Last night saw me and me chum Rita Thompson hitting the Hammer to take in Roy Anderson's latest, You, the Living, as part of the LA Film Festival. The film screened at 10 PM on a Monday night but the line was not a zoo at the Billy Wilder Theater and we got seats. For those readers familiar with Roy Anderson's previous film Songs From the Second Floor or his commercials for TV, you know what you've come for. Tragicomedy in one take in one frame. Genius when it works as it did for most of Songs.

You, the Living  is an exploration on the "grandeur of existence, centered around the lives of an overweight woman, a disgruntled psychiatrist, a heart broken groupie, a carpenter, a business consultant, an elementary school teacher with emotional issues and her rug selling husband, among others. I admit it flags at times, eliciting one or two audience members to laughter, but rarely the way I saw it.

Shot in an unconventional manner, it consists of a fluent succession of exactly 50 short set-ups each filmed in one take. Most of them have an absurd but all-too-human undertone. It utilizes a combination of alienating techniques such as presenting the characters in grim make-up and having them talk to the camera, turning them into highly expressed folks you see everyday but fail to see as well.

Anderson can be heavy-handed in his feelings about the death penalty (the set-up is funny as the devil) and other issues he feels strongly about. But when these moments flag, there is always his amazing production design (all scenes are filmed on sound stages!) and framing. A dream of a groupie at home after her wedding is flat-out amazing.

The audience laughter died out abit after the opening sequence but I chalk that up to mostly not knowing how to take Anderson. Is he being mean? Sarcastic? Serious? Funny? I can't think of a better compliment to pay a filmmaker, who while you decide on those questions, wows you with his moviemaking.