Memory is a function that defines our lives, allowing us to integrate our experiences, our affections and our knowledge in a unique and unrepeatable way. But memory can also be a heavy burden, forcing us to relive trauma and pain every day that we would like to bury forever. It is along this double path that he walks MemoryNew film Michelle Franco With Jessica Chastain AND Peter Sarsgaardpresented at the competition in Venice 80.
It is because of memory that Silvia and Saul are truly two broken souls, two sick people to watch over, two people afraid of life. She had a history of abuse that led to alcohol addiction; She’s been sober for 13 years (her daughter’s age), but the wounds of youth are evident in her fear of human contact, in the caution with which she sets alarms, in her fearful glances at strangers. Saul, on the other hand, suffers from a form of dementia that particularly affects young people; He has fairly clear memories of the past, but his short-term memory begins to fail, putting him in grave danger and forcing him to coexist with his harsh brother.
They meet at a school reunion: Saul tries to talk to her, but Sylvia retreats and heads home while he stalks her ominously. The next morning she finds him distraught and decides to help him, but is convinced that Saul is part of her painful past. Thus begins a long journey through memory, which sometimes is the only possible support, but in other cases misleads us into seeing things differently than they really are.
Memory: Jessica Chastain in a moving meeting of broken souls and lost memories
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After a shocking New order and nihilist SunsetMichel Franco returns to competition in Venice with a film that is outwardly more measured and ordinary, in which many of the themes dear to the Mexican director actually coexist, such as characters forced to live with unbearable trauma or harsh thematic and plot lines. turns out to be etched in history. In the first lines Memory the director misleads us by plunging us into the atmosphere of a revenge film and then giving the story a more illness-focused twist, with Jessica Chastain able to transform from a victim seeking revenge into Saul’s loving and regretful assistant. However, this is not even the true plot of the film, which with a sweet and sharp kiss finally turns into a touching melodrama and a painful family drama.
There are a lot of open parentheses here concerning other women dear to Sylvia (including her rejecting mother, played by the unforgettable Jessica Harper From Suspiria) and Saul’s devastated family. Not all of them are closed with dignity, but where the script fails, wonderful performers will take care of it. What remains in the heart is the bright smile of Saul, who, despite everything, manages to see the beauty in life, Sylvia’s nerves on edge, the result of pain that cannot be erased, and above all, one of the most sincere and intense sex scenes of the latter time. , in which the clumsiness is not a result of misunderstanding, but a precise narrative idea that perfectly matches the characters’ confusion and fears.
Directed by Michel Franco
Away from obvious violence New order and from fairy tale inserts SunsetMichel Franco finds another advantage in music, especially in an epochal stage Whiter shade of pallorthe only lifeline in Saul’s life, and also one of those “songs that will save your life“as he said Brunori Sas. A song that has gone down in history for its touching melancholic tone, but whose enigmatic lyrics, centered on a confused and desperate lover, find an effective connection to Saul’s own life, balancing between love and the illness that leads to his death. lose yourself physically and mentally.
It is thanks to this choice that the director manages to show neurological problems without pity, talk about violence without succumbing to rhetoric, think about dysfunctional families without turning the story into a chorus of hysterical screams. Then Franco manages to penetrate into the heart Memory, that is, two people are also in love, and above all, due to their differences, despite the fact that two families are trying to separate them and two private stories that can interfere with them. Two social outcasts, haunted by the past, desperately searching for love in the present to build on their weaknesses.
Memory: stunning performances from Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard
This is Michel Franco, who does not destroy, but creates Memory, allowing the viewer to be surprised not by the twists and turns of the story, but by the complexity of the characters created with charming humanity by Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard. A notable turning point for the Mexican director, who this time puts aside his destructive streak without abandoning the many small pieces of his cinema, always ready to thwart Sylvia and Saul’s path. As in that acute set of contradictions that was and is Whiter shade of pallorwe leave them dancing on the edge of uncertainty, no longer slaves to memories to be preserved but driven by the desire to create new ones.
Memory will soon appear in Italian cinemas, distributed by Academy Two.