For anyone who has a family member suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia or severe memory loss, “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” is a film that I highly recommend!
Image courtesy of © 2005 Allan King Associates Limited. 2010 All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (as part of The Actuality Dramas of Allan King – Eclipse Series #24)
RELEASE OF FILM: 2005
DURATION: 112 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color 1:78:1 Aspect Ratio, English, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: Allan King Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: September 21, 2010
Directed by Allan King
Produced by Allan King
Executive Producer: Kathy Avrich-Johnson
Associate Producer: Sarah Zammit
Music by Robert Carli
Cinematography by Peter Walker
Edited by Nick Hector
Starring:
Claire Mandell
Sherry Mandell
Jeff Glickman
Sonny Max Glickman
Joanne Glickman
Aaron Glickman
Max Trachter
Sylvia Consky
Bookie Kwart
Ida Orliffe
Fay Silverman
Lionel Silverman
Sandi Silverman
Rachel Baker
Fred Baker
Miriam Baker
Frank Levin
Murray Cornish
Leslie Robbins-Conway
Jennifer Wong
Helen Mosten-Growe
Sandie Ross
Ruth Kogon
Canadian director Allan King is one of cinema’s best-kept secrets. Over the course of fifty years, he shuttled between features and shorts, big-screen cinema and episodic television, comedy and drama, fiction and nonfiction. It was with his cinema-verité-style documentaries, though—his “actuality dramas,†as he called them—that King left his greatest mark on film history. These startlingly intimate studies of people whose lives are in flux—damaged children, warring spouses, the terminally ill— always done without narration or interviews, are riveting and at times emotionally overwhelming. Humane, cathartic, and important, Allan King’s spontaneous portraits of the everyday demand to be seen.
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company – For four months, King follows the daily routines of eight patients suffering from dementia and memory loss; the result is searing, compassionate drama that can bring to the viewer a greater understanding of his or her loved ones.
Allan King, the Canadian documentary filmmaker associated with Cinéma vérité (or “truthful cinema”). An observational style of filmmaking in which the subject and audience are typically unaware of the camera’s presence.
For Allan King, he has descried his style as “actuality drama – filming the drama of everyday life as it happens, spontaneously without direction, interviews or narrative”. And for more than 50 years, Allan King has been providing his style of films of documentary films and also directing feature films and television to help support his documentaries.
To celebrate the career of Allan King, The Criterion Collection has released their 24th Eclipse Series DVD set titled “The Actuality Dramas of Allan King” which feature “Warrendale” (1969), “A Married Couple” (1969), “Come on Children” (1973), “Dying at Grace” (2003) and “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” (2005).
In 2005, Allan King began filming “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” at Baycrest, a Jewish nursing home in Toronto and follows a group of eight elderly people who are dealing with dementia and other forms of memory loss. Each of the eight show off their love, their humor, their anger and fear of losing their memory or living at a nursing home. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2005 and was voted as Canada’s “Top Ten Films of 2005”.
There are no interviews or voice overs, the footage focuses on various individuals at Baycrest and the viewer witnesses first hand of the severity of memory loss and the families who have witnessed their own parents change due to Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia and other memory loss.
We watch as a counselor at Baycrest talks with each individual and discuss with them of how they are feeling and their state of mind. If anything, to listen to them and give them encouragement.
We meet Claire Mandell, an 89-year-old woman who shares her birthday with her boyfriend and closest friend Max Trachter. Her family visits her and at first, we see no signs of Claire and her memory loss as she talks and reminisces of her husband who was a good man but since living at Baycrest, she has developed a close relationship with Max. Max is a man who has problems walking but he is a man who is full of happiness and loves to sing.  He is hard to understand but yet Claire loves him for his companionship. But when tragedy hits Baycrest, we get to see firsthand how bad Claire’s memory loss truly is.
Ida Orliffe is a woman who’s husband was very active in the community and her husband also has a picture inside the hospital. She is often seen consoling her friends at Baycrest but she is also blunt about how she has had a good life but ever since she has moved to Baycrest, she feels that her life is over and is not happy. While watching Ida, we don’t get a sense she has memory loss, that is until we see her on camera each day and realize that she is literally repeating the same things over and over.
Fay Silverman’s story is absolutely heartbreaking. She is so depressed and heartbroken because none of her family have visited her at the hospital and she is lonely. She is often seen crying and is often complaining about how angry she is with her son for not visiting her. Her son is often traveling and can’t be there for her but when he does visit, we see how Fay changes from the depressed and crying mother to the happiest person in the world.
“Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” gives viewers an idea of how significant memory loss can be and how things are in a daily basis for some individuals. In fact, we get to learn from family members of examples of how they found out their parent was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. With a woman named Helen Mosten-Growe, her daughter explains how her mother was a businesswoman but as she got older, she became violent and abusive and now her mother doesn’t even remember her. We watch as the daughter talks to her mother but her mother thinks she is just a friend. We also see a glimpse of this anger when hospital workers try to give her medication.
