Our obsession with our memories is only natural considering we are the only species capable of articulating and exploring this concept to its endless permutations. Here are five films that study recollection in its manufacture, unreliability and fragility. What are some of your own favourites?
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
Directed by Alain Resnais and written by Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima Mon Amour kickstarted the French New Wave and was well ahead of its time with its interracial romance and its unflinching view of the after-effects of war. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) have an intense affair while the actress is in Japan filming. The relationship is now coming to an end and the two lovers reflect on it, drawing parallels of aspects of their love with that of the impact left by the Hiroshima bombing. Resnais’s pioneering flashbacks help add to the movie while the film references Casablanca, suggesting that the lovers’ paths will never cross again.
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Blade Runner’s central theme of what it means to be human is reinforced by the concept of memories and in a futuristic, dystopian 2019, this is further complicated by those implanted in bio-engineered Replicants. A Blade Runner (Harrison Ford) has been tasked with hunting down Replicants who have escaped from the Off Worlds back to Earth but his own humanity is called to question when he falls in love with one. Ridley Scott cleverly fused sci-fi with film noir so as not to date the movie with of-the-moment technology but despite this, Blade Runner was a flop upon its release. It was the director’s cut of the film (and a poetic soliloquy, wholly improvised by Rutger Hauer in an iconic scene) that helped revive the film, turning it first into a cult favourite and now, a classic.
The Garden of Evening Mists (Tom Lin, 2019)
This film adaptation of Tan Twan Eng’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel was helmed by Taiwanese filmmaker Tom Lin and was a joint production between Astro and HBO Asia featuring an international cast and crew. Themes of memory, guilt, forgiveness and letting go are explored through the movie’s protagonist, Yun Ling (sensitively portrayed by both screen legend Sylvia Chang and Malaysian actress Lee SinJe). Yun Ling is intent on creating a garden in post-war Cameron Highlands, in memory of her sister who died there during Japanese-occupied Malaya. She reluctantly asks the help of a gardener living in the highlands who is rumoured to have once been under the employ of the emperor of Japan himself. Fast-forward to 1980s Kuala Lumpur, Yun Ling is now suffering from aphasia and compelled to go back to Cameron Highlands to face her unresolved past before her memories fade. The movie opened last year’s Busan Film Festival and was nominated for nine Golden Horse Awards.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Regarded as one of the best films of the 21st century, Michel Gondry’s film from an award-winning script co-written by Charlie Kaufman taps into our collective inability to forget a love lost and asks if we would gladly relinquish our memories if the opportunity presented itself. The movie’s two protagonists played by Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey have done just that. In the course of removing his memories, however, the latter comes to regret his decision and tries to recall all the best moments of the relationship they had before they are entirely wiped out. Produced on a budget of USD20 million, the film garnered much acclaim for Gondry, Kaufman, Winslet (who was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars) and Carrey in his first serious role.
Iris (Richard Eyre, 2001)
The biography of the author Iris Murdoch in her declining years based on the book by her husband Jim Bayley, is a realistic portrayal of those suffering from Alzheimer’s as well as the frustrations borne by their caregivers. Bayley (Jim Broadbent) is a doting husband but finds himself tested by his wife (Judi Dench) as she deteriorates from the disease. This is in stark contrast to a younger, effervescent Murdoch (Kate Winslet) whose intelligence and boldness captures the heart of the younger Bayley (Hugh Bonneville). The movie was warmly received by critics and did well at the awards circuit. Jim Broadbent won an Oscar for his portrayal as Bayley while the main cast all gained Bafta nominations.
