Memento ( 2000)
Jonathan Nolan (short story)
Christopher Nolan (screenplay)
Professor Daniel Cutrara
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• Introduction
• Story Analysis
• Plot
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• Structure
• Memento and structuring time
• Assignments
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Traingng Day ( 2001)
Written by David Ayre
Lesson 2: Part I
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• According to Aristotle:
– A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A beginning is that which does not itself follow anything by causal necessity, but after which something naturally is or comes to be. An end, on the contrary, is that which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by necessity, or as a rule, but has nothing following it. A middle is that which follows something as some other thing follows it. A well constructed plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at haphazard, but conform to these principles.
( The Poetics , Aristotle 350 B.C.E.)

• Division into Three Acts
– Use of Jargon
– Syd Field, Laura Seger, Chris Vogler, Robert Mckee
• Standard Script Length
– Page per minute

• Chris Vogler/Joseph
Campbell
• Mythology
• Archetypes
• Application to story
– Disney, et. al.
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• The Three Acts
– Act One (approximately 30 pages)
– Act Two (approximately 60 pages)
– Act Three (approximately 20-30 pages)
• Alternatives to Three Acts
– Multiple acts
– Non-linear

• Introducing the
Story
– Character and
The Problem
– The World and
The Theme
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2002)
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• The Jargon
– The Setup/Ordinary
World
– Inciting Incident
– Turning Point/Plot
Point/Act Break
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• Structures vary, however, tension rises
• Sequences
• Garfinkel’s breakdown
• IIA
• Midpoint
• IIB
• Plot Point 2/Second Turning Point
– Second Act Climax
– Second Act Break

• Rising Action
• Complications and Reversals
• The Special World of the Hero’s Journey
• Values at stake
• Character Arc

• Crisis
– Character dilemma
• Climax
– Irreversible
– Filled with meaning
– Showdown
– Appropriate to genre
Batman and the Joker
The Dark Knight (2008)
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• Resolution
– Show effects of climax
– Tie off subplots
– Slow Curtain
– Can set up sequel
Freddy Krueger
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• Nonlinear
– Pulp Fiction, Memento, Donnie Darko
• Episodic
– Discreet sequences
– Characters don’t return even if protagonist is effected.
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• Although Aristotle saw plot as more important than character, Robert
McKee suggests that in good storytelling plot flows out of character.
Aristotle (384 BCE- 322 BCE)

Memento
Lesson 2: Part II

• Memento Mori
– A Short Story by Jonathan Nolan
– His brother, Christopher Nolan, an independent film writer/director, developed the script
– Memento Mori becomes backstory for the film Memento (2000).
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• What Genre is this film?
– Psychological Thriller
– Revenge plot
– Film Noir
– Mystery
Memento

• BetrayalHarold Pinter’s stage play adapted into a film traces an adulterous affair that begins at the end and goes backward in time to show the stages of the relationship, the final surprise being how it began.
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• Short term memory loss
• Search for wife’s murderer

• Structure should fit the story.
• The Structure in Memento creates a subjective experience for the audience similar to the experience of the protagonist.
• This supports sympathy and identification by the audience.

• Act One
– Set up/The Ordinary
World
• Memory loss, urban environment
– The Main Characters
• Leonard, Teddy, Natalie
– Leonard’s Problem
• Did he kill the right guy?
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• Pause the lecture and watch the first clip from Memento .
– How does the opening shot function in terms of the rest of the film?
– What storylines are introduced at the beginning?
– What problem is introduced?
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• Conflict
– Mystery- did he kill the right guy?
– How are Teddy and Natalie involved?
– Who is being used?
• Midpoint (complications)
– Dodd
– his wife
• Act Break
– Natalie’s betrayal
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• Pause the lecture and view the second clip from Memento .
– How does this scene with Natalie function to shift the viewer from act two to act three?
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• The End of Sammy’s story
– B&W connects up with
Color
• Climax
– Teddy reveals the truth about Sammy
Jankis and Leonard
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• Pause the lecture and view the third clip from Memento .
– How does this scene provide a climax for the film?
– What does it do to set up the resolution?
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• Leonard chooses not to accept the truth
– Leonard targets Teddy
• Mixed motivation- Teddy used him, now he’ll use
Teddy. He needs a purpose. And he needs to be able to deny his involvement with his wife’s death.
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• Leonard’s pursuit of John G.
– Teddy, Natalie (both play with his memories)
• Leonard’s wife
– Gives dimension, motivation, sympathy, clue to the truth
• Sammy Jankis
– Backstory, the truth
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• Importance of the Storyline
– Humanize
– Motivate
– Complicate
– foreshadow
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• The last memory he formed
– in bed when he awakens to burglars
• His ritual of remembering and forgetting
– how many times
• Connection to Natalie
– Natalie’s relationship to his wife
• Memories that undermine his “truth.”
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• Form- B&W
– Told in normal chronology
– The week before main narrative (2 rooms)
– Ties back at the end
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• Importance of Sammy’s story
– Entrance into Leonard’s character.
– What we learn about Leonard is layered.
– Leonard as Sammy.
– What can we know that is real?
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• “How can I heal if I can’t feel time?”
• Memory vs The
Facts
– Meaning
– purpose
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• Structuring Time
• Beginning, Middle, End
• A character’s journey
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Memento
Lesson 2: Part III
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• Approximately 200 words. Do a structure critique of one of your favorite films.
• Comment on two of your peers.

Next Lecture:
Arcing Characters
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