Memento

Memento

The movie “Memento” (2000) is a psychological thriller that Christopher Nolan wrote and directed based on a similar story written by his younger brother. Starring in this flick are Guy Pearce as “Leonard Shelby”, who suffers from Anterograde Amnesia and is compelled to find out who changed the way he processes information and killed his wife. His supporting actors are Carrie-Ann Moss (“Natalie”) and Joe Pantoliano (“Teddy”). These two become Leonard’s friends, but he’s under the impression that they have never met for the majority of the movie.

Unique to films like, “Memento” there are flashback scenes that tell the story of what happened from present-time to past-time and finally back to present-time again. During these flashbacks, when Leonard’s daily routine for remembering occurred, black and white was used in the film. In the book, The Art of Watching Films, it’s noted that: “[filmmakers] felt that black-and-white images kept audiences focused on the characters and the story being told, helping them avoid distraction[s]”.

I believe Christopher Nolan and his cinematography crew captured the depth of Leonard Shelby’s memory condition. When a scene that had been played before had been repeated I felt more focused into the daily routines of the protagonist (Leonard) and the immense hardship of living with Anterograde Amnesia.

Throughout this film, besides flashbacks to different settings, most of the camera work is done in a few rotating settings. Some of the major settings I noticed are: the hotel, Natalie’s house, the abandoned house, and the vehicle. I feel as if Christopher Nolan kept the setting simplified, so the viewer could focus on the very tangled, and purposefully confusing plot. Nolan’s use of simplified, setting locations in a smaller town serve as a symbol in this film. In the text book The Art of Watching Films, the text states that, “the setting of the film story may take on strong symbolic overtones when it is used to stand for or represent not just a location but some idea associated with the location”.  This idea of a less busy atmosphere allows the director to build a more in-depth dialogue without confusing the viewer and also reaps the benefit of a lower film budget. Compared with the budget of $40 million “Scream 3” (2000), “Memento” only had a budget of about $5 million (thisdistractedglobe.com and leesmovieinfo.net).

Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2012). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.

http://thisdistractedglobe.com/2008/07/23/memento-2001/

http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/WBOYearly.php?y=2000