Word: vans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...after winning two international competitions, the prodigy made the leap to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute. By the time he stepped in for an ailing Andre Watts at Chicago's Ravinia Festival in 1999, the classical establishment was ready to embrace him as a new Evgeny Kissin or even Van Cliburn: a fresh personality with a staggering technique and an engagingly soulful temperament...
...Van Sant’s film, which he also wrote, could have gone wrong in a lot of places. Four years after Erik Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 14 classmates and one teacher at their Littleton, Col., high school, memories of that day remain vivid for anyone who was or knew a high school student at the time. Attempts to identify the “cause” of the murders became a morbid national pastime, with the media and high profile Congress members simplistically blaming everyone from Marilyn Manson to the National Rifle Association for the boys?...
...staging the tragedy at a fictional high school in his own city of Portland, Ore., Van Sant avoids this type of oversimplification, making what is surely one of the most thoughtful and inquisitive films of the year. Focusing on twelve students on the day of the shooting, Elephant patiently explores the pressures and indignities of being a high school student. The film renders its characters with unusual accuracy, commiserating with one student about the dress code for gym class and sharing the impatience of several juniors waiting for the day when they can go off-campus for lunch...
Despite the audience’s foreknowledge of the eventual attack, the violence is no less startling when it arrives. In contrast to the majority of action movies, which present killings and bloodshed as something to be anxiously anticipated, Van Sant creates a tangible dread and a sense of impending loss. The violence is shown vividly where it cannot be avoided, but Van Sant is admirably selective and restrained in what he shows. The murders are never glorified, and each death elicits in the viewer the sadness and anger it deserves. Even the killers realize that this...
...Van Sant’s film reportedly named his film for the proverbial elephant that becomes invisible after people grow accustomed to its presence, the implication being that the cause of the Columbine should be as obvious as an elephant in someone’s living. As a title for this movie, however, it’s a misnomer. Van Sant respects his audience and subject too much to suggest a single cause for the Columbine killings, and the film is a beautifully nuanced exploration of some of those causes. It is a tribute to Elephant and its director that...