“Memory”, excellent performances in a film about past traumas

The traumas of the past return to knock on the door of the present in “Memory”, the new film by Michel Franco starring Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain.
Among the main new releases of the week in theaters, “Memory” tells the story of Sylvia, a social worker who leads a very simple life, dividing her time between work, her daughter and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her meeting with Saul, a former high school classmate of hers, will completely upset her routine: the man will in fact awaken in her memories of a stormy past which will have a strong impact on her entire existence.

Presented in competition at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, “Memory” led Peter Sarsgaard to lift the Volpi Cup as best actor of the competition, but Jessica Chastain is certainly no less impressive in a particularly complex role which she managed to manage better. The two of them are undoubtedly the added value of this film, focused on a painful past into which we begin to delve more and more after the meeting between the two main characters, well written as well as well acted.

Two years after the pretentious and unsuccessful “Sundown”, Michel Franco definitely straightens things out, creating a more delicate and interesting film, focused on stalking our personal memories. However, it is not only the memory, but also the theme of the disease, the basis of this painful film, which leads us to strongly empathize with the main characters, managing to involve them in the right way.

“Memory” and the other films of the week

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A few falls

Compared to his other much louder and more stylistically flashy films (among which we can mention “Nuevo orden”, probably his best work), the Mexican director opts in this case for a more whispered register, suited to dealing with the topics in the best possible way. delicates that the plot brings with it. From the existential crisis to the difficulty of reconstructing the pieces of one’s own mental mosaic, there are many irons in the fire, but the balance achieved is more than discreet, although the film stumbles into some lapses in style that border on the grotesque and ends up lowering the ‘ the overall level of the film. Despite some passages that are too didactic, “Memory” is still a successful film, imperfect but touching and capable, despite everything, of bringing with it several noteworthy reflections.

One more summer

Another novelty in the theater worth mentioning is “Ancora un’estate” by Catherine Breillat, a film presented in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. At the center of the plot is Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives with her husband Pierre and their daughters. However, the woman begins a relationship with Theo, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, endangering her career and family life. Ten years after “Abus de faiblesse”, the French director returns behind the camera for a story capable of shaking and generating possible scandals. Always a skilled provocateur, Breillat takes up the narrative basis of the 2019 Danish film “Queen of Hearts” to give life to a remake that is fully within its limits: more than the plot, what counts above all is the gaze of the French director, who has always been very careful to talk about morbid relationships that are not easy to read. There is some forcing here and there during the viewing, but the general design is intriguing and the scandalous intent is certainly successful. The result is fluctuating in pace, but capable of hitting the mark, also thanks to the excellent performance of the protagonist Léa Drucker.