Art Of Memento
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Submitted by ampetrsn on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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Art Of Memento
Amy Malinda Peterson
Humanities 100
March 6, 2002
Review of Static Work
The Art of Memento
Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan (Following), is unlike almost every other renowned 'puzzle film' in cinematic history. Based on the short story, Memento Mori, by brother Jonathan Nolan, Memento's puzzle cannot be undone with a single explanatory sentence. Its riddles are tangled up in a dizzying series of ways, by a sharp but brain-knotting structure, a unique theme based on memory, and an exceedingly unreliable narrator. Each electrifies and enhances Nolan's complex themes, ideas, and artistic talents.
From the opening moments, set in a gritty hotel in the middle of nowhere, we learn that our antihero, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce, L.A. Confidential), is a nasty killer with a weird habit. He drives a squealing fellow named Teddy (Joe Pantoliano, The Matrix) down to the ground, demanding, "Beg my wife's forgiveness before I blow your brains out!" (scene one). He then proceeds to kill Teddy, and takes a Polaroid of his handiwork.
Entertainment Weekly proclaims Memento as "blending the suspense of film noir with the mind-probing universe of neurological research" (Daly 35). Someone named "John G." raped and murdered Leonard's wife. During the attack Leonard sustained brain damag. While he remembers everything up to that point, he can no longer retain new memories. So, much like the antihero of Tom Tykwer's Winter Sleepers, he keeps a scrapbook of his experiences in the form of Polaroids, hastily scribbled notes, and instructional tattoos covering much of his body.
The most confusing, but artistic, element in this Gothic noir film comes to life in short black and white scenes in chronological order that alternate with a much more mystifying backward story line told in color. It turns out that Nolan's technique "is an substantial oversimplification of the movie's structure" (Nolan 2001). That is just one of the...
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