Vanished Elephant, The

el-elefante-desaparecido-poster

Original Title: El Elefante Desaparecido
Release date:
 October 8, 2014
Director: Javier Fuentes-León
Screenplay by: Javier Fuentes-León
Cast: Salvador del Solar, Lucho Caceres, Tatiana Astengo, Angie Cepeda, Vanessa Saba, Andres Parra, Carlos Carlín, Magdyel Ugaz

Peruvian films are going through a really REALLY good period. We have begun having genre films, yo! And it’s possible that Javier Fuentes-Leon has the most recommended Peruvian film on the site, so we were all kind of awaiting El Elefante Desaparecido with a certain excitement, with a bonus of (almost) reuniting the Don Panta class: Salvador del Solar, Angie Cepeda and Tatiana Astengo.

Though the trailer doesn’t actually tell you much or even make you want to watch it [TIFF Trailer with subs], El Elefante Desaparecido follows the life of novelist Edo Celeste (Del Solar), seriously depressed for the loss of his girlfriend Celia (Saba) on August 15th 2007, the day that an earthquake shook the southern part of the country, in a mysterious non-earthquake disappearance that had never been solved. Teasing his audience with the hint that the book he’s trying to write might actually be his last, he is contacted by Mara de Barclay (Cepeda), a woman whose first husband had also mysteriously vanished on the same day, who hands Edo an envelope with a series of magnified photographs she’s received from her now-gone husband, unleashing a series of even weirder events while District Attorney Sanchez (Astengo) is on Edo’s back suspecting him for the murder of Celia.

Fuentes-Leon takes on the Lynch-esque universe where the lines of reality and fiction blur, not to great heights, but certainly with apt skills. Though The Vanished Elephant lacks the spark that made you say Mulholland Drive was the greatest film you’ve watched last decade, it showcases solid performances from both Del Solar and Caceres, who play opposite sides of the same coin, you could say. There’s no doubt that both of them are the anchors of the story, but I was a little disappointed in the female characters playing archetypes to the author, even if Astengo gets to do a little bit more on screen than Cepeda and Saba, who is sadly severely underutilized as -mostly- The Woman in the Red Dress.

The script is ambitious, but the problem is that it lacks a solid foundation and attention to detail that other Twin-Peaks-esque adaptations like Keizoku (mostly in its first film) and especially Atami no Sousakan manage to achieve in their own spins to Lynch’s style, but then again I’m never entirely sold on the enigmatic style on its own and those examples relied in their series format. Though that doesn’t deter the film’s appeal, even if Contracorriente is a much more accessible artistic project. Much appreciated is the nighttime cinematography by Mauricio Vidal, which is a much needed aspect to give al Elefante its flare, which has been Fuentes-Leon’s greatest asset. His films have a mood, they don’t have that HD blandness in its photography from the general local movies that have been churned for the past two years.

He feels like a breath of fresh air. But I’ll still place Undertow, with all its sentimentality, above this as a better recommendation, though.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

8 Responses

  1. Rodrigo says:

    Haven’t seen it yet, but this sounds kind of similar to Gone Girl. I’m sure both films are different, though.

    • amy says:

      White man’s girlfriend disappears. Sure, it can sound the same. They start out at different stages, Ben Affleck wants to kill his and then she disappears, Del Solar is just moping about it for the past seven years xD there’s a point where they hint you it could have been similar, but it’s just a suggestion and nothing pans out. It’s sorta red-herring-like, but there’s enough visual hints to tell you that what you’re looking it’s not necessarily what really is happening.

      On the-go, there’s like 3 or 4 universes into one.

      Also Amy’s Gone Girl is much much more developed than any of the females here. But I’d love to see Saba playing THAT. xD

  2. Rodrigo says:

    While I’m not fully familiar with David Lynch, except for hearing his name and only saw him as a guest star on Louie, I thought Fuentes León came close to taclking Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, Gone Girl) and/or the Ice Truck Killer from Dexter, sort of.

    Del Solar was really solid in this and the same goes for the cinematography. I hope this gets submitted for Peru’s Best Foreign Language Film shot next year since El Evangelio de la Carne is representing Peru, and I liked Elefante more than Grand Budapest Hotel, which might get a nom or two easily.

    • amy says:

      I… don’t know whether this was eligible for this year or not, so I can’t tell you for sure if it’ll be eligible for next xD But if it is… I don’t see any other being a better option. Though, I don’t think it suits Oscar sensibilities…

      • Rodrigo says:

        Evangelio premiered here around this month last year, so I think Elefante missed the deadline and should be elegible for next year, despite airing at the TIFF. Or does it require a USA release to be elegible? IDK about the rules, really.

  1. December 9, 2014

    […] topic in movies this year, men who are accused of killing their significant others~ Gone Girl, The Vanished Elephant, White Bird in a Blizzard and […]

  2. December 30, 2014

    […] El Elefante Desaparecido […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.