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August 2014
FTVMS326 | Memory and Media
Christopher Nolans Memento (2000) is a film that deals with tensions between
memory and forgetting. Following Leonard Shelby, who while suffering from
anterograde amnesia the inability to create new memories is attempting to
avenge the murder of his wife, the film explores the notion that we use our
past, and access to our memories, as a means of understanding ourselves, and
giving ourselves purpose. Leonard must piece together his constantly fading
memories in order to find his wifes killer and ultimately gain revenge.
Memento confronts problems surrounding the mediation of memory, and the
relationship between the past and the present. The narrative structure of the
film looks represent the notion of modular memory, and how fractions of
time can be taken apart and put together in order to form understandings of
the present.
August 2014
chronological order. The two timelines meet in the final moments of the film,
transitioning from black and white to colour as the shot focuses on a
developing Polaroid photo.
The reversed structure of the narrative amplifies the notion of fatalism the
idea that all events are inevitable. 3 This narrative contributes to what
Maureen Turim describes, when discussing flashbacks, as a logic of
inevitability.4 What we see first is understood as definite and unchangeable.5
This is the inevitable. The opening scene of the film takes place at the end of
the story chronologically, the timeline then moves in reverse as we look to
discover how the inevitable present came to be. This is a representation of
how we use memory to access the past and make sense of the present.
Speaking on the unique narrative structure of his film, Christopher Nolan
explains:
3
Kilbourn,
R.
J.
(2010).
Cinema,
memory,
modernity:
the
representation
of
memory
from
the
art
film
to
transnational
cinema.
New
York:
Routledge.
4
Turim, M. C. (1989). Flashbacks in film: memory & history. New York: Routledge.
5
Mitchell, D. (2010). Twisted Tales: Cognitivism and Narrative Distortion.
6
IBID
August 2014
According to Jo Alyson Parker, through its temporal reordering, Memento
attempts to provide the audience with an experience analogous to Leonard's
and thus heighten our understanding of how memory makes us human.
(Parker 239)7 As Leonard is piecing together his own recollections, so too are
the audience. Melissa Clarke suggests, Memento is characterized by a chronic
undecidability between what is true and false in the present; in fact, in each
scene we are presented with a simultaneity of possible interpretations of the
present. (Clarke, 175)8 The film acts somewhat as a puzzle in this sense;
audiences are able to engage with a feeling of forgetfulness because they do
not know the events that have anticipated each scene much like the
protagonist.
August 2014
intertwining of death and desire is another convention of film noir present in
Memento, through Leonards romantic determination for revenge.
associated
with
loss,
purposelessness,
and
transgression.
12
9
Huyssen, Andreas. Introduction: Time and Cultural Memory at Our Fin de Sicle.
Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia. New York: Routledge,
1995
10
Klein,
N.
M.
(1998).
The
history
of
forgetting:
Los
Angeles
and
the
erasure
of
memory.
London:
Verso.
11
IBID
12
Arefi,
M.
(1999).
Nonplace
And
Placelessness
As
Narratives
Of
Loss:
Rethinking
The
Notion
Of
Place.
Journal
of
Urban
Design,
4(2),
179-193.
August 2014
nowhereness13, and in Moving Pictures/Stopping Places, David Clarke explains
how the non-place is demonstrated in Memento:
The non-places, the hotels and motels are sites of transgression [but]
in Memento they are the norm, stations on the way to somewhere that
will always be other than the desired destination. [] For Leonard the
problem is to establish a measure of permanence and stability. (Clarke
340)14
The first time we see Leonard in the motel room, in the second scene of the
film, his voiceover tells the viewer Its just an anonymous room. His
interactions with the hotel receptionist throughout the film further
characterize the setting as a non-place.
It is argued that supplanting memories into external artifacts will enable the
active manipulation of memory. In Memento, Leonard uses tools of mediated
memory to remake himself. He writes down notes, takes and annotates
photographs to remember important faces and spaces, and has what he feels
to be the most important information tattooed to his body. This can be
understood as a metaphor for a spatial model of memory retrieving images
from an imagined architectural space. In this instance, Leonards body is a
backdrop for recording. The idea of memories being stored in spatial
13
Arefi,
M.
(1999).
Nonplace
And
Placelessness
As
Narratives
Of
Loss:
Rethinking
The
August 2014
locations is an ancient concept known as the Art of Memory, or,
mnemotechnics.
15
Klein,
N.
M.
(1998).