Another woman named Rachel Baker who is a former pianist is visited by her children. She doesn’t quite remember their father, nor what has taken place within the last 50 or so years. But she does retain memories of her son (who is in his 50’s) when he was a toddler and the kind of piano she once played and the child she gave it to have (despite being told several times that it burned down in a housefire).
These are just a few of the women and men featured in the “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” but Allan King was able to accomplish filming these people in their highest and lowest moments at the elderly home and not intruding in their life. They don’t look at the camera nor do they talk to Allan. It’s almost as if his presence is not there, they are so used to him being around that he is just like a normal fixture at Baycrest.
Allan King has said the following about his film, “The aged are as sensitive and as rich in humanity as people are at any age. I hope the film will stimulate a major increase in personal care and attention for all people experiencing the dramatic and disturbing effects of change in their cognitive skills.â€
“Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” is a fine example of showing the viewers the degeneration of the human mind. People who have held careers, people who were parents and as we see photos of these individuals when they were younger, it’s hard to believe how quickly their memories are lost. How short term memory can easily be forgotten and what is left are just remnants of long-term memory.
VIDEO:
“Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” is presented in color (1:78:1). Filmed digitally, Allan King was able to capture the emotions of the various people suffering memory loss and also the occasional family visiting. Picture quality is good for DVD considering it was shot digitally.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
Audio is presented in English stereo and features subtitles in English SDH.  For the most part, the audio is clear and easily understandable. There are a few who tend to mumble and are hard to discern of what they are saying but you can manage to understand some of it.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Eclipse Series do not come with special features but included on each DVD case insert is a background on “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company”.
I have to admit that “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” was a difficult actuality film to watch. As impressed as I am with Allan King’s “Cinéma vérité”, this one hits my family pretty hard as my grandfather is suffering from memory loss and my wife’s mother is suffering from dementia.
For me, I have seen many films and TV shows on cable about Alzheimer’s Disease and it’s something we hear about but not many people really know too much about until its hits their own family. For me, I know how things are but I don’t know at what extent the memory loss can be. So, part of the reason for me wanting to watch this film was to know firsthand how memory loss has affected various individuals.
Before I go on, with my review, it’s important to note that there is one spoiler I need to bring up. So, if you do not want to read any spoilers, please do not read any further.
Possibly the biggest surprise for me after watching “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” was to see the character of Claire. She was no different from a grandmother or older parent and sure, it’s one thing to be forgetful but while watching, you never got the sense that anything was wrong with her memory. That was until Max passed away.  She was told of his death but forgot it the next day. She was at the memorial for Max but everyday she was reliving the bad news with no memory that she mourned the day before.
I was so shocked because you feel sorry for her that she has found someone to love (again) and he dies. And she relives it day-by-day not remembering that she was at the memorial, not remembering that she was told. The hospital staff remind her that she has been told but she would answer “no, I would have remembered something this big.” But the fact is, she didn’t remember it at all.
Possibly the scene that made me cry was hearing Fay Silverman and how lonely she was. I can’t image now, if you lived with family and then put at a hospital, no friends and you just feel depressed because no one is visiting you. It’s absolutely heartbreaking but the fact is, for many elderly…many children do not visit their parents at the senior home many times a year. And you can hear the anguish in her voice…but also others, who feel like they are better of dead than living at a hospital where life is no longer fun, happy or vibrant. Life is now mundane, repetitive and depressing. Ida talked about how she enjoyed being an assistant to a doctor and being around people. Helping people. Her husband helped people. But now, she’s not happy anymore.
Also, to hear from Helen Mosten-Growe’s daughter talked about the violence and abuse her mother gave when she had Alzheimer’s Disease. I have only heard of this once before and that was with actress Rita Hayworth who died of Alzheimer’s Disease at the young age of 68 and her daughter Yasmin Aga Khan (the president of Alzheimer Disease International) was interviewed about how her mother who became forgetful and also became violent but back then, there was no name for the problems that she was going through. But now we know it’s a symptom of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Speaking of Helen, there was a scene where Faye was in joy and happiness about her son visiting her but then we see Helen countering with the rudest, hateful comments. And I doubt that she understands what she is saying. But the more I have researched Alzheimer’s Disease, the more I realize that anger is a normal phase with the sickness. But it’s interesting how not everyone has the anger symptom but it does happen. Everyone has a different behavior. Some are calm, some are depressed, some are tearful, some are angry but it’s all part of the normal phase of Alzheimer’s.
“Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” was a very good actuality film by Allan King. If anything, watching this film was more therapeutic for me and my wife (note: I watched it in its full entirety but for my wife, hearing those suffering from memory loss and seeing the families discussing their parents was too much for her to take in). Although, I watched this film objectively and it was an eye-opener, I know Alzheimer’s Disease is such a difficult topic for many families but I do recommend watching this film.
“Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company” was well-shot and once again, the camera and King’s presence was not obstructive because even the people sitting down rarely look at the camera. It’s like he was not even there. So, it really captured the raw emotions of everyone that was being filmed. You are seeing the truth in reality and it’s one thing that Allan King excels at.
Overall, if you have a love one who is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia or severe memory loss, I highly recommend watching “Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company”.
