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An Elephant Sitting Still: Difficult (But Necessary) Cinema.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ย. 2022
- Much more somber than my usual content, but a video essay I've felt compelled to make for a long time. Here's why I think Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) is a necessary watch for the world of today.
LETTERBOXD: letterboxd.com...
TWITTER: / thefilmseeker
Thanks for watching.
just watched this movie.. one of the most devastating film i've ever seen. When you are alive but you don't feel alive yet you are still searching for hope on the otherside.
The movie is slow, life like. And in the end you have no answers. You make whatever you want of it. It is art. It mimics life and beautifully transferred to the screen.
R.I.P Hu Bo.
Thank you for this. As a Chinese who has over the years despised C drama and C films due to the lack of professionalism, lack of talent and the over saturation of fast food entertainment made by money laundering idiots ( I could talk ages about this) this film made my eyes lit up since I saw hope. Hu’s passing as a rare talent in todays soulless and capitalist entertainment world was absolutely gut wrenching. He never got to see how much he is loved not just by other Chinese but by global fans. His mum took the award home and we never get to see another film of his. Appreciate you doing this clip
It’s an honour just to help keep his legacy going.
Have u seen jia zhangke films?
Masterpiece of a film this is my new favourite film of all time i watched this a few days ago this is really such a powerfull film R.I.P Hu Bo you will be missed.
Elephant Sitting Still is one of my favorite films, and it's the one that I decided to put on my nametag at the theater I work at. It's beautiful and haunting in equal measure, and when I immersed yourself in its world for so long the briefest glimpse of happiness at the end was enough to bring me to tears. I've heard some people say that it feels like a suicide note from Hu Bo, and that couldn't be further from the truth - it's a movie that honestly stares into how grim the world can be and offers that we don't have to let that darkness consume us. That's what makes what happened after its completion so singularly tragic. Rest in peace.
Watched it yesterday, I love how they used the camera taking realy close shots that adds to the ambient of the movie
this is easily one of the 5 greatest films made in this millennium
Thank you so much for giving this film the attention it deserves. It truly is a masterpiece, and regardless of it being pretty depressing, I have it as my 2nd favorite movie of all time. I watched it twice within 3 days, and was never bored once. I would love to hear your opinions of this hidden gem on an all time scale, as well as your top 10 of all time. (If you don't mind) Thank you again!
Thank you very much for the kind words! On an all-time scale, I'd probably put it somewhere as close as my top 5. At the very least, I'm comfortable having it in my tentative top 4 on my Letterboxd page. The emotional impact just goes beyond words.
Lovely review. An Elephant Sitting Still is film making at its finest. Rest in Peace Hu Bo.
Great video, congrats! I'm convinced this movie will get the recognition it deserves eventually!
Just wish he’s still alive
Wanna see what he would make…
But speaking of which some masterpiece only born with great pain of life, so it’s really something complicated
Beautiful movie. Starting in a cruel / depressing space and leaves you in a very "wanting to experience" sorta space in the end. Felt like a journey. Its style ,treatment and 4 hr run time are its strength. Kinda sucks you in , vaporizes and feels like in the end, the movie walked along with you. Very Satisfactory.
Rest In Peace Hu Bo.
This movie is a masterpiece.
about to watch it nooow, have to pencil it in cos it was such a long run time 😂
you've earned a new sub
this is so well written and edited
Thank you so much! I look forward to at some point putting out more content to earn these extra subs!
@@thefilmseeker you def should
your content quality is amazing
Don't know if I have it in me to do consecutive yearly watches of this film, but I will surely be coming back to this video more than once! Thank you for an awesome analysis!
You can follow your view on modern China with "Til madness do us part." by Wang Bing, which is a documentary of 4 hours on the traitement that the government allow to the "mad people" (or the ones which are considered like it). It's one of the more powerful movie i have seen, with "an elephant sitting still".
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely look into that. Heard good things about Wang Bing.
@@thefilmseeker his filmography is focused arround the chinese politic on the "useless population". "Le fossé" (- French title- movie based the true story of the political enemies of the regime during Mao's era) is also great, and u also have one of his film in TH-cam (~60 min - "Coal money" called on TH-cam ; "this is not coal money").
I am so sad to don't find on of his masterpiece, "Crude Oil" (a +13 hours movie on the oil's workers in the desert of Gobi) who was projected on time on 2008 and disappear then.
But damn, "Til madness do us part" is a giant, you will laugh, cry, become stoïcist and, at the end, become crazy.
@@MitO-mu2qc Looks like I have a lot of digging to do, then!
@@thefilmseeker you also have Jia Zhang ke, but I think you know it.
@@MitO-mu2qc Yes I'm quite familiar with Jia's more recent work.
Had me sold just by the poster. I shall continue this video as soon as I've watched this 4 hour beast!!!
2:34 I’d argue that this movie serves as a critique of global poverty, alienation, isolation, patriarchy, etc instead of a critique of communism. I too went in looking for such but honestly didn’t find any and while the setting is in China these things may take place globally to the point where I really believe these characters could be inserted anywhere. Not gonna harp on this since ur review is so much more than that and it’s an enjoyable one but that struck me while I was listening and so I thought I’d comment.
