Alan Clarke’s final, bleak film is comprised of a string of steadicam shots that follow a man, usually around some damp urban landscape, en route to a killing. The first, apparently a custodian, is shot in a vacant school, and the view remains attached to the awkward position of his fresh, immobile corpse as the killer quickly exits the frame. Elephant is a remarkable cinematic concept (it benefits from its brief duration, as increased length would make it redundant). Its characters have no names and there is not a word of dialogue in its stringent forty minutes. Biographically, the film proposes relevance: it is theoretically modeled after politically motivated shootings in Northern Ireland—otherwise, and besides the discernible location, Elephant is absent of virtually any other context. The initial scenes are identical in their sparing “narrative,” and after them you understand the gimmick; the subsequent deaths inherit a macabre comedy. Watching this simple yet decidedly confrontational film (its obtuse title implies a problem that fails to be efficiently addressed), one is repeatedly winding a jack-in-the-box.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Blue Underground DVD
01 Dec 2004 3:00 AM | Submit Comment