Memory

“I know now that I shall think of this story as of the horror of forgetting.”

– Eiji Okada, “Hiroshima mon amour”

The events in our lives pass by quickly and become memories. I have read that the reason most of us can’t remember anything before about three years of age is because we need to master language before we can start filing away our memories.

Memory is the thread that connects the events in our lives. When we are young, we are busy living and working. We usually pay scant attention to our memories. As we grow older, our memories steadily grow in importance. Naturally, we have more memories as we age. Typically, we also have more free time to recall our memories and ponder their significance.

Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashoman” is an extraordinary film about memory. We tend to assume that our memories accurately reflect past events. “Rashoman” focuses on the crucial question of whether or not we can rely on our memories to tell us the truth about the past.

Ingmar Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” is a magnificent film about memory, love, regret, and old age. In this film, an elderly, retired medical doctor recalls his childhood love, a young woman named Sara. A memory of Sara picking wild strawberries suddenly upends his life.

Memory helps us make sense of our experiences. War is perhaps the most extreme experience of all. Shattering memories of war are the subject of the haunting New Wave masterpiece, “Hiroshima mon amour.” What does love have to do with war? This extraordinary film suggests an answer.