20 Best Movies Over Three Hours Long
15. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
Runtime: 3 hours, 54 minutes
The first film in a career destined for greatness, and also the last. The directorial debut of Hu Bo, An Elephant Sitting Still was released just after the young filmmaker committed suicide at 29-years-old, leaving behind a faultless film and an indelible legacy.
The interwoven, time-jumbled story of four strangers whose paths cross one day in China, the film follows its lost souls as they're driven by their desire to find the eponymous sitting elephant - an animal said to simply sit silently, ignoring the world - as a means of either ignoring or combatting the rutted path their lives have taken.
Guided by Bo's evocative direction and enveloping sense of time and place, An Elephant Sitting Still doesn't offer a fainthearted journey, but its ability to weave great empathy into its assessment of alienation, suffering and purpose is beautifully hopeful.
The way Hu Bo makes his film come together and moves it over four hours of heartache marks an impressive juggling act from a master storyteller, one lost far too soon.