Green Elephant is one of the most controversial films in Russian cinema. It has been discussed for over 10 years. Actors of the "Green Elephant" forever stamped the participants of this film. This film can be safely called one of a kind. He is rightly considered a cult.
Slices and stills from the film have become real Internet memes.
Green Elephant: actors and roles
Green Elephant is a psychedelic trash film. In Russian cinema there are not many tapes of a similar orientation. "Elephant" was directed by Alexander Baskov. She specializes in similar paintings. All her films are quite difficult to perceive. The plot in "ZS" (a common abbreviation for "Green Elephant") is practically absent. The focus is on the two main characters - Vladimir Epifantsev in the role of "little brother" and Sergey Pakhomov in the role of "going". They are prisoners of war on guardhouse. In addition to them, the captain and boss appear in the frame, played by Anatoly Osmolovsky and Alexander Maslaev.
It is rather difficult to describe the events, since a significant part of the timing was visited by an incomprehensible, absurd action. For example, the phrase “These goats are still ...” is repeated more than five times without explanation. The first half hour is pretty clear. They show the stay of prisoners in difficult prison conditions. Actors of the “Green Elephant” play very convincingly and believably, therefore, an unsuspecting audience can have a sense of reality.
Acting
Epifantsev plays a restrained officer.
He does not smoke and tries to endure the conclusion with dignity. To calm down, the hero even engages in Chinese meditation. But the Traveler is a sloven and constantly takes out the Brother with his questions and stories. Gradually, his stories become less and less authentic, the logic is completely lost. Pakhomov pretty well got used to the role, perhaps this was facilitated by the eccentric behavior of the actor in real life. After the first 20 minutes, the degradation of the Traveler begins to manifest itself more and more. He constantly asks endless questions and offers to perform strange actions, for example, to relieve the need on the floor, in order to attract flies and then kill them. The brother reacts quite adequately and in every possible way tries to rationally explain to the Traveler the absurdity of his actions. Then his patience ends, he begins to insult his counterparts and even beat him. Actors of the "Green Elephant" very realistically beat the dialogue.
The juxtaposition of the stupid and illogical actions of the Brother who went on rational aggression causes laughter.
Movie features
It is worth noting that the film was shot on an amateur film. Moreover, the operator’s laugh and voice are heard in the frame, and the shooting itself is conducted in a psychedelic style.
In the middle of the film, a new character appears - the Chief. He takes Brother out of the cell and forces him to clean the toilet with a fork. After that, the most incomprehensible stage of the film begins.
Hero Sergei Pakhomova sings the song "Green Elephant". The film shows rather disgusting scenes and events. The traveler defecates on the floor, then eats his own feces and wakes up Brother with a proposal to have breakfast with them. Moreover, the whole process is shown to the viewer, including the genitals of Pakhomov. After this scene, Epifantsev also begins to go crazy. The culmination of the film is quite difficult to understand and understand. Actors of the "Green Elephant" beat each other, rape, and even eat. The camera shows all these events without hesitation.
Fame
Svetlana Baskova in 1999 shot the tape "Green Elephant".
The film gained real popularity only in 2010. At that time, it began to spread rapidly on the Internet and became known to the masses.
Many critics still argue about the main message and meaning of the picture. Baskova herself considers him a kind of protest against decaying public values and war. Despite the presence of shock content, the film even took part in various festivals.
In the early 2000s, Russia saw the tape "Green Elephant". Vladimir Georgievich Epifantsev at that moment already began to confidently move along the acting path. He was invited to shoot in various budget films and series. Therefore, Vladimir tried not to advertise his participation in the work of Baskova.
At several small festivals in Germany and several other European countries, the Elephant was on display. Basically, these were shows for narrow circles of connoisseurs of counterculture and psychedelia. Therefore, practically no data, including reviews, has been preserved from these festivals.
Pakhomov
The film only added fame to Sergey Pakhomov.
Groin himself (creative nickname) is an artist. For some time he worked as editor-in-chief in several serious glossy publications. In the media, he skillfully created an image of a freak. After 2010, he recorded several video blogs, which instantly spread on the Internet. The figure of the artist has become a real cult. Popularity even led Sergei to participate in the program “Battle of psychics,” where he acted as a clairvoyant. The cuts with his participation scored hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
"Green Elephant": reviews and opinions of Epifantsev
Reviews about the film are very diverse. Usually they can be diametrically opposite even on the same information platform. Many people find the film disgusting and meaningless. Even sophisticated critics said that after watching it took them several days to move away from the shock. And this is not strange, given what the Green Elephant is talking about. The film is replete with obscene expressions, frames with a demonstration of genitals and various perversions. The conversations and actions of the characters are absurd and incomprehensible.
But a huge number of people consider "ZS" a real masterpiece. Many scenes cause laughter. The actors talk so naturally that a unique atmosphere is created. On the popular site about cinema "Green Elephant" received a rating of 9, which is a very good result. For example, the Oscar-winning picture “Titanic” has a lower rating than “Green Elephant”. Vladimir Georgievich Epifantsev called his participation in the film spontaneous, and the picture itself was “garbage” (the genre of “trash” can be translated from English as “garbage”) and strange.