Novo

Anterograde amnesia, the inability to form new memories, is a popular plot device. It allows storytellers to repeatedly explore the protagonist's plight, without all the extra suspension of disbelief that comes with using a time loop instead. It's almost always caused by vitamin B1 deficiency from repeatedly getting blackout drunk or anorexic/bulimic extreme fasting. But being self-inflicted would make the protagonist unsympathetic, so the storytellers contrive it to be caused by trauma. Examples: Clean Slate (1994), Memento (2000), Novo (2002), 50 First Dates (2004), etc. Those are not spoilers, because the condition is revealed at the start of the films, usually even in the advertising!

Novo is one of the better anterograde amnesia films. It has a point to make, comparing love and lust in the light of shared memories.

Odd none of the others showed up in its "More like this" list, don't you think?

a disconcerting production, full of charm for an art flick that tries to envision the relation between love (and lust) and memories. This is the strength of the film (a universal theme about which there is much to say) and its weakness because the director has not followed his ideas to its logical conclusions. One cannot help thinking that this film could have been really excellent if the narration were less syncopated. The similarities with memento are obvious but the loss of memory here seems to be more an excuse than a "raison d'être" because the love story between Graham and Irène gives rise to numerous interesting themes (the happy-go-lucky Amnesiac opposed to his passionate lover, the naive Amnesiac opposed to people who take advantage of him, the carefree wandering life and the freedom of love when you are free of your memories, etc....) without fully exploiting them.

Nevertheless the charm of the film lies in the way the camera is in love with Graham (the Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega)and thus continually spies on his sensual body with a certain sense of decency. The beautiful Spanish actor is really the epicenter of the film and gives an undisputed sensual color. The French actress Anna Mouglalis is also perfect in her role. Nudity does not aim at being a provocation, sensuality and pleasure seem to be devoid of any guilt (beware because it might put off some viewers) in this film.

to sum up : a smart and sensual attempt to deal with the theme of amnesia with casualness and thoughtlessness

I think this is messy and out of focus. It tries to be too many things, and it fails to successfully achieve any of those.

This wanted to be love story told through a different angle. It wanted to play with memory as a creator of reality, or something able to define a certain reality. It wanted to establish ambiguity over motivations and over who is controlling, who is bending the reality of what we see. It wanted to use sex, and sexually moved characters (above all females) as a cinematic glue to all this I can think of various films for each of the "wannabe" i mentioned that manage to be more successful in their objectives than this one. I don't know one film that does well in mixing all this. And if i come to find one, i don't think it will be made by the authors of this one. At least not for what i saw here.

'Memento' played with the notions and the effects of short term memory, and memory loss much deeper. Here, we find the memory losses as the device to allow our character to become who his puppeteers want him to be. It is what it takes for him to be a puppet, to be unstable, to cast some doubt on who he is, what he wants. Noriega played the equivalent role in 'Abre los ojos', which was much more effective. I think for this purposes, 'Clean Slate' was a much better exploration of this!... Here we have links establish to monitoring our amnesic, the martial arts, the photos sessions, the block notes. But none of that is really used. The ending comes to unfold as a common romantic situation of gathering and decision on which woman the protagonist will elect (which you know who it is miles away from the ending).

So it ends as the love story the film also wanted to be. The 'woman who loves the man accepting him for what he is' plot. It's ordinary, but it is given a new clothing, in order to look new. But if you stop and think, there's absolutely nothing worth mentioning about this story. If you want renewed fresh ways to join a love environment and the creation of alternative realities, try Medem. In 'Los amantes...', in 'Lucia y el sexo', in 'La ardilla roja'. He can do that. By coincidence (or not), here we even have Medem's Lucia (Paz Vega) as the wife of the sick protagonist who, in his moments of memory recovery comes to speak Spanish...

Than we have the attempts to play with the forces controlling what we see. We know almost always as much as the main character. And practically every character (except the boy and the woman who loves the protagonist) have ambiguous intentions (apart from the fact that we take our time to understand where everybody fits, that's a good thing). We are given successions of facts we can't judge correctly. But than we come to understand that the film is moving nowhere, and what we see is what we get. No twist, no revelation, what it seems to be happening is really happening. It's not that we have to be deceived, but there should be some intention behind the idea of casting ambiguity in every corner of the stone. See 'Oldboy', if you want master work working these concepts.

My opinion: 2/5 this is messy, but it has some interesting concepts, if you start imagining where this could go.

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A clever and stylish, erotic French drama. Concerns a man who can't remember anything that happens past one hour. Subsequently some interesting scenarios pop up! It's sort of a lightweight movie but with some rather pleasant vibes. Coffee time!

I just rented and viewed this film a couple of days ago and.... I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!! I am sorry but this film is just a waste of.... film, you know? I am a big Eduardo Noriega fan but he just wasted his time going over the border to France to star in this pretentious film, and I love French films! This is an arty film without arty actually applying to any facets of the film in a positive sense, that is. An attractive female lead is wasted as well despite some interesting shots of her pubic hair. Anyway, do not waste your time with this film. There are a number of nude scenes that include both leads that are un-erotic. An the beautiful young Spanish actress Paz Vega is totally wasted as is Eric Caravaca in a supportive role. Next!!!