Hi folks.
Glad to see some discussion of Van Sant's last three films, all of which
I like very much.
I'm a bit surprised to read that people found the portrayal of the teens
in Elephant to be sympathetic. Aside from a couple of the characters, I
found the film generally focused on the superficial banality of kids
living out their days in a rich suburban neighborhood. The girls
marching off to the bathroom to exercise their bulimia perhaps summed it
up best for me. By the time the shooting began, I felt as though Van
Sant might actually be suggesting that the uninspired lives these kids
lead was the reason they became the targets of the gunmen. But perhaps
my experience was overly influenced by the fact that when I first went
to see the film at my local AMC theatre they were piping in Queen's
"Another One Bites the Dust" just before the lights went down. I'm sure
it was just a coincidence rather than the work of a cynical
projectionist lurking behind closed doors relishing the opportunity to
tarnish our responses to the film. Oh wait, we don't have any
projectionists left in Canadian multi-plexes... Is this situation
pervasive in other parts of the world as well? Another topic for
another day...
In response to Ross's query about articles concerning Van Sant's films,
and if you'll pardon the shameless self-promotion, I do have a piece
about Gerry in which I touch on the idea of Van Sant's intertextual
relationships to other filmmakers. You can read it here:
http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/gerry3_pt1.html
Randolph.
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