Primer
Posted in Film on October 11th 2004 by Randy Reichardt:: Scanning the Leisure section of yesterday’s NYTimes, I noticed an ad for a movie called Primer, written, starring, and directed by Shane Carruth. I visited the film’s web site, discovering that it includes a review from the NYTimes, written by AO Scott. The film sounds compelling and interesting, and quite the mind bender – Scott describes the movie as “technically speaking, science fiction, but of an unusually rigorous and unassuming kind.” Two amateur inventors create a machine in their garage, “a device that reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking gravitational pull”, with far-reaching consequences. Scott compares the brain-teasing flow of the film to other movies like Pi and Memento. One reviewer has seen the film five times, with Scott advising that “part of the attraction is the tantalizing belief that if you see it enough, you will finally figure it all out.” But he counters with the following:
I’m not sure of that. Having seen it twice from start to finish and gone back over the videotape in search of clues to its meaning, I wouldn’t say that it entirely makes sense. At a certain point, Mr. Carruth’s fondness for complexity and indirection crosses the line between ambiguity and opacity, but I hasten to add that my bafflement is colored by admiration. Mr. Carruth has the skill, the guile and the seriousness to turn a creaky philosophical gimmick into a dense and troubling moral puzzle.”
Ambiguity: “doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention” (1 of 2 definitions listed); opacity: “obscurity of meaning” (1 of 7 definitions listed). I’m not sure that helps me. 🙂
Also intriguing: the film was shot on 16mm and cost $7,000US to make. Unfortunately for us in Edmonton, I doubt we’ll see a print of the movie before 2005 at the earliest. Until then, watch the trailer here.
