Medias
Journal & grilles Appli mobile Newsletters Galeries photos
Medias
Journal des Grignoux en PDF + archives Chargez notre appli mobile S’inscrire à nos newsletters Nos galeries photos
Fermer la page

Booklet (extract) about the movie
Elephant
by Gus Van Sant
USA, 2003, 81 min

Here is one of the activities that you can find in the booklets "Écran large sur Tableau noir". Sorry, none of these booklets are currently in English. This page was translated by Charlotte Dumoulin. (Many thanks, Charlotte!)

Elephant by Gus Van Sant

Observation

Elephant by Gus Van Sant was given an ovation by the critics and also received the Palme d'or at the Cannes festival in 2003. However, some students who are used to a more "spectacular" movie genre (Hollywood productions) may not always agree with these positive opinions on the movie and they might even show some lack of understanding, some rejection or intolerance of a film, if the message is not easily understandable enough and if its esthetic choices are too surprising or disconcerting.

In order to avoid such reactions, we prefer to point out all the possible ways to create a real dialogue around the movie instead of insisting on this critical unanimity (which could be interpreted as an authoritarian argument). Some easy themes to broach with the students are the violence issues and the general discomfort of teenagers at school and in society.

The esthetic originality of the movie can't be ignored either, but in order to see, understand and even appreciate the film, some features that are usually ignored by the audience need to be pointed out. Since it is not possible to teach the students everything about the "film language" in a few minutes, you will be given about ten different observation instructions made to enable the students to focus their attention on all the important and significant elements of the movie. Each student will be given one single instruction so he/she can still enjoy watching th film. At the end of the movie, the students will compare their observations and share their impressions with the rest of the class.

Before watching the movie: a few observation instructions

The members of the audience are not supposed to receive more than one instruction before watching the movie.


There are two different ways of shooting a movie scene, whether by multiplying the points of view and showing the same scene from different angles, or by shooting the whole scene without cutting anything, which often implies lots of complicated movements for the movie camera in order to follow an actor or pass from an actor to another. In the first case, it is called a cut sequence (in several plans), and in the second one it is a sequence shot: in Elephant, you will be able to notice lots of sequence shots. Gus Van Sant (the movie director) never hesitates to keep shooting the character he has been following all along without cutting the scene. This is sometimes very hard to do because of the fluidity of the movements which are totally synchronized with all the other actors exists and entrances. If you pay attention, you will notice some of them.


There are two different types of music in a movie: on the one hand, there is the music made during the shoot, for example, when a character plays an instrument or turns on the radio, and on the other hand there is the accompaniment music which sounds like it is coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The latter is actually added to the scene during the final editing. In Elephant some famous classic pieces of music were added in these two different functions: try to find them.


Do you know classic music? In Elephant there are many famous classic pieces of music: can you identify some of them? If not, you will find their names at the end of the credits. The most important thing is to remember the impact it had on you: can you associate this music with any emotion or feeling (at least some of them) or do you remain indifferent to it?


Do you know what concrete music is? Well, as you know, music is usually made by...music instruments (guitar, piano, drums,...), but concrete music is made of many recorded noises and sounds that already exist (bird singing, floor cracking, shoe squeaking,...). Then, these noises are worked on again, put together and reused many times; but since it is an accompaniment music many members of the audience don't even notice it: try to pay attention to it and to the way it is used in the movie.


In a movie soundtrack you can hear all the actors talking but also all the background noises, shoe squeaking, floor cracking,... In Elephant, the movie director has worked on the soundtrack to recreate some special sound effects: the noises you hear in the movie don't correspond to what you are shown on the screen; they are either totally decreased in order to create a special atmosphere, or, on the contrary, they are isolated to create a weird background sound. Even if they notice these special noises, most of the members of the audience don't know where they are coming from: try to find some of these soundtrack manipulations.


You probably know what a movie slow motion is: an action is shown more slowly than in reality. It is often the case for the spectacular sequences (explosions, car crashes, jumps,...). In Elephant there are also a few unexpected slow motions on certain actions that could appear totally insignificant: can you find and remember them?


There are two ways of shooting a movie scene, whether by multiplying the points of view and showing the same scene from different angles, or by filming the same scene all along without cutting it, which often implies lots of complicated movements for the movie camera, which has to follow an actor or pass from an actor to another. In the first case it is called a cut sequence (in several plans), and in the second one it is called a sequence shot. In Elephant, Gus Van Sant (the movie director) obviously likes the sequence shots better, but there are two sequences which are extremely cut; the first one is quickly mixing places, moments and points of view. Try to find these two special sequences in the movie.


Do you know what a panoramic view is? Most of the time the movie camera is fixed to a stand that enables the camera to move around a vertical axis and shoot the surroundings. Panoramic plans are usually limited to small areas of about ten degrees. On the contrary, in Elephant, there are some 360 degree panoramic plans, which means that the camera makes a complete turnaround. Can you find these spectacular movements?


There are a few enigmatic plans in Elephant: the movie camera briefly lingers on a character, an object, a landscape without apparent reason. This may be the movie director's personal intention to insist on the beauty, the symbolical dimension, the fun or enigmatic aspects of something. During the projection of the movie, try to pay attention to these special images (at least some of them!).


You probably already know what a symbol is: it is a pretty conventional thing to which an unusual meaning is given. In our society, a cross has two meanings: Christian faith and the Red Cross, which is a charitable institution. Some symbols might not be that obvious and that being the case, their meaning may change from one person to another: for example, some people may think crows are just common birds whereas others might think they are birds of ill omen! In Elephant, there are many details that could have a symbolic meaning: try to find some of them.


The depth of field is the clearness area in a movie plan; so the foreground can be blurred if the important action is taking place in the background (or the opposite if the characters are filmed in a close-up shot when the background is all blurred). In Elephant, the movie director uses the depth of field in a very particular way: an important character can be blurred at first and then move forward and become more distinct; or some characters that are distant from each other can be filmed in the foreground and in the background at the same time in a very large depth of field, which makes the members of the audience pay attention to the whole space. Try to find some of these special uses of the depth of field technique.


There are many characters in Elephant; some of them are important and some are secondary characters; but surprisingly, Gus Van Sant (the movie director) never shoots these characters successively, and he prefers to film one actor after another in the same sequence; he starts filming the sequence with one character, and then he passes by another character and starts following the latter for a few minutes before passing to someone else. Try to find at least one sequence in which this special technique is used. Be as accurate as possible.


Surprisingly, some scenes are repetitive in Elephant, eventhough they are filmed under many different angles. Before trying to find out the reason why the movie director is repeating some scenes, try to find out where and when you can see such repetitions.

Click here for a complete list of all the educational booklets made by "Les Grignoux" for "Écran large sur tableau noir" project. (In French)

Tous les dossiers - Choisir un autre dossier