By creating scenes in a setting and then returning to it with other characters unaware of what happened there, the screenwriter generates intimacy with the viewer, because they remember. This mnemonic complicity fosters emotional attachment to the film’s universe.
Why do some films feel fake and superficial?
Often, as viewers of a film, we sense a superficiality in the universe presented to us. We don’t fully believe in it. Everything feels a bit too polished, too shiny, not credible. As a result, we find ourselves in a state of detachment—not critical, but disengaged. As screenwriters, we therefore need to foster the film’s adherence in the viewer’s mind.
Creating Memories
To achieve this, a fairly effective technique involves creating memories within the settings. We will have something unfold in a particular setting. Later, we bring the story back to that same setting, with different characters, and we are shown that they are completely unaware of what previously happened there. But we, the viewers, know! Thus, when a second scene takes place in that setting and new events occur, we compare what is happening in the present to our own memories of that place. We are, and we know it, the sole bearers of that memory.
This gives us the same feeling as when we return to a place from our childhood, for example, where we have personal memories that no one around us in the present shares. Others have their own experiences, which is normal. And we feel our own experiences, our memories, as unique, placing us in a privileged and deeply intimate relationship with that setting. This is what I call adherence. From this second scene in the same setting, we will feel much less detached from the film’s universe; we will be emotionally invested in it, thanks to our memory of the place.
