For anyone who has seen the movie, Memento, here's why I began this line of posting:
By making reference to Memento, I meant to suggest a direction for experiment in film. I was reading from Matter and Memory and realized that Bergson makes a distinction that bears on the understanding of Leonard's problem. Memento presents a guy who suffers from memory loss. But what does this mean? It became clear this past quarter that the experience of memory loss was to be shared by the viewer, and it was an effect that was to be accomplished by editing. Let's say you have a scene involving two events that follow one another. You shoot it in real time, then cut the film in half and reverse the order of the halves. Without the first half in mind, a viewer isn't forgetting what happens, but watching the second half first will be like forgetting what precedes it. Unlike Leonard, we then see the earlier half, as if we could suddenly remember it. Leonard would never be shown the earlier half. There would never be that moment when one realizes that what one is seeing (or imagining) came earlier in time than something one just witnessed. Bergson draws a distinction between memory as it works in recognition and the kind of memory that involves an image. When Leonard recalls life with his wife, he brings to mind an image of them together. And his memory loss consists in no longer being capable of generating new images like these. But recognition doesn't involve the recall of an image. You might have noticed that Leonard almost always recognizes Teddy. Within the film itself we have the case that Leonard recounts while on the phone. it dates from his days as an insurance adjuster prior to his brain lesion. Leonard's suspicions about Sammy Jankin's claim were aroused when Leonard thought Sammy recognized him as Leonard showed up at Sammy's door. So Leonard arranges to test Sammy's memory. And he does it by arranging to have Sammy take a test that involves the acquisition of new motor memories. A person unable to form new memory images could still learn not to pick up a small metal piece that has been wired to give an electric shock. It is a learning that does not involve image recall. Bergson offers an example to explain the two. Suppose you rehearse a song until you learn it. Each time you rehearse it, you have to run through it in time for as much of it as you have learned. Memory in this case does not involve an image. You might, however, remember a particular day on which you were practicing. The sun was shining as you did your rehearsal and you stood near the window. That would be an image of a particular occasion. I was charmed to find that elements of the plot in Memento fulfilled a good deal of what Bergson would have wanted to say about Leonard and memory disorders. Of course, when I posted, I wasn't really intending to give such attention to a film of this kind. We get stuck with certain films for teaching and then find ourselves reading to supplement what we're going to have to say. The invitation to think about experimental film and photography initiated my recall of that week's lesson plan, which exceeded anything I would have expected to be talking about. Bernie
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