This essay will explore how memory is essential in the formation of identity, how national identity could be labelled a national interest, and how these themes are represented in the films Amnesia (Justiniano, 1994) and La Finestra Di Fronte (Özpetek, 2004). An overview of the discourses surrounding national interest and memory will be provided, followed by an analysis of the film Amnesia. This will focus on the representation of several of the film’s characters that symbolise different fractions of Chilean society and the cinematic techniques used to link the past with contemporary national interests. An analysis of La Finestra Di Fronte will also be provided focusing on the merging of past and present, the character of Davide, and the representation of his memories. This essay will argue that Davide's traumatic past and Giovanna’s ignorance are representative of the nation, that cinema aids in the mediation of memory, and that memory’s repression or acknowledgment is a national interest as it effects the national identity.
The term national interest could be considered ambiguous. David Clinton offers the definition that it ‘lies in the obligation to protect and promote the good of society’ (Clinton, 1994, p.52). Its ambiguity lies in the fact that common good has to be assessed, and it could therefore have several possible meanings or interpretations. National interest has been labelled undemocratic as it ‘can be used as a convenient and often convincing cover for the machinations of self interested groups, (…) and for the suppression of dissenting groups’ (Clinton, 1994, p.72). However, national interest can also stand for the protection of what holds society together as a community, a unification that requires common interests and the formation of common identity. But this also requires a level of control and there is a danger of irresponsible power inherent in it.
Both of the films this essay will analyse feature the theme of memory, which has also been related to operations of power. Memory is socially produced and intrinsically linked to the formation of identity. Michel Foucault stated that ‘if one controls people’s memory, one controls their dynamism’ (Foucault, 1996, p.124). Memory can be as much collective as individual, as individual memories can be incomplete and fragmented. Completion of these memories can be sought ‘in the social world outside the individual’ (Storey, 2003, p.101), but this also suggests that they are open to manipulation. As memory is such an important factor in construction of identity, either individual or collective, it can be used as a political force and could be labelled as a national interest.
However, memories do not just consist of what has been remembered, but what has been forgotten. The Chilean film Amnesia features flashbacks to the country’s recent past, under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Only in 1990 did Chileans begin to again elect their political leaders, after a 17-year military dictatorship. Chileans living under this regime were unable to make films addressing contemporary issues, and at the end of the regime Pinochet publicly called for the nation to forget the past. Cultivated under a political consensus, the government persuaded the public that to it was in the national interest to forget.
The character of Ramírez highlights the importance of reclaiming memory not just on an individual level, but a national level as well. It could be argued that he is representative of the general population of Chile, as he is placed as a neutral figure between the guards of the camp and the prisoners themselves, just as the general population of Chile would have been placed between the state and dissenting groups. Suffering from amnesia he is obsessively searching for his former sergeant, and ‘it appears he is unable to function in the present until he begins to explore his past’ (Shaw, 2003, p.76). When looking at his reflection on a shiny plate in the opening sequence, his image is distorted and he is unable to recognise himself. We could take this image of distortion as symbolising his mind and his identity. It is only when he meets Zúñiga again that his memories start to return. The flashbacks are shown in a linear development and through them Ramírez, and the audience, are able to make sense of his past, and the trauma he has been through. If Ramírez is representative of society, then his story suggests that reclaiming the nation’s collective memory is essential if the nation is to construct a better future.
The other central characters could be argued to represent the opposing groups in society. Alvear is one of the prisoners at the camp, his journal and words are ‘repeated by Mandiola, and reread by Ramírez’ (Shaw, 2003, p.79) to create a counter-history. Alvear states, “These signs are the only testimony repeated by the mouths of the dead”. By choosing to present Alvear, a victim of the regime, the film gives back those murdered a voice, by presenting their lost testimonies. Sergeant Zúñiga is also suffering from amnesia, but unlike Ramírez his amnesia is self-regulated, and an attempt to protect himself from his conscience. Zúñiga echoes Pinochet and tells Ramírez to “forget the past”. However, his trial by Ramírez and Carrasco at the end could be representative of the military regime, all those that followed orders and committed crimes, and his guilt becomes their guilt. Zúñiga and Alvear, channelling the voices of the dead, and the dictator himself, represent the polar opposites of the regime.
It could be argued that the film uses the past to comment directly on ‘the principle political and social issues confronting contemporary Chileans’ (Shaw, 2003, p.73). The use of the flashback means that the film is not set in the past but in the present, so the relationship between the two is central in the audience’s mind. The film features many symbols that represent a close connection between the two times, such as the use of match on action editing and the images of swinging lamps in the present, and in the past. Flashbacks could also represent collective memory as they ‘give us images of history, the shared and recorded past’ (Turim, 1989, p.2). The flashbacks could be interpreted as a mixture of both Zúñiga’s and Ramírez’s memories. Depicting scenes in which Ramírez is not present, the audience becomes aware that they are not shot within any one character’s subjective view, but that the camera takes on the role of a third-person omniscient narrator. Therefore, the use of flashbacks highlights that memory can be collective and is linked to the present. Through visual representations of memory, the film ‘effectively challenges official rejections of the past’ (Shaw, 2003, p.77). It is dependent on flashbacks for meaning and this way parallels the countries need to analyse its nation’s history. Like the narrative of Ramírez, the film could suggest that it is a national interest to end an officially endorsed amnesia, and that this would enable the country to recover from the traumas of the dictatorship.
Like Amnesia, La Finestra di Fronte also employs the use of flashback as a tool to link the past with the present. It deals with themes of amnesia, and features flashbacks to Nazi persecution in Italy. The film begins in 1940s Rome with a murder and the perpetrator leaving a bloody handprint on a wall. Time is sped up to show the handprint gradually disappearing then the camera pans away to show us that the film is now set in the current day. A small trace is still visible and it could be argued that this is a representation of how ‘the past still marks the future’ (Marcus, 2007, p.142).
