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28 Thomas Elsaesserhim. Donnie Darko, on the other hand, is a more achieved mind-game film,even though the hero’s schizophrenia is clearly signposted from the start.At first, Donnie’s “weirdness” is more like a probe, by which the nuclearfamily, the school dynamics, and the small-town suburban community aretested and found wanting. On the margins of this world, a wise but madold lady and a frightening figure in a bunny suit called Frank emerge asambiguous figures of authority and agency, but not necessarily of wisdomand salvation. However, the character of Donnie Darko remains darklymysterious in his motivation, perception, and possibly preemptive action,even given the ample clues and references to the supernatural, string theory,and books about black holes. Indeed, they almost seem to be plantedin the film, in order to divert attention from some of the more “unframed”events that structure the narrative, such as the airplane engine that dropsout of nowhere on his parents’ roof, or the figures he encounters duringhis nightly sleepwalking. Donnie “keeps it low,” meaning that he staysmatter-of-fact even in the face of the most extraordinary encounters andevents, so that nothing gives us access to his mind other than the realitythat we experience in his presence. Without endorsing R. D. Laing’s motto“schizophrenia isn’t always a breakdown; sometimes it’s a breakthrough,”Donnie Darko presents its hero’s condition as a pathology with a specialkind of use: at the very least as a different way of connecting mind andsensation/perception, but possibly as the redemptive and saving grace ina world in denial of its fallen state.AmnesiaMemento’s Leonard Shelby has become the archetypal example of thecharacter who suffers from a loss of memory. His condition not only damageshis personality and subjectivity, but also utterly transforms the wayhe views and interacts with the world. While, to all appearances, Leonardstruggles to regain his memory, in order to avenge the death of his wife,the very fact that the film “runs backward” allows also an inverse readingof his intentions and goals. Considered as a productive pathology, Leonard’samnesia would remind one of the importance of forgetting, rather thanremembering. By the “stripping” of long-term memory into traumatic programming,i.e., the way that repetitive tasks are inscribed in the body, andby the manner in which revenge becomes a meaningless concept, the filmforegrounds the idea of “programming,” as opposed to remembering:it points to the importance of the change from a society based on law/