Elena is a 2011 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
where it won the Special Jury Prize.
When a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten dutiful
housewife Elena's potential inheritance, she must hatch a desperate
plan ...
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Writer: Oleg Negin (screenplay)
Stars: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov and Aleksey Rozin
Elena finds Mr. Zvyagintsev
in an intensely political frame of mind, and one might feel he isn’t
pulling any punches. Punches, those seem to be coming from the extreme
right. There are two crucial sequences where he almost goes out of his
way to let his point be heard, and provide for a running commentary of
sorts. Sequences, that work to “complete” a whole of sorts, like
different perspectives in one of them hyperlink films. Around the 30
min. mark is angle-1, and it starts in a basement parking lot serving
some luxurious apartments housing the affluent members of the society.
Vladimir (Mr. Smirnov), the old rich guy, walks to his car. A primarily
narrative/subjective/dramatic intent would’ve probably tracked his
movement into the car, and fixated on him while he revved the engine,
and either cut as he drove out of the frame, or tracked the car out of
sight. Mr. Zvyagintsev instead chooses to layer Vladimir’s subjectivity
with his own, thereby making the shot (and the ensuing sequence)
morally and politically alive. He tracks Vladimir’s motion, as the old
man walks towards his car and unlocks the central locking, all the
while moving towards his subject, and just about the moment he “meets”
his subject, who is settled in the car, the subject drives.
