I just saw Elephant--for me, it was one of those movies that are life changing. It reaffirmed my love for film.

But that aside, I'd like to toss a few thoughts on this film out there.

Nearly everything is out-of-focus except for the character being followed. Could this be because the characters are so consumed in their personal affairs that they ignore what is happening around them?

A character is interjected towards the end of the film and then promptly killed. Perhaps this is saying that the shootings are indiscriminate and arbitrary--or that so many people die without us knowing much of anything about them. Shot--dead--gone--that's all: it was so sudden, I was caught off guard.

When the photographer enters the development lab, everything comes into focus. Maybe this demonstrates that this character truly loved what he was doing--and pays attention to every minute detail because it is his passion.

Okay--enough random ideas. I just really loved the film. I want to know if anyone else out there had similar views of this film. Let me know.

"All it takes is one loss, Freeman. At a practice, at a competition--they're always keeping score.

I saw it yesterday and thought it to be briliant as well. Even though the directing was very suble, like with few cuts, that was very apropriate for this kind of subject matter. It could have been fast paced and the director could have thrived on the violence, but here it was just sudden fire, then seeing the reactions to the violence. Good thing he is not an action movie director.

That was really cool how they got only the primary subject in focus. How did they do that? It looked like they had to be using a wide lens, and anything even a few feet away was REALLY out of focus.
I noticed a few suble things also. SPOILERS--> before the first shot, how the girl and the photographer did'nt take the shooters' guns seriously, and then it became totally aparent to them. Most of the killings were shown properly as flat and meaningless, maybe like the reasons the shooters did this. The meat freezer was also symbolic. The shots of the sky changing also added nice touches to the film. There was so much more, I just have to see it again.

Is the Angelika the only place around here that shows independent films?

"All it takes is one loss, Freeman. At a practice, at a competition--they're always keeping score."

Try either the Landmark River Oaks theatre or the Lanmark Greenway 3, but Angelica has the biggest selection. The river oaks theatre is pretty cool because every weekend at midnight they play a classic movie like Apocalypse Now or A Clockwork Orange, and many others.

The reason everyone is leftout of focus when a character was being followed wasn't about ignorning other people at all I think. It was supposed to give focus the attention on the character and how they saw things in their day to day life.

But I do agree with the point behind introducing Benny and then having his character killed. One of the things this movie did so effectivly was introduce you to a character so that you become attachted to them, intruiged by their life. Then, without warning, any of them could have been killed. When they did, no matter who it was, you felt for them and became sick to your stomach. Thats at least how I felt...

-Thomas Chalifour

Writer/Director/Actor Extrodinaire
Tommy Boy Productions

The Creative Process

thanks for the info about the other theaters

"I fear that Omelas so far strikes some of you as goody-goody. Smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh. If so, please add an orgy. If an orgy would help, don't hesitate." -LeGuin