Elephant Screening Report

Gabriel A.

MCM-150

Screening Report

Elephant

        There is constant steady camera angles throughout each scene with no real script being presented in any way, though quite frustrating at times it actually holds significance towards the structure of the film. Each time the camera follows a certain character through long, sometimes mundane periods of time. Each perspective brings out sort of an eerie ambiance to the film, displaying the more domestic and somewhat boring lives of people through their daily routines. With little to no dialogue, the movie emphasizes on the cinematic aspect to provide a suspenseful yet unorthodox storyline. The pacing is repetitive and drags out but by doing this, Gus was able to present a film with more emotional impact than any other high budget motion picture. By focusing on the important/insignificance roles of the actors through a nonlinear approach, the film is able to build a great deal of suspense as each character’s perspective slowly depict a clearer picture of the issue at hand. This gives the viewer a sense of helplessness as things unfold with no linear storytelling or resolve. The audience wants to feel safe by having structure within a film through rising action and ultimately a resolution that resolves everything, hopefully for the best. What makes this film so great is the fact that none of these elements are really present and instead shows the unpredictable, random occurrences that happens in real life. It's a different look and feel to the concept of drama in which it helps convey realism through actual real emotions rather than scripted methods and acting, this expresses that certain movies don’t always need to be entertaining and glamorized in order to have a great style or story. Instead of the consistent and predictable blockbusters that fuel this nation’s demographic demand for over the top films, Elephant breaks down to the very basic concepts of cinematography. Though the film was more or less an experimental piece, the artistic style displays the concept of pure cinema. Regardless of the confusing nature of the film as well as the low budget, it still was able to bring out very raw feelings which comments on the genius of Gus as he successfully broke away from the mainstream fundamentals of cinema and provide something absolutely unique in every sense of the word. Which brings this rhetorical question to mind, is there a cost towards just eating dessert over vegetables?