Elephant (2003)

this week i'm being very lucky. every day i saw a movie that impressed me. and today is no less.



asking a friend right before watching the movie, he told me: "i didn't like it very much. i think it's just opportunist."
yes, i remember what happened in Columbine. and what happened just one week ago, again. and i never thought an american would be able to talk about it with such cold blood like Gus Van Sant did. talking about it means recreating the whole scene. no sets, no big actors, no budget almost. just two balls, a privileged mind and the virtue of not listening to others.

another friend told me: "i hated it. i don't like this kind of movies where actors look straight into the camera."
my response, now: it's kind of hard not to look into the camera when the director puts it right in front of your face during 50% of the movie. and they look just a couple of times. that's not bad. actually i kind of liked it.

there are so many details, directing details, and editing details, van sant puts inside this movie. delicate slow motion cameras, fabulous steadicam, even some characteristics of dogma films. and then there's the music. yes, we all had heard it before, but not these 'singular' interpretations, and they fit perfectly.

didn't i mention the actors are non professional? well then, they already are. if they wanted to create the true high school feeling, they achieved that from the very first moment. there's john robinson, the blond guy, and also the next joe dalessandro. and alex frost, the calmest killer ever.


i completely agree with cannes 2003 juror: this movie deserves the award much more than Dogville (2003) did. now i'm dying to see again My Own Private Idaho (1991), i thing i'll get a different feeling than the first time i watched it, years ago.
is gus van sant becoming a new genious? if he makes another movie like this one, he will be.

MY RATING: 8.5
http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/


i forgot to say that the first draft of Elephant was written by J.T.LeRoy, the writer (and true protagonist) of ASIA ARGENTO's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004). another future genious? not yet, but...