Momento

Memento: You'll either hate or love Memento. This movie isn't for everybody... It demands concentration and attention to absorb the entire plot. This movie may be too fast paced for most, and not everyone will appreciate the backward story telling. If you talk during the movie or someone talks to you during the movie, you'll miss something. If you watch the whole movie with no or very few interruptions, you might be able to keep up to the storyline. You are completely wrapped up in the life of Lenny who suffers from short-term memory loss, and lives his life by following his own messages and photos he has made for himself. (Referenced in text, Chapter 6.) “QUESTION: Memento is such a unique story. What inspired it? NOLAN: It was based on a short story that Jonah was writing. He hadn’t finished yet, but he told me about it, and I immediately told him that I wanted to write a screenplay. The first thing that I had to do was figure out how to tell a story on film about a man who had lost his short term memory. That in itself presented some interesting challenges. QUESTION: What kind of research was involved? Did you reference older movies? NOLAN: It wasn’t research, but some of Nicholas Roeg’s films influenced my thinking from a visual point of view. I also remember talking to Wally Pfister (ASC), the cinematographer who shot Memento, about the simplicity and cinematic purity of the images in The Thin Red Line, a Terrence Malick movie that had just come out. They were very clear and clean images without filtration. QUESTION: Can you explain what you mean when you say, “a beautifully executed film?” NOLAN: To me, a beautifully executed film is a movie where the sum of all the images leaves a lasting impression on you, rather than the individual shots. It’s how you use cinematography to tell a story. Wally is not just wrapped up in the shot of the moment. He is thinking about the whole story during every shot we make.” (Referenced in text, Chapter 4 & 5.) (http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Publications/On_Film_Interviews/nolan(2).htm) Questions that remain: What really did happen to his wife? Was she diabetic? Was it his life he was flashing back to? How many time did he think he killed his wife's killer? Did his full memory ever come back? Memento shocks you at the beginning of every section where you are again left to figure out where you are and whats going on, to the point where you may eventually lose track. By the time you reach the ending you will probably be frustrated having tried so hard to outsmart the film. This movie definitely needs to be watched multiple times. The style of editing in Memento contributes to the story and makes it better by showing us Lenny's bewildered world out of order. It forces us to experience the movie in the same disoriented way that Lenny experienced the world. So as Lenny tries to figure his way through his life, so do we. It puts you in the same mindset with the main character, you don't know whats going on, your just dropped into a situation like he is, reading messages off his body, trying to figure it out with him as you go. (Referenced in text, Chapter 6.) Nolan's storyline and the cast's acting were wonderful. The soundtrack and cinematography created the gloomy mood that continued throughout the film. The editing was perfect as the scene progression puts you exactly in the same mindset of Lenny. Memento is just one of the most creative, innovative brain teasers! The movie is brilliant in the sense that we are as clueless as the main character Lenny. We are trying to piece things together with him and in doing so we question our own memories and interpretations of the facts. Lenny is swift and glides perfectly from scene to the next with that look of fear on his face like anyone in a condition where they couldn't remember one thing from the next. We totally empathize with his character and we are totally right there with him with each lost and lingering gaze. Unfortunately he can't remember any details in the present and has developed a system of ways to keep track of his investigation through a complex series of notes, photos, and tattoos. There are some characters in this movie who take advantage of his weaknesses and exploit him. One example is the hotel worker who rents him out two rooms, even though he only uses one at a time. At the end of the movie, most people won't believe that the movie is over. The ending really seems to leave you hanging. Memento has an interesting concept, it is a look at self-identity and what drives us in our daily lives. Nolan takes a classic film concept, revenge, and twists it around making it less about a manhunt, and more about the search for one's own identity. Lenny's searching for revenge as if this would comfort and relieve him. His identity has been taken away and Lenny struggles to find it anyway he can and even through strangers. He has his photos, but other than people with a normal memory, if he doesn't like the truth he can simply burn a photo in order to clear his conscience. They say time can heal pain, but when time/memory fades, who do you trust, where do you begin to look.