Memento

going through experiences. But what exactly is the content of the film? To find richer meaning in film, a variety of theories are developed to analyze films in order to understand how they created responses in viewers and just what they might mean. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) is presented by its non-linear narrative structure. It provides the viewer with the ‘clues’ necessary to decode the film and help them to understand the chronological order of the story. It successfully captures the…

placed in the dark background as well as the music instruments that are scattered around to oil painting symbolises the phrase Memento mori, which was a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A memento mori is an artwork designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life. Musical Instruments were used to represent the Memento mori as it was believed that when the music stopped it would be dead. Furthermore, Edward Collier reflected social…

Christopher Nolan’s Memento is organized in a way that the story and character development is presented to the audience backwards and with the same amnesia as the character. We experience scenes out of order and backwards. In the film Leonard talks with the motel manager about his memory condition (Memento 8:00). However, this has happened before, we the viewers are just know seeing the exchange between the characters for the first time. This can help the audience have a connection with Leonard…

Preface In the movie Memento, the viewer is faced with a number of questions about memory and the influences it has on a person’s satisfaction in life, their personality and brain function. These questions are especially relevant to the protagonist, Leonard Shelby who has Anterograde amnesia after damage to the hippocampus. The director, Christopher Nolan, accurately portrays the influences of hippocampal damage, similarly seen in Henry Molasis (H.M) Biological Biologically speaking,…

Oedipus the King and Memento Meet the Sophists Halfway “You don’t know who you are … maybe it’s time you started investigating yourself,” says Teddy to Leonard in the critically acclaimed neo-noir film Memento (C. Nolan, 2000). As a result of anterograde amnesia, Leonard does not know that he himself is the very culprit he seeks to punish for killing his wife. The multiple and seemingly conflicting roles of Leonard as detective, criminal, and avenger correspond to those of Oedipus in Sophocles’…

father. Shakespeare very clearly intends a reference to memento mori when during Polonius’ funeral Ophelia says, “Look at my flowers. There’s rosemary, that’s for/ remembering. Please remember, love. And there are/ pansies, they’re for thoughts” (Shakespeare 4.5.51-53). Physical symbols of memento mori were very popular during the renaissance, the most popular being a skull or human bones. Nevertheless, this rose is very clearly shown as a memento representing her father and the loss she and…

Memento Time Warp Throughout Memento, the shifting between multiple point of views, shapes and drastically changes our perception of Leonard, Natalie and Teddy. There are two types of scenes in Memento. There are the black and white scenes, which are shown in chronological order and the color scenes which are shown in reverse order, eventually meet up chronologically with the black and white scenes. The black and white scenes are objective, the audience and Leonard can see all the facts and they…

Inception. Memento. Two award-winning films directed by one of the greatest storytellers of our generation, Christopher Nolan. Inception: a story of a man struggle to determine whether he is living in a fantasy or a reality. Memento: a story of a man trying to avenge the death of his beloved wife. At glance, both films seem anything but alike. However as the possibly of deeper meanings are explored, we find that this is far from the case. Memento tells the tale of former insurance investigator,…

Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, was released in 2000 and provides an interesting first-hand glimpse in the world of memory. The plot is centered on the actions Leonard, an insurance investigator, who lives with his diabetic wife prior to the start of the film. The events in the film are not shown in chronological order. Nonetheless, the majority of the film depicts Leonard, who suffers from anterograde amnesia, as he tries to avenge the murder of his wife. His condition has left him…

memories due to head trauma, Retrograde amnesia which is a loss of pre-existing memories, Lacunar amnesia which is a loss of memory of a specific event, and Childhood amnesia which is a common inability to remember events from childhood. In the film Memento, we meet Leonard Shelby or Lenny, who has an exaggerated form of anterograde amnesia. Lenny is on a mission to kill John G. because he believes John G. raped and murdered his wife. However since he has anterograde amnesia finding and killing…