The
youthful color of the elephant is bright, and the same is true of "The Elephant". There are not too many dark tones in the whole film, basically in the state of sunshine in autumn, the campus scenery is pleasant, and the classroom windows are bright and clean. Even if the sky is the same color as the clouds at the beginning and end of the film, the filtered colors are dim but still pure. Looking at the film from the tone of color, it reveals a little publicity in the dilution, which is very suitable for the eyes and mind of youth.
The nonlinear narrative structure adopted in "The Elephant" is very casual in effect, and the multi-perspective reproduction of the same time and space is also full of game sense. Shortly after the opening, handsome Nathan and black guy Benny are playing football, and then Michelle, a curly-haired girl running in circles around the playground, enters the camera, looking up at the sky, and Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (as we know later, freckles) plays in the sky (voice-over). Killer Eric is playing this song at home at this time). The appearance of the three characters is explained in one scene, and the fate of the three of them is entangled (all killed by the killer) through a hidden character to pave the way for the subsequent shock. This arrangement is not so much ingenuity as it is a game.
There is also an obvious interlaced time and space of three perspectives. The blonde boy John, who was about to leave the teaching building, and Elias, a photographer who entered the building, met in the corridor, and the curly-haired girl Michelle hurried past them. This shot was taken with three people as the viewpoints. It is hard to say that it has too much meaning to reveal the theme except to increase the viewing interest, but it strengthens the audience's sense of destiny. You watch until you go crazy.
The long shot of "The Elephant" is slightly subjective while watching the characters, and sometimes it is very meaningful to follow the characters out of the way. Handsome Nathan returned from the court to the school building, and the camera followed quietly behind. Until he turned down the hill and was about to enter the building, the camera stopped, as if he couldn't bear to let him in, but he had no choice but to stop in place, hesitated, and then followed in.
god of elephants
The cruelty of youth has always come at the cost of naked destruction. In this sense, "The Elephant" is a standard cruel youth, but to be honest, I don't feel that way.
Freckled killer Eric is bullied by handsome Nathan, and it seems his only option is to endure. This typical vulnerable individual has an air bag image, plays the piano well, has a friend (Alex) who he can talk to, and is definitely an ordinary and a bit wretched boy. There are such boys everywhere, such as our Ma Xiaojun and Xiao Si, one is posing in front of the mirror, the other is shaking with a flashlight, all trying to vent their grievances and libidos.
There is no need for bitterness and hatred. Let the so-called background of the times, social phenomena, and ideology all go to hell. Youth cannot carry so much sober understanding, as long as it is unhappy. But the premise is, what can you offer me. So there are killing games on the computer, gun-selling websites that you click at random, and fascism on the TV screen, but these are not themes, they are just backgrounds at best, they seem to affect Eric and Alex, but they are just a little blind. thing.
Lightness is the theme of youth. If you give me a candy, I will be sweet. If you give me a kiss, I will be happy. If you give me a gun, I will kill. Think about your own adolescence, have you ever thought about owning a gun when you were aggrieved and angry. Those "juvenile sorrows" magnified by our hearts are big enough to kill people, but in "The Elephant" even with some deliberate objectivity and calmness, it is nothing more than a kind of youthful lightness.
If a movie other than the elephant
can move us, it is sincere; if it can bring out some reflections, it is wise; if it can convey a kind of poetry, then it is perfect. Often we are excited and speculative, but end up with an empty aftertaste. Because poetic films can easily become artificial, few people dare to flaunt them easily.
Gus Van Sant is a director of ups and downs, perhaps because of his long puberty, so the theme of depicting the restlessness of youth has not changed. It is particularly noteworthy that, starting from "Gary", through the so-called "death trilogy" composed of "The Elephant" and "The Last Days", and most recently "Skate Park", the extreme "minimalism" he advocates. The bizarre style created by "Islamicism" - extremely simple pictures, stories, music, etc., but by no means rudimentary.
Whether youth is cruel or not, it seems to have no meaning to the young people. I exist, I destroy, and I accept my fate. Only when youth has passed away can its cruelty sting us so clearly, but apart from grief, it seems that there is nothing left to do.
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