Elephant

Winner of the Palme d’or in Cannes (2003)

Three times a year, Script Club, a collaboration between the Scenaristengilde, Sabam for Culture and De Cinema, invites a renowned Flemish screenwriter to (re)discover their favourite film. For this fourth edition, we welcome screenwriter, author and theatre-maker Angelo Tijssens (GIRL, CLOSE, DUST, JULIAN en COWARD). Angelo chose ELEPHANT, a film written and directed by Gus Van Sant in 2003.

ELEPHANT follows several students at an American high school through what seems like an ordinary school day. Until two classmates open fire on everyone in their path. Drawing from the events of the 1999 Columbine massacre, Van Sant has made perhaps the definitive contemporary high school film. By depicting the most notorious act of teen violence in America, the film peels back the skin of the romanticised image of American school life we know from classic teen movies.

With its 83 minutes of screentime, ELEPHANT is a relatively short film that focusus on the perspectives of several people during a day that will upend their lives forever. Van Sant throws out all the classic rules of screenwriting and builds a revolutionary structure. The film masterfully succeeds in shifting and muddying information, revealing in the process the haunting mystery of what goes on inside the mind of a school shooter. It is no wonder that ELEPHANT won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

A special treat for this edition is that we will be screening a 35mm print of the film, thanks to CINEMATEK. Following the screening, a live in-depth podcast hosted by actor and screenwriter Anne Vanoppen will explore what makes this film and its screenplay so special to Angelo.