On sudden memory loss

A. Zholkovsky’s essay deals with Love at First Sight (2010), a British short film set in a senior home. The film’s plot revolves around sporadic temporary memory loss that afflicts the elderly and naturalizes the paradoxical bitter-sweet finale: two senior residents enjoying a version of everlasting love at first sight. The author draws an unusual parallel between the film’s plot and F. de La Rochefoucauld’s Maxim 313. Although the situation, characters, and the format of the narration differ, the whims of memory play a similar structural role in both. The cinematic drama succeeds because of the protagonist’s heartwarming ability to fall in love with the same lady over and over again, whereas the maxim portrays a narcissist ridiculously preoccupied with the minutiae of his own life. Essentially, however, both characters remain faithful to their obsession (invariant theme), be it romantic love for the heroine or pathetic self-centredness. Moreover, both cases are made possible by a helpful memory lapse. A question to psychiatrists: to what extent does solid scientific research back this extremely successful narrative device?

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