Mémoires affectives (2004) User Reviews

A baffling script that somehow works as cinema----temporarily

[rowmorg · 6/10 · 9 October 2006]

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.

Major spoilers alert! My interpretation of the story

[camellia1000 · 8/10 · 25 January 2014]

I like thought-provoking films, and this is one of them. The story is about a man who wakes up from a coma and remembers nothing. In search of his own memory, he seems to develop an uncanny ability to "steal" memories from his loved family and friends. He does it unintentionally of course, as images of their memories flow into his head as they describe them to him. Afterwards, they forget these memories and act as if these memories never exited, and this phenomena frustrates the man throughout the film. Someone viewers complained that the ending has nothing to do with rest of the film. I interpreted it as Alexander must remember who he is (what happened to his father on that hunting day) in order to stop "stealing" memories from his loved ones. Whenever the memory transmission happens, you can hear a faint clicking sound (the opening scene when his wife told him she is going to marry Francois, the gas station scene when his daughter told him that "he's the best father in the world", the scene when he toasts "for friendship" with his best friend, the scene when his wife told him she will "always love him", the scene when his girlfriend told him "we were in love", and the scene when the gamekeeper told him about the case of gin). I was looking for that clicking sound during the final scene with his brother because I wasn't sure if these images are his brother's or his. There was no clicking sound (his brother's memories was not stolen based on the fact that his brother confirmed what happened verbally after Alexander gained that memory). Alexander was able to break his own curse by finding out the one memory he desperately wants to forget, the one memory that defined who he is. However, I am not sure how he stole the memories of the Indian hunter and the deer. Maybe he stole the deer's memories right when he got hit by the truck (you know it is a big truck because of the sound of horn in the opening), and maybe the deer had the Indian hunter's memory when it encountered one. In the end, we still don't know who hit Alexander, but I don't think that was the point of the story.

The atmosphere IS the movie

[imdb-4269 · 10/10 · 6 March 2005]

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.

Smart, razor sharp mystery movie

[benoitlelievre · 9/10 · 8 March 2005]

You like to solve mysteries? You like complex narrations? This is for you. Brilliant, clever movie by Francis Leclerc(son of a legendary french Canadian signer Felix Leclerc). Flashy photo and clever editing is the word of Leclerc, strongly helped by Roy Dupuis who's dythirambic in the lead role.

The plot is about Alexandre Tourneur, veterinary in his 40's who just woke up from a coma after being unplugged by somebody unknown. Tourneur is struggling to remember who hit him as he was ending a deer's sufferings on the road. Throughout the struggling, he has weird behavior and it seems like something took over him.

Not spooky, but very mysterious and well played movie. I have my hypothesis on the ending(I think the Indian caused the accident) but this ending was open to any explanations.

I strongly recommend it 9.5/10

Cannot pigeon toe this movie into one genre

[dragonlady_lfn · 10/10 · 4 September 2006]

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!

An underrated masterpiece of Quebec cinema.

[zachmosley · 10/10 · 3 September 2022]

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.

Aspects of a minor version of Hitchcock's «Spellbound» ?

[jussssst · 5/10 · 16 September 2007]

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 !