Second Floor. The conversation will be moderated by Basje Boer, writer and film journalist.
Songs from the Second Floor
It is far from easy to summarize an original film like Roy Andersson's Songs from the Second Floor. At first glance, Songs seems to be a loose collection of carefully choreographed scenes depicting a weird world populated by equally weird characters: a magician sawing a man in half, dead creditors, murderous bishops, etc.
The unifying theme lies in the film’s symbolic layer, in which Andersson absurdly and humorously comments on the human condition. Strikingly, all the images are carefully composed in muted colours. Inspired by the work of Peruvian poet César Vallejo. Awarded at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and more.
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