Primer

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.

timecrimes is the baby version of primer

aww no need to take sides

http://realdupont.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/470who-needs-training-wheels.jpg

she loves timecrimes

primer is the autistic nerd version of timecrimes

Ouch. My head hurts.

― krakow, Monday, November 23, 2009 1:05 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark

One reviewer said that "anybody who claims to fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar."

Phew.

From Wiki.

A Topiary is the upcoming American science fiction drama film by Shane Carruth, a mathematician and a former engineer, known for his previous film Primer.

After Primer, Shane Carruth started working on his second film. In 2009, David Sullivan, one of the leads in Primer, claimed on his Twitter that "Shane Carruth's next project, A Topiary, is in the early stages of pre-production." He also stated he would have a part in this film, to what degree is unknown. Filmmaker Rian Johnson also posted: "Shane... has a mind-blowing sci-fi script. Let's all pray to the movie-gods that he gets it made soon."[1] In 2010, several news sources reported that A Topiary is in the works, and that the script is written. According to Carruth in an interview to io9, "The website for now is just a place mark as financing has yet to be completed. I'm cautiously optimistic that this can happen soon and couldn't be happier with the filmmakers that have committed to the project so far.

In the movie's prologue, it's the 1980's, and Department of Transportation worker Acre Stowe has been trying to find the perfect spot for a first response center which can quickly and easily get to the location which has the most accidents in the area. But while looking, he starts noticing a mysterious pattern repeatedly showing up all over, and even in the form of starbursts. Soon along with a friend, he gets involved with a group of scientists who investigate this phenomenon for several years until finally hitting a dead end.

After this apparent precursor, a new story starts about a group of boys aged 7-12 who somehow are in possession of a mysterious box they call the "Maker" which allows them to create strange disks and other devices which have various properties, until they discover a way to create sentient creatures with the Maker. They call these "Choruses" and use them for various friendly battles. However, soon after mysterious incidents involving the mechanical beings start to occur, the boys begin to realize that they may have seriously underestimated the powers of the Maker and the Choruses, and more importantly, the ever-growing splinter in their group.

Excited!

sounds v similar to primer tho, but will watch out for this alright

Nice. Was there a Philip K. Dick short story that sounds a little like the 'Maker' thing?

I have finally seen this film. I liked it. I am now working on ways of making an army of duplicates of myself using their machine.

but at what cost re: gentrification

http://www.firstshowing.net/2012/first-look-shane-carruths-new-sundance-2013-film-upstream-color/

First Look: Shane Carruth's New Film Upstream Color

"A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives." ... the title "upstream color" might be referring to "an esoteric biopharmeceutical term that describes impurities present early in the processing/manufacture of a chemical."

EEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeee

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.