The
history
of
forgetting:
Los
Angeles
and
the
erasure
of
memory.
London:
Verso.
August 2014
As Leonard encounters characters that he cannot remember, the audience is
given new hints or explanations towards their connection with one another.
However, as we go further back in time we find that what may have appeared
to be the truth is far from it. This can perhaps best be understood through
Leonards relationship with Ted. Throughout the film we see scenes with Ted
as a friend, an enemy, a stranger, and a victim but the viewer is constantly
swerved scene after scene. The viewer, like Leonard, is unable to decipher the
relationship he has with characters like Ted and Natalie without access to his
memories.
While the film allows the audience to piece together most of the story
viewers still leave with a number of unanswered questions. As Melissa Clarke
observes:
Some of the questions as to truth and falsity in the present are never
resolved, leaving only the unequivocal sense that there is no resolving
these questions... Without any past to consult, there is no way to
interpret the present at all. (Clarke 176)16
August 2014
story of Jankis wife taking her life because she felt he was lying about his
condition. In the final moments of the film, Teddy asserts that Leonard has
confused his own past with Sammys. Teddy explains that, while Leonard
believes he has finally killed John G. the man who killed his wife, she in fact
survived the attack and it was she who took her life not Sammys wife and
Leonard had already killed the man who attacked her a year prior. Teddy
suggests that Leonard is stuck in a cycle wherein he will continually seek out
vengeance against a John G in an unsolvable puzzle so that he has purpose
in his life. Leonard is then conflicted with the idea that the past he thought he
knew was in fact a lie. If he cannot recall his purpose, and if does not recall his
vengeance, then what reason does he have to seek out revenge in the first
place? Leonard is left with a false purpose but can exult in the fact that in
mere minutes he can forget this. As he realizes his motivation may be entirely
misguided, he makes the decision to forget it; burning the photograph he took
of his victim and lending to Teddys theory. This scene, while taking place at
the end of the film, takes place at the beginning of Mementos timeline Leonards purpose throughout the film has been built upon not only his
inability to remember, but also his choice to forget.
August 2014
film uses styles and narrative techniques similar to film noir, emphasizing
notions of fatalism and revenge. Memento also reflects upon the problems
surrounding mediating memories, as we see Leonard begin to question the
legitimacy of his own representations. With his inscriptions, particularly the
use of his body, Memento also presents a representation of mnemotechnics
and the spatial modeling of memory. The protagonist, Leonard Shelby, must
establish connections between his past and his present in order to form an
understanding of his own identity and narrative. Memento illustrates this idea
through a condition that disallows Leonard from forming new memories.
When we are faced with the inability to access the past are we left without
purpose? Memento addresses this question, and first suggests that we need
memory as a means of defining ourselves in the present. But in the end, we
see Leonard choose to forget over choosing to inscribe a memory in order to
maintain his purpose and identity.
August 2014
REFERENCE
LIST:
Arefi,
M.
(1999).
Nonplace
And
Placelessness
As
Narratives
Of
Loss:
Rethinking
The
Notion
Of
Place.
Journal
of
Urban
Design,
4(2),
179-193.
Cameron, A. (2008). Modular narratives in contemporary cinema. Basingstoke [England:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Clarke, D. B., Pfannhauser, V. C., & Doel, M. A. (2009). Moving pictures/stopping places:
hotels and motels on film. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Clarke, M. (2002). The Space-Time Image: the Case of Bergson, Deleuze, and Memento. The
Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 16(3), 167-181.
Gargett,
A.
(2002).
Nolan's
Memento,
Memory,
and
Recognition.
Comparative
Literature
and
Culture,
4(3),
2-9.
Huyssen, Andreas. Introduction: Time and Cultural Memory at Our Fin de Sicle. Twilight
Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia. New York: Routledge, 1995
Klein, N. M. (1998). The history of forgetting: Los Angeles and the erasure of memory.
London: Verso.
Kilbourn, R. J. (2010). Cinema, memory, modernity: the representation of memory from the
art film to transnational cinema. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, D. (2010). Twisted Tales: Cognitivism and Narrative Distortion.
Parker, J. A. (2004). Remembering the Future: Memento, the Reverse of Time's Arrow, and the
Defects of Memory. KronoScope, 4(2), 239-257.
Sternberg, E. M. (2001). NEUROSCIENCE: Piecing Together a Puzzling World. Science,
292(5522), 1661-1662.
Turim, M. C. (1989). Flashbacks in film: memory & history. New York: Routledge.
10