The Curates Egg

Movie Memory Loss

Prologue

In this season of remembering I though I would return to a subject I first looked at in February when I discussed 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' – how movies explore the subject of memories, or more often losing memories. Memory loss has been a popular topic in films for many years, and it's not hard to see why. A character's quest for their missing memories or their true identity, their search for how they lost their memory, or who was responsible, can all make great storylines. Mix in all the opportunities for mystery and mistaken identity, anguish and pathos, not to mention possible entertainment value (Dory in 'Finding Nemo'), and it's not surprising so many films have used it as a plot feature. And underlying it all is the fascination with identity, with 'who we really are' – and how much our memories are part of our identity. 

Old Memories

'Eternal Sunshine' is unusual in that the characters choose to have specific memories erased. Usually movie memory loss happens through accident, trauma, or evil intent.

 There are examples of this going back to the earliest days of cinema but there was a spate of them after WWII, including the Alfred Hitchcock classic 'Spellbound' (1945) - in which Gregory Peck is an amnesiac who thinks he is Dr. Edwards (a famous psychiatrist) and who goes on the run with a real psychiatrist (Ingrid Bergman) who tries to help his condition, and solve the mystery of what happened to the real Dr. Edwards. It is famous for its dream sequences designed by Salvador Dali.

Peck's amnesia is shock/trauma related – another case of mistaken identity, but this time from the 'bump on the head' school of amnesia, is 2001's 'The Majestic' in which Jim Carey loses his memory in a car crash and is mistaken for a small town's missing war hero. His new identity is a nobler one than his old one and, as the film's director says: ''It's really a way to experience one's rebirth. It's a story about somebody finding his better self. What better way to get there than to empty the vessel?''

Films where someone's memories have been deliberately tampered with for evil purposes are also popular, and in these cases we have the added dimension of searching for those responsible. Amongst others the guilty parties have included; the Communists, in 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962), big corporations, in 'Total Recall' (1990), and aliens, in 'The Forgotten' (2004).

New Memories

To get technical for a minute, all of the above are examples of what is called retrograde amnesia – where you suddenly loose memories that you previously had no trouble recalling- and in real life this sort of amnesia is actually quite rare. Anterograde amnesia on the other hand is where you can remember the past, up to a point, but where you struggle to make new memories, and sadly this is much more common as it is a core symptom of Alzheimer's disease. 

Anterograde amnesia is much rarer in films however and I've struggled to come up with one any older than 2000's 'Memento' in which Guy Pearce is unable to make any new memories following a blow on the head sustained during an attack in which his wife was killed. In his quest to find the killer he has to write everything down to constantly remind himself of what he has discovered so far, including tattooing important facts on his body!  Another, much gentler, example is '50 First Dates' (2004) in which Adam Sandler falls for Drew Barrymore, only to find that the very next day she has completely forgotten him! Due to an accident she is only able to hold new memories for 24 hours and so each day he has to renew their relationship.

Both these examples remain fairly far fetched however, and in fact the neurological condition that Drew Barrymore suffers from, Goldfield Syndrome, is actually fictional. True Anterograde amnesia affects either short-term memory, which can last minutes or seconds, or intermediate-term memory, which can last days or weeks. For a more realistic interpretation of Anterograde amnesia we have 'The Notebook' (2004) in which an older man (James Garner) has volunteered his time to read to an infirm elderly woman (Gena Rowlands). The story he chooses to read her tells about the love of a young couple (Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling) separated first by social status and later by war. It is a rather sentimental film and the young couples love story is told fairly conventionally. We gradually realise however that Garner is in fact reading to his wife (who no longer remembers him) and that the story he reads is their own. This is the aspect I found quite touching – particularly as is a situation which is similar to the experiences of many people nowadays.

Epilogue

Remembering is an important and recurring theme in the Bible. It shapes us as religious communities as well as individuals. As a community we can make a positive effort to remember and have few excuses for not doing so – as individuals we may have no choice. But if are unable to hold on to memories how does that effect who we are? In February I hoped that our memories became more than simply information stored in our brains, and might indwell us in such a way that their effect could not be completely erased – even if our pure recollection fades. A hopeful sign in this respect is that apparently people with amnesia can remember the emotion linked to some particular event even if they can't remember the event itself. In 'Finding Nemo' the amnesiac Dory is advised to swim through a trench rather than over it, to avoid danger. When she arrives at the trench she says she feels compelled to swim through it, but doesn't know why. It's nice to see a cartoon about fish being medically accurate when many more serious works have got things wrong!

Tim