A story about this — 2 years ago
Elephant was on my “must-watch” movies list for a long, long time. I saw the stills of the movie in a film stills community and then read up on the Columbine shootings in-depth.
After having watched this movie, I am not sure how to exactly put my feelings in words. It is one of the movies that intrigues you for all the wrong reasons, and you don’t know what to make of it at the end.
I love the cinematography and the narrative style, but am unsure about the plot and the characters overall. In Elective English classes, we used to read about these one-dimensional characters – and that’s what all the characters in the movie seemed to be like..
Ah, well, I shall go rambling at this rate..shall get back to this soon after given the movie another go.
Comments
Atomboy
Devon
FYI
Gus Van Sant cites Bella Tarr as a key influence on the making of Elephant and films following this. He was particularly blown away by the fluid camerawork Tarr uses. If you have a look at Werkmeister Harmonies you can see the influence in the poetic flowing style of Elephant and the use of time shifts in the narrative. Elephant is one of my favourite films as is Werkmeister Harmonies.
we are intrepid;
Thank you for the comment.
Yes, I did notice the fine camera work. I suppose I had different expectations from the film because of the whole connection with the shootings – but its not like I did not enjoy the innovativeness of the script and the narrative style. It just takes time getting used to (for me personally) and I want to watch the movie again to better understand and appreciate it.