http://www.blogcdn.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2009/08/youtheliving400jma.jpg
One of my favorite distributors in recent years has been Tartan Films, which distributed all kinds of Asian horror films as well as interesting, gutsy things like Oldboy](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/oldboy/20492/main), Lady Vengeance](http://www.cinematical.com/2006/04/27/review-lady-vengeance/), 12:08 East of Bucharest](http://www.cinematical.com/2006/09/17/tiff-review-12-08-east-of-bucharest/), Red Road](http://www.cinematical.com/2007/04/18/review-red-road/), The Death of Mr. Lazarescu](http://www.cinematical.com/2006/04/30/review-the-death-of-mr-lazarescu/), The Cave of the Yellow Dog](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0432325/) and Battle in Heaven](http://www.cinematical.com/2006/02/18/review-battle-in-heaven/). The company went through some tough times last year, but they have re-emerged, more or less, newly re-christened as Palisades Tartan. And one of their first decisions on active duty was to scoop up the distribution rights for Roy Andersson’s You, the Living](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/you-the-living-du-levande/32108/main) in the United States.
This film has been floating around for a while, playing at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and opening in its native Sweden in the fall of 2007. I saw it in the spring of 2008 at the San Francisco International Film Festival. I suspect that critic David Thomson saw it there as well, and he saw fit to include it in his recent book “Have You Seen…?”]("Have You Seen . . . ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films: Thomson, David: 9780307264619: Amazon.com: Books) a collection of short essays on 1000 of the most notable films ever made. It opened a few weeks ago in New York and will be slowly expanding to other cities throughout the fall. I wanted to include it on my list of the ten best films of 2008, but I felt that one screening at one film festival – and no regular distribution – disqualified it from consideration. Now I’m considering it a strong contender for 2009’s list.