England,
1989, 37 min
Shown in 1993
CREDITS
- dir
-
Alan Clarke
- prod
-
Danny Boyle
- scr
-
Alan Clarke, Bill Morrison, Chris Ryder
- cam
-
John Ward, Phillip Dawson
- editor
-
Don O’Donovan
- cast
-
Gary Walker, Michael Foyle, R.J. Taylor, Patrick Condren
- source
-
BBC TV
-
COMMENTS
Shown as part of tribute to Alan Clarke.
OTHER
Elephant is Ireland taken to a terrible, surreal extreme: It is—no more, no less—the filming of 18 murders. The people are actors and the deaths are arranged, designed almost, and filmed with something like beauty. But there is no talk, no hint of context or explanation, just the list, the monotony and the wonder in so many deaths (the real Ireland has had over 2,000 sectarian killings). Viewers can walk away, become connoisseurs of slaughter, go into outrage, or face their helplessness.
—David Thompson
FACTOID #51
The first silent film screened at the Festival (now an annual tradition) was The Scarlet Letter (1924) by the great Swedish director Victor Sjöström, on October 24, 1968. The film’s star, Lillian Gish, was honored with an in-person tribute two days later.
