Author Topic: Upstream Color  (Read 9788 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Upstream Color
« Reply #60 on: February 09, 2014, 02:53:00 PM »
On a related note, some of the discussion Sandy and I had about it while playing chess.

smirnoff04: omg... I started watching upstream color.... I don't get it at all.
smirnoff04: I mean I understand what's going on but not why ...
SandyKJ: I think the whys will reveal themselves, just watch the girls journey. :)
SandyKJ: I'll check back tomorrow. Hope there was something in the movie of worth smirnoff. This is what I figured it was about, but who knows?! http://www.filmspotting.net/forum/index.php?topic=9536.msg747802#msg747802
smirnoff04: Thanks for talking me down last night, I was thinking about abandoning the movie.
smirnoff04: I stuck it out, and tried to be patient while the film did its thing.
SandyKJ: :) Any excuse I can use.
SandyKJ: Did it work for you at all? Are you glad you stuck it out?
smirnoff04: Did it work (for me)... is a tough question. In the most basic sense, i.e. did it naturally keep my attention as opposed to having to 'give' it my attention... no. :-\
smirnoff04: It was an effort to watch.
smirnoff04: But...
smirnoff04: Does it work in and of itself? I believe there IS something to it, certainly.
smirnoff04: The spoiler thread has some interesting theories floating around... which I can't help buy feel frustrated by because I did not come up with any theories of my own...
SandyKJ: I don't have any theories. The sci fi aspect didn't hold my interest. Just her building from nothing. Well, worse than nothing really.
smirnoff04: It's hard to say what's "normal" for that character since we know so little about her before her "experience", but I got the impression that after the ordeal she never truly got back there. But what I'm not sure of is if she was just preoccupied with trying to explain what happened to her, or if there was something else going on...
smirnoff04: She seems to feeling things... hearing things... that are supernatural.
SandyKJ: her new normal i guess. She was manipulated and left for dead (mentally and emotionall). They didn't take into account the resilliancy of her sould, so she took all that they damaged her with and solved the mystery. She inspired me that way. Take what you've got, whatever burden or manimpulation that's been put there and solve the mystery (ie. fly). I may have missed the mark. :)
SandyKJ: sorry, my spelling! emotionally, soul
smirnoff04: You have a very interesting take on the movie. Very personal.
SandyKJ: :) Sometimes a movie really hits home. Those are the keepers. I think I watch mot
SandyKJ: Oops stupid phone. :)
SandyKJ: I watch movies to find those that inspire me. Hit and miss isn't it?

smirnoff

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Re: Upstream Color
« Reply #61 on: February 09, 2014, 02:57:53 PM »
Had some deja vu with this shot:



The Cell (2000)


A little different in your head film. :)

WillMunny

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Re: Upstream Color
« Reply #62 on: February 09, 2014, 02:58:02 PM »
Have you seen Le Quattro Volte Will? The comparison doesn't need to be that valid. Just wondered how you felt about that film.

It is a good comparison and I wonder how much the fact that I have liked a lot Le Quattro Volte has to do with Pythagoras' ideas Frammartino uses to shape his story and my familiarity (fascination with) with them, I am not saying that I would have loved UC had I been familiar with Thoreau, I am saying that having seen UC I doubt I would enjoy reading Thoreau.

oldkid

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Re: Upstream Color
« Reply #63 on: February 13, 2014, 10:51:23 AM »
Loved your analysis, smirnoff.  You are absolutely correct, there is a pretty straightforward flow to this story.  But the colors thing, I missed that.  I'll have to look at it next time.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

smirnoff

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Re: Upstream Color
« Reply #64 on: February 13, 2014, 05:39:12 PM »
I would love to hear any ideas that come to mind. :)



One thing I have been thinking about is something someone mentioned earlier in this thread: about how instead of a person transcribing Walden there appears to have been a person at the beginning of the film who had copied out a bunch of musical notation. Later we see the pig farmer character making musical notations while listening to his weird sounds. He get's frustrated, tears the pages out of his notebook and throws them off the bridge and into the stream. The same stream he throws the piglets into.

It makes me wonder if maybe the pig farmer himself was also a victim of pill pusher character's scheme at some point. The same way Kris, after her ordeal, seems to have these passages from Walden coming into her head for no particular reason, and goes to the library looking for answers. Maybe that's similar to what's happening to the pig farmer. He's recalling bits of music from whatever he was made to transcribe during his drugged up, mind control phase.

I dunno. Another possible avenue to explore.