Mémoires affectives

I finished watching this movie on DVD tonight and I loved it! A great story with great performances and well-done pacing. The soundtrack is also great too, as so is the main protagonist, Alexander. Alliance Atlantis did a good job making this movie. Sadly there's no English dub yet...

I watched it in French audio with English subtitles. You can't get this movie anywhere else on DVD apart from Canada and France, so if you don't have this movie on DVD or VHS or if you've never even heard of it, you can at least watch it online for free if you can find it. This is also my first Canadian movie I've watched in French.

Visually stunning, very atmospheric, good acting... in spite of all these qualities, this slow-moving movie is globally a disappointment : too many plot holes, not enough clues to have a reasonable chance of foreseeing the final «revelation» -- which, in itself, is very moving, but alas, on second though, looks «pasted-on», since one important character connected with it is only revealed as existing almost with that very end. Also disappointing is the use of «wrong» language (one blatant example : «je VAS...» instead of «je VAIS...»). Was another version, in better «international French», made for foreign markets ? If not, ironically said, what a «good» impression this movie would make on more learned viewers !

Quebec in winter is a powerful setting for this, the umpteenth amnesia movie. Nothing makes sense for the hero after someone tries to pull the plug on him while he's in a coma and only succeeds in waking him up. We are equally baffled, and frankly we are not enlightened much in the ensuing 90 minutes. When Alex demands of his doctor why his personal circle is behaving in completely contradictory fashion, we hang on his every word. "You are picking up on their deeper feelings" is all the doctor can offer. Evidently, he's as baffled as any of us. Alex does have a breakthrough of sorts, when he penetrates a deep memory that had nothing to do with him going into a coma, but occurred about 34 years earlier. Er, as I said...it's baffling. Other big-grossing and award-winning pictures have had ludicrously unsatisfactory denouements, e.g. Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, but Memoires Affectives takes the cake. How the director managed to persuade the producers to finance this confusing confection is not clear. Probably Roy Dupuis could appear for 90 minutes asleep in bed and someone would cough up a few million. In spite of being so utterly daft, the picture sucks you in engagingly for its duration --- but don't waste any time trying to work it out afterwards.

First off, let's start with the negative points: 1) There are HUGE, gaping wholes in the story line and questions that are raised that will get no where near being answered; 2) The movie is not for all people, so impolite viewers will get restless and start yapping during the movie.

Point two above is important because the movie is very quiet. In an older type theater (like the one I went to), you can hear the reel going through the projector at times. I loved that. The movie does not keep you busy with music, nor effects: it lets you reflect upon what is happening.

There is a lack of rhythm that generates an atmosphere that is fascinating an utterly enjoyable. The same kind of atmosphere generated by Stanley Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut. Not for all people.

I would highly recommend it to fans of cinema, as the cinematographic work is amazing. Those that base their appreciation of a movie solely on the story will be utterly disappointed. It's the kind of story that you have to make up the links in your mind afterwards. (My version of it is pretty darn cool, but probably quite off-track!) If you do go catch the movie, there is one very cool part: when the two cops are talking to each other on their cell phones. An ultra-cool sound effect that really puts you in the moment. Hats off to the person that thought of doing this.

You can call it a mystery, perhaps a small thriller, or an intelligent film.

The story takes you through the life of one person who has lost his life and is looking to regain it.

I have to say I was quite surprised that I truly did enjoy this film. It is not usually the genre I care for however the characters quickly became people to me and I wanted to know what they were about and what was going to happen to them.

Just like many french films over English made, we are able to learn much more about the character and the affect of their surroundings on their person. This film is character driven and will not disappoint!