Primer

i agree that aaron looks like lots of different celebs. add josh hamilton to the mix, please.

(Actually is fun to watch, and try and work out but I DON'T BELIEVE THERE IS A PROPER ANSWER).

Can't bring myself to watch it a second time, though.

Apart from Time Bandits. I assume this is nothing like Time Bandits.

Time bandits is k.ace mind.

Anyway, I can't wait to see this film. I suppose I need to get Netflix now.

Use Rot13 to translate
http://www.rot13.com/

Vg'f orra n juvyr fvapr V'ir frra vg ohg nf sne nf V pna erzrzore V fhezvfrq ng gur gvzr gung gur guerr ovt hafcbxra/abg-znqr-pyrne riragf va gur svyz ner guhf.

Gur vapvqrag ng gur cnegl jurer Enpury jnf guerngrarq jvgu n fubgtha orpnzr na vapvqrag jurer Enpury jnf xvyyrq. Vg jnfa'g qhr gb nalguvat gurl qverpgyl qvq, vg whfg fgnegrq unccravat nsgre gurl fgnegrq zrffvat jvgu guvatf gbb zhpu. Sebz gung cbvag ba gurl unq gb xrrc eryvivat gung ovg naq fgbc ure trggvat fubg.

Vg gbbx zr gjb jngpurf gb ernyvfr gung Enpury'f qnq jnf n thl jub gurl unq gurve rlr ba gb shaq gurz. Fb bar bs gurz gbyq uvz nobhg vg naq fbzrubj ur geniryyrq onpx va n obk rvgure jvgubhg gurve xabjyrqtr be znantrq gb eha njnl nsgrejneqf. N zber rivy gurbel vf gung Nor naq Nneba yrg uvz abg er-ragre gur obk naq qhcyvpngr uvzfrys va ernyvgl va beqre gb frr jung vg qvq gb fbzrbar.

Gur xrl fprar vf gur ovg jvgu gur zbovyr cubar. Guvf vf gur svefg gvzr gung qbhoyrf / gjb qvssrerag ernyvgvrf ner perngrq.

There's a pretty good explanation/rumination here:-

http://primermovie.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=221

What was the deal with the last scene and the French translator guy?

At least Primer employed Weebles and March Madness.

Best time travel movie ever = 'Time After Time', obv.

they showed this as a double bil with la jetee. wish i had left after that.

There's a decent breakdown of timelines on Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29 - I am gonna have to watch it again a couple of times to fully get it, I feel. I hope the ending is setting up a house-sized sequel.

Lordy, my pal Mark has made an exhaustive study of the locations:

http://www.markallencam.com/?p=175

I really liked this movie. definitely takes 2 viewings tho. when I saw it in the theater I was like, I'm with you, I'm with you ..... and then there's that scene with the milk and cereal where the voiceover goes WAY too fast and it's impossible to follow the on-screen action and figure it all out. second time it made sense tho (plus I had read a lot of msg-board theories in the meantime).

Rachel's dad .... Why did he end up comatose?

I think something they did made his presence in that timeline impossible -- the paradox wiped him out. (something along the lines of, now that they know he knows about the box, they will no longer tell him about it in the future.)

I got lost somewhere between the tampering of the milk, the car tailing Abe and Aaron, and the earpiece that tells the future.

Also - why does Aaron not want to see Abe's friends? Why is there a bow on the refrigerator? What's up with the rats in the attic? Who is Rachel and why do we give a shit if her boyfriend is trying to shoot her?

I've never loved a movie that I didn't understand so much.

An Amazon reviewer made an astute observation - that the movie, by almost demanding to be seen twice, kinda puts the viewer on a weird time trip (as in, this JUST HAPPENED and now it's HAPPENING AGAIN)

Anyway, I'm gonna watch it again tomorrow...but I welcome 'spoilers' and any answers to my questions!

I found this to be quite useful: Primer Timeline

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/asecondtake/primer.htm

I remember the Wiki page being useful.

Okay I watched this this evening and had no fucking idea what was happening towards the end. Good job the film was so short as we ended up watching a few of the scenes twice.

Okay I wasn't too far off Alex's summary but I hadn't worked out the comatose guy was Rachel's dad. Also I didn't really get who Rachel was - was it the wife or someone else we barely see onscreen?

The scene among the fountains was hugely annoying in that they drowned out the dialogue. I agree with Forks in that I didn't really care what happened to the characters, but it had never occurred to me that a pen wouldn't work in zero gravity before.

What was the deal with the last scene and the French translator guy?

One of the Aarons - either 1, 2, or 3 is apparently building an airplane hangar-sized version of the time machine.

Finally got around to watching this and loved it a lot.

Why is there a bow on the refrigerator? What's up with the rats in the attic? Who is Rachel and why do we give a shit if her boyfriend is trying to shoot her?

So tempted to start answering year-old questions, but the number of exhaustive internet sites tackling this job makes it a particular waste.

Not that a lot of talk gets put into this, usually, but: I think the fact that people can do exhaustive plot-tackling with this film says really great things about the non-plot aspects of it -- I don't know that I've read many people talking about light or mood or sound in this thing (since they're obviously overshadowed), but they're all pretty great, I think

Ouch. My head hurts.

