{"id":3795,"date":"2024-03-01T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2024-03-01T10:48:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T09:48:56","slug":"the-paradox-of-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2024\/03\/01\/the-paradox-of-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paradox of Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film Review of Memory<\/em> (Michel Franco, USA, 2023) by Dr Khalid Ali, film, and media correspondent
\nFilm is on UK and Irish cinemas from Friday 23.2.2024,\u00a0 https:\/\/memoryfilm.uk\/<\/a>
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Figure 1: Michel Franco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michel Franco, award-winning Mexican film director (figure 1), is a keen observer of the nature and dynamics of relationships between ailing patients and their paid carers. In \u2018Chronic\u2019 <\/em>(Mexico, France, 2015), David (Tim Roth) is a home carer who employs unorthodox practices, crosses professional boundaries, assumes some of his patients\u2019 identities and engages in assisted suicide. In his latest film, \u2018Memory\u2019<\/em>, Franco tells the story of a more endearing character, Sylvia (Jessica Chastain), a single mother who takes a job as a carer for Saul (Peter Sarsgaard), a middle-aged man diagnosed with early-onset dementia. In the opening scene of the film, we are introduced to Sylvia\u00a0 in an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting where she is silent and withdrawn. At home she is overprotective of her teenage daughter Anna (Brooke Timber).<\/p>\n

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