"An Elephant Sitting Still" is a hard film to think about, let alone write about. I went in expecting to see something depressing yet captivating and cathartic. The experience was in reality something far harder to engage with. Apart from the occasional musical relief, it is deathly quiet. The characters rarely smile, and even when they do it's only to laugh at the almost poetic awfulness of their predicaments. They are usually aggressive to each other, but rarely shout. Even when something bad happens, there is no melodramatic outcry; people simply carry on as if nothing matters. And all of this is enveloped, with no respite, in a wasteland that offers no visual relief. This film is utterly depressing to watch, not in a positive way but because it feels, until close to the end, like the product of someone with a completely nihilistic worldview.
The visuals only serve to reinforce the film's gloominess. The tone can be described as a dull grey, a grey you see everywhere. In the dilapidated buildings, in the roads, in the sky, in the camera's filter... and in the people. It shows, I suppose, just how much an environment can affect behaviour. The characters in the film have no hope (aside from their desire to escape) and it's no wonder given the drab skyline. There is a stark beauty in a showdown scene near the end of the film that takes place by a railway line. The whole scene is brilliantly shot and great from a character perspective too. As the camera moves to show the landscape, I'm struck with one of the few truly great visual moments of the film.
People's troubles are compounded by the way they treat each other, always shouting, always assuming the worst of each other whether it's the bully who thinks a colleague has stolen his phone or a boy's own family being suspicious of him. You can't help but think that if people helped each other a bit more they might end up a little bit happier. It's also hard not to notice how much people's lives are dictated by money. Whether it's a broken desk, a cue or a dead dog, money is what people assume others want. Not an apology, or an act of kindness, but money. This I think illustrates Hu Bo's cynicism about society - people go on living but they don't live for anything. They don't want to know that an act of kindness can be worth more than Yuan.
One way to read Elephant is as a commentary on the urban decay specific to China, but you can also see it as existential. If it is existential rather than relating specifically to local problems, then it is even more depressing as it seems as if Hu Bo had nothing optimistic to say about our existence at all. If the camera is a sort of character, what that character feels is an emptiness as strong as the characters themselves. And this is where my major problem with Elephant lies. If you want to show something about your characters, you shouldn't give the camera the same personality as your characters. But that is exactly what Hu Bo does, infusing it with the same nihilism as he infuses his characters. It means the impression of this film is rather one-note. Yes, it has lots to say, but despite seeming to point out the characters' problems are often a result of their own outlook, for most of the duration of the film Hu Bo adopts the same nihilistic outlook as his characters.
The lack of nuance extends to some of the scenes most intended to be shocking. There is a clear intention to get across the hopelessness and unkindness of its characters but the hilariously unnuanced way the script is written creates the opposite feeling of the viewer to that which is intended. This is most obvious during a mother-daughter argument that turns into a hilariously overplayed slurry of insults. It's not distressing to watch; it's cringeworthy! Other times, people cry about how awful the world is and I find myself wondering if Hu Bo couldn't have been a bit more subtle in conveying his existential ideas.
Every character is the same, and once you understand them there isn't that much more to learn, certainly not enough to justify the four-hour runtime. Throughout the film, the performances don't add any more nuance to the characterisation. If it wasn't for the fact that they looked different, I wouldn't be able to tell the characters apart by their acting, dialogue or behaviour.
There is some positivity to be gleaned from this film if you look for it. Although there are things the characters endure that they cannot change, the way they treat each other makes their suffering worse. If they treated each other a little bit better, they might all be a bit happier. A discussion near the end, in which someone reveals that wherever you go, it doesn't get any better, hints at that the problem, ultimately, is with you. Most optimistic in my eyes is the final shot, seeing the characters get off the bus and kick a ball around. It feels like a hint that they may finally have realised that fact of life. Ultimately though, the journey to that conclusion is a clunky one. Throughout the four-hour film there is no hint of the tonal swerve until the final twenty minutes. Thus it's a very imperfect film, even if it is a heartfelt one. I would have loved to see where Hu Bo would go from here as he displayed some great filmmaking, but unfortunately we won't ever know.
The visuals only serve to reinforce the film's gloominess. The tone can be described as a dull grey, a grey you see everywhere. In the dilapidated buildings, in the roads, in the sky, in the camera's filter... and in the people. It shows, I suppose, just how much an environment can affect behaviour. The characters in the film have no hope (aside from their desire to escape) and it's no wonder given the drab skyline. There is a stark beauty in a showdown scene near the end of the film that takes place by a railway line. The whole scene is brilliantly shot and great from a character perspective too. As the camera moves to show the landscape, I'm struck with one of the few truly great visual moments of the film.
People's troubles are compounded by the way they treat each other, always shouting, always assuming the worst of each other whether it's the bully who thinks a colleague has stolen his phone or a boy's own family being suspicious of him. You can't help but think that if people helped each other a bit more they might end up a little bit happier. It's also hard not to notice how much people's lives are dictated by money. Whether it's a broken desk, a cue or a dead dog, money is what people assume others want. Not an apology, or an act of kindness, but money. This I think illustrates Hu Bo's cynicism about society - people go on living but they don't live for anything. They don't want to know that an act of kindness can be worth more than Yuan.
One way to read Elephant is as a commentary on the urban decay specific to China, but you can also see it as existential. If it is existential rather than relating specifically to local problems, then it is even more depressing as it seems as if Hu Bo had nothing optimistic to say about our existence at all. If the camera is a sort of character, what that character feels is an emptiness as strong as the characters themselves. And this is where my major problem with Elephant lies. If you want to show something about your characters, you shouldn't give the camera the same personality as your characters. But that is exactly what Hu Bo does, infusing it with the same nihilism as he infuses his characters. It means the impression of this film is rather one-note. Yes, it has lots to say, but despite seeming to point out the characters' problems are often a result of their own outlook, for most of the duration of the film Hu Bo adopts the same nihilistic outlook as his characters.
The lack of nuance extends to some of the scenes most intended to be shocking. There is a clear intention to get across the hopelessness and unkindness of its characters but the hilariously unnuanced way the script is written creates the opposite feeling of the viewer to that which is intended. This is most obvious during a mother-daughter argument that turns into a hilariously overplayed slurry of insults. It's not distressing to watch; it's cringeworthy! Other times, people cry about how awful the world is and I find myself wondering if Hu Bo couldn't have been a bit more subtle in conveying his existential ideas.
Every character is the same, and once you understand them there isn't that much more to learn, certainly not enough to justify the four-hour runtime. Throughout the film, the performances don't add any more nuance to the characterisation. If it wasn't for the fact that they looked different, I wouldn't be able to tell the characters apart by their acting, dialogue or behaviour.
There is some positivity to be gleaned from this film if you look for it. Although there are things the characters endure that they cannot change, the way they treat each other makes their suffering worse. If they treated each other a little bit better, they might all be a bit happier. A discussion near the end, in which someone reveals that wherever you go, it doesn't get any better, hints at that the problem, ultimately, is with you. Most optimistic in my eyes is the final shot, seeing the characters get off the bus and kick a ball around. It feels like a hint that they may finally have realised that fact of life. Ultimately though, the journey to that conclusion is a clunky one. Throughout the four-hour film there is no hint of the tonal swerve until the final twenty minutes. Thus it's a very imperfect film, even if it is a heartfelt one. I would have loved to see where Hu Bo would go from here as he displayed some great filmmaking, but unfortunately we won't ever know.