Lapse of Memory

France sometimes goes wild about American films-- but not the same ones which are blockbusters here. When I visited Paris in January 1992, the Metro stations were full of posters for My Own Private Idaho, Little Man Tate (Le Petit Homme) and this film, which I seem to recall was entitled "Traque de Memoire." I loved it.

When the teenage boy first discovers that his parents are not who they appear to be, he becomes very paranoid, fearing that they are Soviet spies, and that they know he knows, and that they are going to protect themselves by killing him. Can you imagine the suspense of not being able to trust your own parents to let you live another day? This fear comes to a head during a harrowing canoe trip down some rapids. In terror that this is the time when his father has planned to murder him and make it look like an accident, he panics, only to put himself in even greater danger through his own actions. The father must rescue him, at so much risk to his own life as to prove the absurdity of the son's fears. The reconciling, reassuring realization comes at the top of a beautiful but deadly waterfall. It is an exhilarating moment, a worthy climax to any film. But this film is just getting warmed up. There is much more to come.

After returning to the U.S. I searched reference books and asked anyone I thought might know about this film. Nothing. No one had seen it. No one had heard of the plot. No one knew of a film in which John Hurt played a father who had taken his whole family into hiding. It was like having been in Twilight Zone.

It is quite sad that such a well-done thriller, just because it is a Canadian production and takes place in Canada, should be unheard of in the English-speaking country next door.

And it still seems unobtainable here.

But thanks to the power of IMDB searching, at least we can know that it really exists and isn't just a dream one had one night.

Amnesia? The person who wrote before myself makes it sound as if this was a major part of the film...which it is not....the kid was shot and left for dead....almost. That is traumatic enough for a person to have "amnesia"....which plays just a tiny part in the film anyway.No-not a "made for TV" flick...this movie was well done in most respects....all of the actors did a great job here...I say a well done flick and Canadian too! It was a strange fact that the boy and his ex-girlfriend got together again-how many "shrinks" would go that far to help a patient....but altogether a nice movie and time well spent! A small note: the girlfriend was later seen in beverly Hills 90210....I have never seen the actor who played the main character in this film again-what a shame....

Someone on the site complains that nobody knows this movie.Actually,we are two and more,if I check the -exaggerated- rating. Amnesia can provide substance for masterpieces:I would recommend Hitchcock's "spellbound".Such is not the case here.Not that the script is all that bad.Besides, both John Hurt and Marthe Keller are competent actors.But where is the director?If there's one,I cannot see it.The movie is so poorly directed that past and present are indistiguishable.The love affair is bland enough to be included in "Beverly Hills" or some other sitcom.Even the good idea -the short story- is wasted.A beautiful Rolling Stones song ("Memory motel") is used twice,but there is no real connection between it and the movie itself.Perfunctory indeed.Actually it looks like a very average made-for-TV movie,very average,because a lot of these TV movies-I'm thinking of Marvin Chomsky,for instance- are damn better than this poor thing.

This is an excellent French-Canadian thriller which few people have seen, but which deserves a DVD release and a lot more attention. It is based upon a teenage boy played brilliantly by Mathew Mackay, who as a result of a murder attempt is left with total amnesia, and he slowly attempts to piece together who he is, while his psychiatric interviews are spied upon by a sinister security official who is worried that he might remember too much. One flashback scene is when the boy, then aged 3, is driven away in a middle of the night escape and from the rear window of the car watches his home go up in flames, purposely set alight as part of a total disappearance act by his parents and their minders. The novel upon which this film is based was 'I Am the Cheese' (apparently also filmed nine years earlier in an inferior version) by Robert Cormier, who watched his own home go up in flames when he was eight. The film is excellently directed by Patrick Dewolf, of whom not enough is heard these days. John Hurt and Marthe Keller are excellent as the parents of the boy, Marion Peterson is very good as the compromised psychiatrist, and the boy's girlfriend is played with charm and poignancy by Kathleen Robertson. No one lets the side down, and it all comes together very well, with much better than usual film music as well by Alexandre Desplat. One gets the impression there is a lot of French Canadian talent sitting around up north there somewhere, not getting enough work. There are sections of the film where the characters talk rapidly to each other in French for a few moments, but it is not necessary to catch all that they are saying, as the film is moving fast, and one gets the idea. Marthe Keller's excellent French is explained by saying she grew up in Switzerland, but John Hurt avoids the patois, very wisely. This film has an underlying message, which is: 'Who are we if we cannot remember who we are?' This film is well worth seeing for those fortunate few who can find the old video issued in 1994 by VCI. So many good films like this get lost and buried because they are from marginal production or distribution sources, and Canadians always get ignored anyway, which is another problem. This film is definitely worth making an effort to try to find, especially as I cannot imagine it ever getting onto television because it is 'not in the loop'. This is a collector's delight.

I'm a huge fan of Robert Cormier, and like the above reviewers, found the rarity of this film most frustrating. Funnily enough though, I won this on original VHS for one pound (a UK release) so now I have seen all the filmed adaptations of Cormier's novels (except for the currently being produced Tenderness with Russell Crowe). The Chocolate War was a poor version of Cormier's best known work - complete with the Hollywood ending. It was a great start, but ended badly. The Bumblebee Flies Anyway was a great little by-the-numbers low budget (TV) movie, and the original version of I am the Cheese (featuring Cormier himself in a small role) was OK as well, though some bad performances and another dud ending change. So the second version of I am the Cheese - called Lapse of Memory (a better title given the fact I am the Cheese/Farmer in the Dell is not mentioned, and is better explained/suited to the book) - is again not bad. It sticks in some areas closer to the novel, in others it deviates. The direction is a bit all over the place (at least on the fullscreen version I saw), and John Hurt's performance is not his finest hour. The child actors are more than competent though. My big gripe though is this - I'm glad its set in Cormier's French Canada (where most of his books are set) and uses a combination of French and English that Canadians speak there, but what is the deal about not providing subtitles? This is a UK VHS (where they don't speak French!) so I missed major chunks of dialogue all in French. There was one entire scene revolving around the mother - looked very emotional - that was entirely in French but I have no idea what it was. Very frustrating. I like authenticity of language (Passion of the Christ was a masterpiece in this regard) but subtitle it please! Definitely should be out on subbed DVD. Otherwise, a pleasant way to spend 80 min, though there's a better film of this (and most of Cormier's fiction) lurking - if only someone could give it a decent budget. Perhaps Crowe's presence in Tenderness might revive his fine works.