Primer

I finally got to watch Primer on DVD. Actually, I watched it twice in a row (and some scenes a third time).

Imagine if Darren Aronofsky had directed a screenplay that Christopher Nolan wrote after wondering what Back to the Future would have been like if Kubrick had made it instead of 2001. (sorry, that was the first thing that came to mind :-)

Wow! The last two films I can recall that had this much of an effect on me were The Usual Suspects and Memento.

But in the case of both The Usual Suspects and Memento it was the writer and director's (or writer/director's) second film—the masterpiece they made after they cut their teeth on a first feature. But Primer is Shane Carruth's first film. Made for $7000 (shot on Super 16 with mostly practicals and, apparently, a pretty close to 1:1 shooting ratio). Seven grand! Heck, the eventual blow up to 35mm alone would have cost way more than that.

It's not perfect. The acting was sometimes a little off (although David Sullivan is great) and there were occasional problems both with focus and sound quality. But that doesn't stop it from being one of the best films I've ever seen. It will be very interesting to see what Shane Carruth will do next.

On the one hand I'm totally inspired to go make my first feature. On the other hand, it sets the bar so high, I'm almost too scared to. After all, one only gets one chance to make a first feature.