“The Eternal Memory” Review: A Life Spent Loving

The Eternal Memory follows Augusto Gongora and Paulina Urrutia as they struggle to reconcile their infinite love with Augusto’s recent Dementia diagnosis.

The Eternal Memory is an exercise in capturing both the most painful and intimate of life’s moments. From the opening minutes, any viewer can feel the explosive love our leads hold for each other. Retired underground journalist during Pinochet’s reign, Augusto Gongora is married to actress and activist turned care-taker when her love is diagnosed with Dementia. The film starts out of focus; Paulino isn’t as experienced behind the camera as she is in front of a crowd. Halfway during the film, Covid introduces itself as another devastating disease impeding on the couple’s lives. This pulls the film’s focus in even further, attempting to capture a love that would prove too strong for even a Ken Burns epic. Paulino films for a hefty portion of the film, and while this makes for an interesting inner-look to this tragic relationship, at times, The Eternal Memory left me wondering what more, if anything, it was trying to accomplish.

While this hesitance cleared itself by the film’s conclusion, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t left a bit puzzled at a few scene’s inclusion. What does this iteration of Paulino confessing her love to Augusto do differently than the last one? Or the one following? Attentive viewers will be able to read the thematic through line that develops between emotionally devastating displays of love, but the film undoubtedly can feel repetitious as Augusto’s condition worsens. Seeing a cute elderly man express a love only decades of life can develop is much less enjoyable than that same man breaking down at his own mental fragility. Four times. Back to back. While the pacing and editing certainly manages to avoid complete emotional manipulation through eventual thematic cohesion and cuts to the couple’s jovial past, the attempt to capture intimacy in its most tragic moments at times feels worthy of interrogating.

This painfully real capturing of this couple’s love, however, does unite its many themes in a way that mitigates these potential criticisms. While Augusto may be seen breaking down for the 3rd time in the film’s second half, this time it’s about his novels, to which the film then goes into a sequence about Augusto’s love for literature through archival footage that is associated with the theme of “memory.” This structure of set-up, struggle, and archival exploration establishes memory as a consistent theme that acts as the ligature between the film’s many interests: art, politics, love, hope, and the different forms of adversity inherent to all of these topics. Meaning, while some may write off watching The Eternal Memory as a massachistic endeavor, it ultimately validates its existence as more than a story meant to generate tears. Instead, The Eternal Memory is as life affirming as it is emotionally devastating.

This thematic work could not be performed without technical prowess. The film’s editing and cinematography are both contemplative, and this patient presentation not only properly aligns once seemingly disparate concepts, but is undoubtedly effective at capturing the two’s deeply felt connection. With their relationship as the backbone of an entire film, it is imperative the audience believes in their love. I can say I was confident tin their connection from cinematography alone, as the lack of any cuts shows how long Paulino could gaze at Augusto, completely uninterrupted. Or, a lengthy shot doubles as a demonstration of love when seemingly only the edit is capable tearing these two halves apart. All in all, the presentation is quaint, simple even, but in its restraint, accomplishes exactly what it needs to.

Which, is ultimately what I am left thinking about The Eternal Memory as a whole. This is a tight, 84 minute emotional gut punch that, albeit with a few missteps, succeeds in reminding its viewers of how beautiful life can be.