2010 - January 23rd: PRIMER

PRIMER
Year: 2004 - Director: Shane Carruth
Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya.

I've not seen this and know little about it, but this one line from the plot summary on IMDB has me very intrigued:

"If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?"

It is a great film and of course be sure to check out my interview with one of the stars of the film, David Sullivan

I need help on this one. Is this an "either you get it or you don't" movie?

I watched it yesterday and I just don't get it. Obviously it's a movie that requires more than 1 viewing, and I'm perfectly willing to watch it again if someone who knows it will just explain what I should be looking for. I mean, I get the premise and everything, but I came away completely confused. This is a movie that is extremely dialogue driven...in fact that's all there is: dialogue.

And 90% of that is overlapping dialogue. Now in the hands of Robert Altman, who turned overlapping dialogue into an art form, there could be 4 people on camera all talking at once, and when the scene was finished, you would have easily been able to sift the important facts from all the dialogue. In this one, I had no clue, and more often than not, at the end of a scene I'd be scratching my head going "Huh?"

Like I say, I'd like to watch it again, but only if I know what to look for. I really like the fact that the director was trying something different, and how to deal with paradox in time travel stories has always intrigued me. But someone please help me. Or am I doomed to be one of the masses that just doesn't get it?

i haven't been able to see it again this weekend but will during this week, but then again i might go back in time and watch it a few times before today, before i watch it again later this week.

Tho i totally agree, this is a movie you have to watch more than once to get all the pieces right. And until i watch it again i don't think i should speculate more on it hehe. I guess in a time travel story, one should always watch the characters in how they act, because even in the beginning of the story, they might be from the future or the past. Like this post that i made several years ago, but i was in the future, or it was the future back then.

It does take a couple of viewings to get the full effect, but I love the way that it is all done so matter of factly.

Here is a good explanation of the different time jumps and their effects

Thanks for the link, Phil. I'll print it out for when I watch it again. Just reading through it I've come across a couple of "AHA's" that clear up a couple of spots for me. I was also thinking of watching it with the commentary the next time through to see if that would shed a light.

anotherzen said:

Like this post that i made several years ago, but i was in the future, or it was the future back then.

LOL. I think that might be my problem. See, I'd already watched it a second time next week, but I didn't have the printout from Phil's link because I went back and printed it two weeks ago (when I had paper), but accidently threw it out yesterday in next weeks trash.

saw it again just now, and it made a bit more sense, tho still there are confusions. It should have been subbed, but i guess at times that would
prolly add to the confusion hehe. For all i know, they way they speak over eachother is a symptom of one or two of them allways knows what
others are going to say, but it might not be.

Its hard to keep track of witch timeline they are in, and not possible to track who of them are when and who, and one is a bit more frequent traveler.

Still, i think the voice he listens to to make everything right and as it prolly was the first time trough(or was it? ) is a nice touch, but the ones we
see allways fails how many times does he try before he actually makes the basketball shot? does he need to make it? can he live with the outcome if
everything isn't exactly the same as the first time through, did he really know that the guy was at the basketball court? Well, im guessing there are
many stories in here that we shouldn't know about, and shouldn't think about, and prolly made just to confuse us. Still i like it, it made a bit more
sense the second time trough (or so i think), but i don't think i kan handle another seethrough just yet ^^