Fair point. Like I said, it isn't a direct critique of communism, but the way I phrased it, I could see where that may sound like I'm saying it's IMPLICITLY very much about it. While there are some cultural specificities to the way the social dynamics work, I mostly agree with your sentiment that these characters can more or less be picked up and dropped anywhere on Earth.
Love this film. That scene when the man who was cheated on casually jumped off the building felt so personal to me and I always remember it. It seems so likely as something I would do.
I just finished watching this last night and it's in my top films of all time now. It's a film I want to share with other people yet I know about maybe 2 people who would sit through it. Maybe 1 who would sit through it and appreciate it. Which is too bad. I also think this is a film you need to watch alone. That is a hard sell for sure. I guess maybe this movie finds it's viewers when the time is right. Thanks for posting your video on this one. Do you happen to know if the director was ever interviewed on camera? I've done a bit of searching and yet to run across anything except for stories of his incredibly sad suicide.
Thank you so much!
That's a really good question! As far as I can tell, I don't think Hu Bo was ever interviewed on-camera. This was, after all, the directorial debut of an unknown and he died before it was finished. Although, he did have a previous history as a novelist, so I'm not sure how much renown he had to pull together any filmed interviews during or before production. I should look into that...
I love this film so much
❤ Have to say. This is, surprisingly, a great movie. I am grateful the movie sparks before 3rd hour hits. Else I might gave it up
After watching the movie 2 days later. Saw your review here moments ago. Gald and grateful you introduced and gave your honest words and recommend this
It's nuts to hear you watch this before every new year! That's one hell of a choice you had made
It’s a choice I find more justifiable with each passing year
to me it's almost like dogville 0.5 . the characters (spoiler stop now if you have not see this movie)
reached the destination, like Grace at dogville. Shit still may happen to them even they may find some happyness in new place at beginnings. They have sad ways to look at things as they had bad experiences, especially the teenage girl
As soon as you said Micheal Haneke would watch it I got hooked
I have a tendency to connect everything back to Haneke, but whatever it takes to get more eyes on this thing!
Great video. Thank you
Fantastic video
I like slow cinema. The long takes in this film are well choreographed. This is indeed a masterpiece even though it is depressing to watch. I don't like the characters speaking as though animal abuse is OK. Even his teacher Bela Tarr also killed a cat for his art.
I had to rearrange my top 5 list which I have not changed for the last 11 years.
now it seems like this:
1. Dead Poets Society
2. An elephant Sitting Still
3. Shakespeare in Love
4. Midnight in Paris
5. Almost Famous
and being pushed at number 6 is The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
So, do you like my list? and are there any movies in here that are also your favorites?
and please make a video about one of my top 5 films...
I really love Midnight in Paris.
...The other 3 are really, REALLY not my thing at all, but there's definitely a consistency in tone that's interesting (which makes An Elephant Sitting Still look even funnier in this lineup).
Still, thanks for sharing! Always nice to see people throw in their own 2 cents on the films they're passionate about.
@@thefilmseeker Funny in the sense that it does not match the tone of other movies or that it really sinks in?
@@amitadarsh6479 yeah, tonally speaking.
Must much for everyone out there ❤️ 💙 💜 💖
WASTED 4 HOURS FOR THIS CRAP TO KNOW "EVERYTHING IS POINTLESS" AND " EVERYTHING IS MEANINGLESS" UNTIL U COME TO A POINT, THE WIDE ANGLE SHOT IN CLIMAX INSPIRED ME ,FILM VISUALLY SPEAKS POSITIVE AT THAT POINT SAYING EVERYTHING WILL B OK FROM NOW, CLIMAX SPEAKS OF "HOPE TO LIVE" LIKE ALL DEVASTATED SOULS COMES TO LIFE".FOR THAT SING WIDE ANGLE SHOT WE CAN WASTE HOURS, NOTHING WRONG IN ITS LENGTH.
loved to hear your thoughts about the movie, have you seen anything else with a similar sense of hopelessness and pessimism that you would recommend?
Thank you! It's honestly such a tough balance to reach that I can't even remotely think of anything similar off the top of my head.
All About Lily Chou Chou sent me into such despair. Honestly I think that’s the reason that I could understand this movie but I didn’t feel the hopelessness it was emitting. I was simply just watching a movie. Definitely set a bar that I’m not sure if I want another movie to reach lol.
Watch Melancholia 2011 which is made by Lars Von Trier. This movie reminded me of Melancholia, maybe it is inspired by it?
@@thefilmseeker Have you watched Melancholia?
@@cpfantastic5576 Just last week, in fact! Very much in a similar vein, but without that slight undercurrent of hopefulness. Complete nihilism from von Trier.
Hubo committed suicide not only because of his mental condition, but also because of the exploitation from the famous Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai (and also his wife), who first noticed his script at a film festival and supported the production of the film, but refuse to give him the final cut right.
Manzhouli is not a province, it's a China-Russia border town.
Noted. Thanks.