Memoires Affectives (Looking For Alexander)

Francis Leclerc's taut thriller Memoires Affectives, newly out on DVD in Canada and soon to appear as part of the Film Movement series in the US, will inevitably draw comparisons to Christopher Nolan's Memento purely by virtue of the film placing an amnesiac in the lead role. But there the comparisons end. Nolan's film focuses on revenge with forays into the relationships between memory, perception and trust. Leclerc, on the other hand, is almost entirely preoccupied with questions of identity and the malleability of truth. Leclerc also shoots better looking film, which is saying something considering Nolan's no slouch in that department …

Memoires Affectives is the story of Alexander Tourneur, a forty something year old veterinarian who has lain in a coma, declared clinically dead, for months since being the victim of a hit and run accident. A shadowy figure appears beside Alexander's bed in the opening scene, says goodbye, turns off his ventilator and leaves him for dead. But rather than killing him the removal of life support shocks Alexander's system enough that he awakes a changed man, a man with complete amnesia, his mind a complete void. The police, still searching for the driver who ran Alexander down, now also begin the search for whoever attempted to kill him in hospital while Alexander struggles to remember anything whatsoever of his past so that he may both assist the police investigation and reclaim his lost life.

What Alexander discovers is that rebuilding a life is not always a pleasant experience. Beyond the simple awkwardness of meeting a wife and child that are complete strangers to him Alexander quickly begins to piece together a less than flattering picture of his past life. His marriage is a shambles and verging on total collapse, he has a significant drinking problem and he is continually plagued by strange, violent images of a man's drowning. Making his reintegration to daily life even more difficult is a peculiar phenomenon: when he talks with close friends and family members about past events he frequently experiences vivid visions of the events in question. Are these Alexander's memories returning? Could be but why, then, does he always appear in these visions in the third person and why do the people he's speaking with always deny any knowledge of the events after the visions have struck? It is as though Alexander is appropriating memories from his friends and family members and he is left is the bizarre position of not only having no memories of his own but gradually being filled with other people's memories of himself and key events that those people no longer have any memory of. He is gradually being filled, but only by emptying those around him.

Leclerc has crafted a beautiful, haunting film. The film is largely shot in the starkly gorgeous countryside of rural Quebec, a land filled with forests, lakes, mountains and cold, harsh winters, all of which Leclerc captures with a fluid, mostly handheld camera with the images washed out to match Alexander's inner emptiness. Roy Dupuis turns in a fantastic performance in the lead role and the key supporting cast members are all solid. The film's one weak point comes in the moment of exposition in which Alexander's doctor explains his strange memory appropriations. Sure, by this point the audience is well aware of what's happening and all that is necessary is for someone to explain it to Alexander so things can continue to move along but can you really picture a respectable hospital doctor listening to a single story from a former coma patient and immediately and calmly telling him, “Oh, people are transmitting their memories to you." as though this were a boring everyday occurrence? It's completely out of character and momentarily breaks the film's internal logic.

Anchored by a fascinating, richly layered performance from his lead actor Leclerc has here created a fascinating look at the nature of identity. Are we what we perceive ourselves to be? Are we what others perceive us to be? Or could we be something else entirely? Whether taken as a straight forward thriller or a philosophical head trip Memoires Affectives is a remarkable piece of work, one that clearly marks Francis Leclerc as a director to watch. A near perfect fusion of style and substance.