Memento (2000)
Rated R
Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan
Who has also done The Dark Knight and The Prestige
Based on the shorty story Momento Mori by Jonathan Nolan
Cast/Characters
Leonard
Natalie
Teddy Gammell
Sammy Jankis
Guy Pearse
Carrie-Anne Moss
Joe Pantoliano
Stephen Tobolowsky
Introduction
Tagline: Some memories are best forgotten.
Memento chronicles two separate stories of Leonard, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer
build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he
remembers. One story line movies forward in time while the other tells the story backwards
revealing more each time. A memory inside a memory, Memento is a complicated head spinning
adventure. Leonard is determined to avenge his wife's murder. To parallel his inability to remember
anything, the movie is told in forward flashes of events that are to come that compensate for his
unreliable memory.
“If I told you the entire plot of this film it really wouldn't matter as it is an exquisite paean to the
subjectivity of memory and therefore is in itself ambiguous; the ‘truth' of it is up to you. You come
out of the cinema questioning yourself, your memories, your truths. Nothing in this film is as it
seems.”
www.imdb.com
Awards
Nominated for various awards in the following categories: Best Film (x6), Editing (x3), Screenplay
(x5), Actor (x5), Supporting Actress, Director (x6), Cinematography.
Won awards for Screenwriting (x16), Best Film (x9), Casting, Director (x5), Supporting Actress,
Actor (x2), Editing (x2).
Nominated for two Oscars in 2002 for Editing and Screenplay.
Christopher Nolan won the Russell Smith Award at the 2002 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Association Awards.
Won a Special Jury Prize the CineLive Award and the Critics’ Award at the 2000Deauville Film
Festival and was as well nominated for the Grand Special Prize.
Nominated for a Golden Globe in 2002 for Best Screenplay.
Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001.
Reviews
Memento by Roger Ebert
April 13, 2001
www.rogerebert.suntimes.com
Leonard is played by Guy Pearce, in a performance that is curiously moving, considering that by
definition it has no emotional arc. He has witnessed the violent death of his wife and is determined
to avenge it. But he has had short-term memory loss ever since the death and has to make copious
notes--he even has memos tattooed to his body as reminders.
If Leonard keeps forgetting what has already happened, we in the audience suffer from the opposite
condition. We begin at the end, and work our way back toward the beginning, because the story is
told backward.
Well, not exactly; it begins with a brilliant idea, a Polaroid photograph that fades instead of
developing, but every individual scene plays with time running forward, and there are some lateral
moves and flashbacks that illuminate, or confuse, the issue. Essentially, Leonard is adrift in time and
experience, and therefore so are we.
Nolan's device of telling his story backward, or sort of backward, is simply that--a device. It does not
reflect the way Leonard thinks. He still operates in chronological time, and does not know he is in a
time-reversed movie. The film's deep backward and abysm of time is for our entertainment and has
nothing to do with his condition. It may actually make the movie too clever for its own good. I've
seen it twice. The first time, I thought I'd need a second viewing to understand everything. The
second time, I found that greater understanding helped on the plot level, but didn't enrich the
viewing experience… confusion is the state we are intended to be in.
The purpose of the movie is not for us to solve the murder of the wife ("I can't remember to forget
you," he says of her). If we leave the theater not sure exactly what happened, that's fair enough. The
movie is more like a poignant exercise, in which Leonard's residual code of honor pushes him
through a fog of amnesia toward what he feels is his moral duty. The movie doesn't supply the usual
payoff of a thriller (how can it?), but it's uncanny in evoking a state of mind. Maybe telling it
backward is Nolan's way of forcing us to identify with the hero. Hey, we all just got here. 
Memento by Lisa Nesselson
September 14, 2000
www.variety.com
A bravura tribute to the spirit of "Point Blank" and the importance of short-term memory,
"Memento" deconstructs time and space with Einstein-caliber dexterity in the service of a delectably
disturbing tale of revenge. British-born scripter-helmer Christopher Nolan avoids the sophomore
slump with flying colors while deepening some of the themes so craftily explored in his debut effort,
"Following." Pic's aggressively nonlinear structure and subtle accretion of clues suggest a second
viewing may yield additional rewards, although it's all there the first time around for attentive auds.
Excellent reviews and encouraging word-of-mouth seem likely for this beautifully structured puzzle,
which sustains its mystery until the punch-packing resolution of the final frames.
Opening credits show a hand holding a Polaroid photo of a bloodied dead man lying face down on
concrete. The photo "un-develops" -- indicating the scene is being shown in reverse. It's a crucial
image as well as an apt intro to a story told via constant episodes of backtracking and partial
repetition, all meticulously layered to approximate the waking nightmare and endless conundrum of
Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce, with bleached blond hair and an American accent).
If ever there was an unreliable narrator, Leonard is it. He can recall everything that happened in his
life until the night of the assault that left his wife dead and him with brain damage from being hit
over the head. Since then, he hasn't been able to make a memory "stick."
