Mémoire traquée

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.

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.

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....

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 have to agree with the comments from Paul Emmons, that is appears this fantastic film has just drifted into the unknown. I saw this film back in the mid nineties on Satellite TV. late one night. I was surprised to find that no one I knew had seen it and that I couldn't find it in of the local video shops. I had since forgotten all about it until the other day when I saw the actor John Hurt on a poster for a film and remembered that he had been in a great film back in the nineties but I couldn't remember the name. I have to thank IMDB for there site as I was able to track the film down and will be ordering it from the internet as I think it is a must have film. If you like Memento then I think you will like this as there are a lot of twist and turns, I will not go into what happens as I think everyone should see this film. I would strongly urge the movie house that put this film out to re release this on DVD with a big promotion as I think this could do almost as well as SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, almost as SHAWSHANK is a classic. Please see this film as it is not often a film of this quality comes along