Remember My Name (1978) - Alan Rudolph

Alan Rudolph's Remember My Name is a singular vision, a film of little pretense or exposition that delivers a formally dazzling study of emotional trauma. Featuring a narrative structure forged out of a fatal attraction-esque archetype that eventually reveals itself as a clever diversion, Remember My Name is a masterful piece of narrative and character, that features an absolutely enthralling lead performance by Geraldine Chaplin. The mystery, combustibility, and underlying fragility of this main characterization are so rapturously portrayed by Chaplin, who delivers a characterization with biting authenticity, elucidating the fractured psyche of a deeply troubled woman. Rudolph's formal style deployed here is particularly effective, the voyeuristic gaze and use of empty space exhibit both the fear but also the underlying trauma of this fascinating central characterization. A recurring visual motif of compositions resembling the bars of a cage or prison cell is magnificent, visually evoking the state of this character, a woman who is emotionally imprisoned. A character who feels so dangerous due to her raw emotional state eventually becomes sympathetic, with Remember My Name finding utility in its ambiguity with thematic undercurrents that offer up the potential for variant readings. There is subtext here rooted in a social examination of mental illness or society's negligence, with the denouement reinforcing this ideal thematically while satisfying those looking for narrative resolution, though not in a traditional sense. There is a sense of unattainability here, much like the complexities of emotion. The vengeful, punitive measures deployed ultimately deliver the nasty, biting finale one would expect from its initial setup, but the film's ability to so acutely navigate emotional trauma and fragility make it perhaps one of the best studies of fatal attraction ever made due to this underlying commentary. The emotional violence of deception and abandonment exhibited through a stunning lead performance, Rudolph's precise directorial vision delivers a stunning portrait of the emotional creatures we are and the grand sweeping effects it can place on communal living under a system built around punitive justice.