It's very simple:

http://deckardpl.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/primer_timeline.jpg

blatant bragging 2009 but i didn't find this too hard to follow

everything after the big shootout in the whorehouse is a fantasy, and once you realise that it's simple.

The last 15 minutes are a trial, because the director didn't establish many cues as to which timeline was being followed. It really could have captured more viewers with costume designers cued into the plot, and a few more establishing shots for time-contiguous sections. I don't expect to be spoon fed, but any movie that is incomprehensible after 1 pint is pushing it.

It succeeded marvelously in capturing the geeky excitement of places like Hewlett and Packards garage.

I get it now. But I watched it twice in one afternoon. Rats in the attic, indeed.

Brilliant, btw.

Funny true story: So I'm watching this for the second time on my computer, and at one point I pause to check email on a different virtual desktop, and then I absently double click on the icon and restart a second copy of the movie, which made me chuckle. Then I went to the playlist, and it listed "Primer," "Primer (1)," and "Primer (2)," and I realized that I had yet a third copy of the movie, the one I watched the first time, paused on yet another virtual desktop.

And then I started bleeding from the ear.

timecrimes wz better

lol

yessss timecrimes! gets points for laffs.

Please do me a favor and take this scurvy

whats everybody talking about

I watched Timecrimes and then Spider Forest (Korean film) and thought I was going a bit mad.

totally otm. i didnt know it was set in texas the first time i saw it but immediately was able to identify the setting.

I think "Primer" makes perfect sense, but only for a few minutes, until you forget why it made perfect sense. (See also: aforementioned elaborate flowchart)

Anyone seen the new one yet? Upstream Colour? Sounds good. Carruth seems pretty damn serious about being an actual bona fide autuer in terms of doing EVERYTHING himself.

More than auteur - he's even distributing it himself!

Bloody hell.

we have a thread for the new one UPSTREAM COLOR, a new film from Shane Carruth (Primer)

oh, I've got time for this movie. it's got so much dallas/houston in it... bright, blown out, no shadows, empty hallways and office parks, grassy nowheres, roads always in the background, fever dreams of august or september. and the escalating hostility and paranoia that never comes to a head. oh yes.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9:22 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a labyrinth of open spaces

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9:23 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nice! also the close-knit (so to speak) claustrophobia of them always being in work attire, buttoned up, with the ties still tied even in the garage after hours adds to the heat impression.

watching this movie now for the first time. i like the matter-of-fact way it deals with the subject of time travel, as the accidental discovery of two burnt out looking engineers. that said, the plot is really confusing... at least the first time around. it's paused now, with seven minutes to go, and i am not too proud to admit that i am LOST

Yeah, anyone who says they have all the threads of this sorted after one watch is full of it IMO. You're not alone.

This film should have hardcoded subtitles really.

There are multiple plausible interpretations, and once you accept that the last 20 minutes were edited from inadequate footage to highlight the confusion, ala Aronofsky's Pi but on a still lower budget, you can just let it wash over you as a tale of some hectic lost souls who've lost their past and are piecing together a future from scratch.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z108/btbrian14/PrimerTimeline.jpg

I remember some talk a way back from SC about Abe & Aaron's identities, personalty traits and eventually lives slowly swapping over being more important than untangling the who-the-what-now, but recent interviews seem to indicate the opposite.

jesus christ those timelines. lol. i really liked this movie just on the level of the minimalism of the acting and cinematography. someone above talked about the texas location and "fever dreams of august" and i could feel that with this movie. on this netflix stream at least there seemed to be a lot of browns an yellows in the shots filmed during the daytime. i liked how the switch from the characters seeming in control of things to feeling totally out of control was so subtle that you, like the characters, cannot place precisely when it happened.

I just got the sense that a clearer explication was part of the script, and left on the editing floor when Carruth decided tighter pacing made up for the film's emotional voids.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/stills/132078/Film_199w_Schizopolis.jpeg

I don't think he left anything out, I'm sure on the commentary track it's mentioned that because the stock budget was so tight they knew exactly what they were going to do with each scene, rehearsed it til it was tight and did only a couple of takes maximum, apart from a scene where Abe and Aaron are discussing something after locking up the Garage - SC kept fucking up a line. There were no scenes filmed that didn't make the cut, it was totally bespoke.

I love the movie, I don't really care for the timeline aspect. I guess because of the way he comes across in interviews you could assume that his obvious wherewithal demonstrates that he has the deal all sown up, Primer is flawed in a lot of technical ways and (imho) the idea of a knotted, opaque time travel film shot through with ellipsis is a bad one.

do u guys call it pry-mer or primmer

Pry-mer

it's got so much dallas/houston in it

otm, watched last night with a friend, and after 5 mins I heard a "ya'll" and wondered if they might be in Texas, just going by the way their house looked and the lighting. When I saw a 972 area code in another scene, I practically squealed

Upstream Color might have benefitted from a similarly strong sense of place to ground it. If it was shot in Texas it feels like he went to greater lengths to make it anonymous.