Thanks to his condition, Leonard is simultaneously miserable and serene. He has to write himself
notes about everything, with the most crucial reminders concerning his mission -- such as "John G.
raped and murdered your wife" -- tattooed on his skin. Unable to remember anyone he's met postassault, no matter how many times they've interacted, Leonard takes Polaroids of everyone he meets
and jots captions on them such as "She will help you out of pity" (in reference to a barmaid, played
by Carrie-Anne Moss) or "Don't believe his lies" (in reference to an alleged friend, played by Joe
Pantoliano).
Leonard's curse is that even if he does get revenge, he won't remember it a few minutes later. His
condition also puts a fresh, frequently comical, twist on elements as basic as a chase scene: Leonard
is running, but he can't recall whether he's doing the chasing or is being chased.
Terrific idea and ingenious execution may wear thin or grow irritating for viewers unaccustomed to
paying close attention. But anybody who dug the trippy triptych structure of "Pulp Fiction" should
be able to keep up with the temporal shifts as narrative moves back, forward and sometimes
sideways with the alacrity of a crab scuttling across the widescreen. Dody Dorn's editing is top-notch
as pic -- scripted, acted and lensed with precision -- smoothly toggles back and forth between
sequences in B&W and in color.
Pearce is superb, Moss and Pantoliano are vital sounding boards for Leonard's quest and Mark
Boone Jr. is a hoot as the motel desk clerk who rents Leonard two rooms on the theory he won't
recall having paid for either one. Stephen Tobolowsky is poignant as another victim of short-term
memory loss whose sad evolution haunts Leonard.
L.A.-set pic has an impressive noir-in-the-sunshine feel, built of cars, bars, motels and isolated
hideaways. The ambient rumble of the unsettling, ominous score contributes enormously to the
discomfiting mood.
Allusions, References and Noteable Notes
Film Noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly
those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is
generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s.
Critics tend to define the model film noir as having a tragic or bleak conclusion, but many
acknowledged classics of the genre have clearly happy endings (e.g., Stranger on the Third Floor, The
Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and The Dark Corner), while the tone of many other noir denouements is
ambivalent, in a variety of ways. The ambition of this section, then, can be no more than modest: it is an
attempt to survey those characteristics most often cited by critics as representative of classic film noirs.
As diverse as that set of movies is, the diversity of films from outside the classic period that have been
discussed as noir is so great that any similar survey would be impractical; however, those classic noir
identifying marks often referenced in neo-noirs—however frequently or seldom they actually appeared
in the original films—are noted as are certain signal trends of the latter-day mode.
Characteristics of Film Noir usually include:
- Visual Style: Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark
light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. The shadows of Venetian blinds
or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in film
noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces
may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional
Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by
many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, color films are routinely
included in noir filmographies.
Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide-angle
lenses. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of
people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other
distorting objects
- Narrative: Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently
involving flashbacks and other editing techniques that disrupt and sometimes obscure
the narrative sequence. Framing the entire primary narrative as a flashback is also a
standard device. Voiceover narration, sometimes used as a structuring device, came to
be seen as a noir hallmark; while classic noir is generally associated with first-person
narration (i.e., by the protagonist), Stephen Neale notes that third-person narration is
common among noirs of the semidocumentary style
- Plot, Character, Setting: Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all film
noirs; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal
motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes
acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant,
basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated in heists or con
games, or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False
suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and
double-crosses. According to J. David Slocum, "protagonists assume the literal
identities of dead men in nearly fifteen percent of all noir." Amnesia is fairly
epidemic—"noir's version of the common cold", in the words of film historian Lee
Server.
Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally
questionable than the norm, often fall guys of one sort or another. The characteristic
protagonists of noir are described by many critics as "alienated"; in the words of
Silver and Ward, "filled with existential bitterness". Certain archetypal characters
appear in many film noirs—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen,
jealous husbands, intrepid claims adjusters, and down-and-out writers. For characters
of every stripe, cigarette smoking may seem virtually mandatory.
Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities—Los Angeles,
San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular—are the location of many of the
classic films. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "labyrinth"
or "maze" Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of
action. The climaxes of a substantial number of film noirs take place in visually
complex, often industrial settings, such as refineries, factories, trainyards, power
plants—most famously the explosive conclusion of White Heat. In the popular (and,
frequently enough, critical) imagination, in noir it is always night and it always rains.
- Worldview, Morality and Tone: Film noi is often described as essentially pessimistic.
The noir stories that are regarded as most characteristic tell of people trapped in
unwanted situations (which, in general, they did not cause but are responsible for
exacerbating), striving against random, uncaring fate, and frequently doomed. The
movies are seen as depicting a world that is inherently corrupt.
www.wikipedia.org
Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember you must die" (and the origin of the English
word memento, which appeared as memento mori, "remembrance of death”).
Jonathan Nolan’s short story can be found at
http://www.impulsenine.com/homepage/pages/shortstories/memento_mori.htm
Discussion Questions
Text as Story
 Role of memory
 Vengeance
 Manipulation
 Self-serving characters – irredeemable or realistic?
 Sammy – who is he? Why is he important to Leonard’s story?
Text as Technique
 Editing – contribute to narrative?
 Is this movie meant to be understood?
 Dutch angle, internal framing
 Non-digetic sound
Key Quotes/Selections
Quote
Scene
Significance/Relevance