La representación cinematográfica de la memoria personal en la ficción y el documental

Abstract

In this research, I propose both theoretical and aesthetical approaches to the cinematographic representation of personal memory, starting from a theoretical framework that links the essential qualities of memory with the nature of film. External representations of personal memory can be found in a limited corpus of films that I call “films of memory”. These films can be either fiction films or documentary films. The main subject of these films is memory, understood as the human action through which the character remembers some facts from his past. These films use the specific tools of cinema to offer a proper representation of the nature of memory and its main qualities. My thesis combines a theoretical framework with two chapters which deepen into the theoretical and formal aspects of the representation of memory in fiction films and documentary films. These two analytical chapters are completed with a case of study: The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is analysed to portray the main qualities of the fiction films which represent personal memory, and the documentary film by Alan Berliner, First Cousin Once Removed is explores in the chapter about documentary films.