Upstream Color - sci-fi to look forward to?

demagogue on 9/7/2013 at 17:05

Let me try the questions. I might change my answers after thinking about it, since I'm shooting from the hip here.

Quote Posted by henke

Questions:
-How are the robber and pigfarmer connected? Did the robber leave the woman with instructions where to find him after waking up?

I understood there's no formal relationship. The robber works alone & takes advantage of people, and the pigfarmer knows that these victims exist & summons them to "help" them, but also has his own creepy voyeristic motives. And IIRC the robber just sucked the woman dry & left her; since he'd already cleared out her bank account. I don't think he cared what she did after she woke up.

Quote:

-What's the deal with the book, Walden? I guess it somehow helped them find the pigfarmer but I'm not sure how.

Carruth talked about it in an interview. The book is basically about the ultimate form of self-reliance & living completely self-sufficiently, and then you can see the movie as about how dependence on others and the loss of freedom messes with your life, but also you need it to deal with life. It's like the book is one pole and the robber's scheme is the other, and even the pigfarmer's scheme fits in weird ways, but also the couple's dependence on each other, even as it's a kind of made-up relationship they're figuring out as they go.

He also explained in that interview, as far as its actual role in the plot goes, that the thief would want something terribly monotonous for people to do to help the zombie process along, and copying a novel is about as far as that gets... So it could have been any novel, but for the previous reasons, that's why Walden itself is a good choice.

Quote:

-Who were the other couple in the short interlude in the middle of the movie? The one where the guy is leaving the house over and over. How do they fit into the story?

I'll have to look back at your third question. I think I had a vague idea when I was watching it, but now I've forgotten. But generally speaking, the idea is the pigfarmer's whole mind-bending thing is going on for multiple people, not just the leads. I mean you saw how many pigs were on that farm, each one representing another victim. But there was some subtext that they were all connected to each other too IIRC. I should watch it again before I say anything more though... I don't remember well enough.

henke on 9/7/2013 at 19:06

Thanks for the answers. I looked through the FAQ Aero posted as well. I was mostly wondering about how Kris knew how to find the pigfarmer but apparently that's what the downturned speakers were for. Some kinda snake charming procedure. I didn't realize the book was the same one that she made rings out of at the start so thanks for pointing that out.

SE, I guess it's technically not avaliable here either, but I got my XBox's DNS set to an American address so I get the US Netflix selection.

Briareos H on 9/7/2013 at 19:34

It's as if I had never posted in this thread.

SubJeff on 11/3/2014 at 10:24

Don't know why you say that Braireos.

SPOILER CITY - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM

I finally got this - I bought it after finding it by accident in HMV. It's called Upstream Colour here, though the DVD has Color on it.

I really enjoyed this film. I'd not read any of the descriptions, explanations or synopsises of the plot and found it perfectly easy to follow. The only thing that wasn't clear was whether the Sampler knew that dumping the piglets was the way that the colour was getting back into the human life-cycle.

It was really quite a spiritual film and the colour had some magical quality that was beautiful. It was both incredibly sweet and terrifying at points - like when they begin sharing memories; getting closer but arguably losing their identities.

What was really horrifying though was the Thief. This guy knew about the ability for the colour to connect people but just abused this beautiful, magical thing for the most mundane of crimes. The end, where the orchids are no longer getting colour, was subtle but satisfying. The Thief deprived of the tool of his crime but also losing access to the spiritual connection the colour gave.

Looked great, had great music, and I could forgive the quite speech because (unlike Primer) you could still hear what was going on.

This is the type of sic-fi I love. 4/5.