The film uses the character of Davide to comment on the country’s denial of history and the importance of passing on memory. Davide, like Ramirez, is unable to make sense of the present without his memories, but unlike Ramírez, Davide’s memory needs reordering rather than reclaiming. His flashbacks are portrayed as subjective and do not have order or a linear narrative. They often appear as visions and sounds superimposed on modern day Rome, such the sound of marching, and a little girl confronting him in the street. It seems as if Davide’s past haunts him and his memories appear as ghosts. The disturbances of Davide’s fragmented mind could be caused by the unhealthy repression of traumatic events. Davide is lost in Rome, and it could be argued that representing him as a confused old man without a name highlights how important memories are in the formation of identity. Giovanna and Filippo take him into their home and attempt to discover who he is, and as his past is excavated we uncover ‘a lost 1940s history of racial and sexual persecution’ (Wood, 2005, p.214). Only by retelling is Davide able to reassess and reorder his memories, but to do so he must have a listener. Giovanna becomes the necessary ‘addressable other’ in the film and represents a new generation of witness. It is only when Davide able to pass on his testimony that the audience is given a linear retelling of events. The film suggests that passing on memory is essential in the formation of a country’s identity.
Contemporary Italy, as represented in the film, is utterly devoid of historical memory, and Giovanna’s ‘historical obliviousness exemplifies that of an entire generation living in the eternal present of contemporary media culture’ (Marcus, 2007, p.142). Giovanna and her family are unaware of their country’s traumatic past and Davide’s testimony is passed on to them. A family is considered a micro-community that could be representative of society. By using the family ‘public and political is presented through the private sphere of human feelings, memories, love and regrets’ (Laviosa, 2005, p.213). In this way it could be argued that the private and personal represents the public and political. Davide’s story is politicised; his history becomes his country’s history and the family becomes contemporary Italy.
There are other forces aside from political within the negotiation of memory. Cinema is a powerful medium that represents and embodies the past like no other; therefore ‘it has become essential to the mediation of memory in modern cultural life’ (Grainge, 2003, p.1). Özpetek invokes the past with the casting of Massimo Girotti, a ‘personification of post-war Italian film history’ (Marcus, 2007, p.143) for the character of Davide. In the wake of fascism and war there was a need to redefine national identity, ‘which produced a stylistically and philosophically distinctive cinema’ (Shiel, 2006, p.1). By casting Girotti it could be argued that Özpetek is bringing the history of Italy’s committed art with the most solemn act that a historical reconstruction can perform – that of bearing witness (Marcus, 2002, p.267).
La Finestra di Fronte directly confronts problems of historical trauma and its ‘effects on the Italian collective psyche as it struggles to come to terms with the past’ (Marcus, 2007, p.145). Davide is at the end of his life and his character is the sum of its experience, not one that will be able to develop or change. He cannot go back and change his decision to save the ghetto rather than his lover Simone. The past is a fixed moment and events cannot alter, ‘the potential for evolution and change, for enactive access of any sort is negated’ (Hope, 2005, p.58). He tells Giovanna “I can’t do anything anymore. But you… you still have a choice. You can change Giovanna.” Giovanna’s gains courage from Davide’s story to change her life. She asks “Does everyone who leaves you always leave a part of themselves with you? Is that the secret of having memories?” Giovanna inherits Davide’s memory and he continues to live through her. In Giovanna’s letter to Davide at the end of the film she says that her daughter Martina still asks about him and “I’ll tell her your story”. This confirms that the testimony will be passed on to future generations as well. The film suggests that memories are transferable, effect identity, and that the nation has much to gain by acknowledging and mourning their traumatic past. In this way it represents the importance of making memory a national interest.
Both of the countries analysed use amnesia to deal with their fascist past, but both of the films analysed challenge this amnesia and demonstrate the importance of acknowledging history. The personal memory of Ramirez and Davide is representative of their country’s collective memory, and just as memory effects individual identity it can also aid in the formation of a national identity. Therefore, it could be argued that memory is used as a central theme in both of these films to highlight its power, and that memory is represented as a key national interest.
Bibliography
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Hope, W. (2005). Giuseppe Tornatore: Nostalgia; Emotion; Cognition. In W. Hope (Ed.), Italian Cinema New Directions, (pp.53-78). Bern: Peter Lang Publishers.
Laviosa, F. (2005). Francesca Archibugi: Families and Life Apprenticeship. In W. Hope (Ed.), Italian Cinema New Directions, (pp.201-228). Bern: Peter Lang Publishers.
Marcus, M. (2002). After Fellini, National Cinema in the Postmodern Age. London: The John Hopkins University Press.
Marcus, M. (2007). Italian Film in the shadow of Auschwitz. London: University of Toronto.
Shaw, D. (2003). Contemporary Cinema of Latin American: Ten Key Films. New York, London: Continuum.
Storey, J. (2003). The Ariticulation of Memory and Desire: from Vietnam to the war in the Persian Gulf. In P. Grainge (Ed.) Memory and Popular Film (pp. 99-119). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Turim, M. (1989). Flashbacks in Film, Memory and History. London: Routledge.
Wood, M. (2005) Italian Cinema. London: Berg Publishers.
Filmography
Justiniano, G. (Director). (1994). Amnesia [Motion Picture]. Chile: Arca.
Özpetek, F. (Director). (2004). La Finestra di Fronte [Motion Picture]. Italy/Great Britain/Turkey/Portugal: R&C Produzioni/Redwave Films/AFS Film/Clap Filmes/Eurimages Conseil de l'Europe/Mikado Film Srl/Celluloïd Dreams
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