Memento Paper 2

Opening Sequence

Cinematography:

• The sequence opens with an extreme close-up of a Polaroid photo being shaken, shot in reverse, emphasising the photo’s image disappearing – this invites the viewer into a disorientated temporality and aligns us with Leonard’s memory-loss.

• Low-angle shots of the man in the overcoat wielding power contrasted with high-angle shots of the body on the floor establish visual hierarchies and threat.

• Lighting is low-key and shadowy in the transitional space (motel, body, shell casing) – the chiaroscuro effect signals noir influences and also mirrors the protagonist’s moral/epistemic ambiguity.

Editing:

• The reverse editing of the opening – the photographic image un-developing, the shell casing flying up rather than falling – immediately destabilises conventional chronology and immerses the audience in Leonard’s disorientated memory state.

• The sequence uses slow initial pacing (long takes of the photo, the shaking) then accelerates as the gun is fired and the body falls, building tension by increasing cut rate.

• The intercut between the forward camera movement and reverse action (e.g., bullet casing out of frame) highlights how editing itself is a key thematic device: memory going backwards, time inverted.

Sound:

• Non-diegetic ambient music (slow, high-pitch strings) commands the opening, setting an uneasy, melancholic tone before any dialogue or full action is introduced.

• Diegetic sound is used in a heightened manner: the gunshot, the man’s scream, the bullet casing rolling – these sounds are sonic anchors in a scene of visual instability.

• The disjunction between what we hear and what we see (reverse motion vs forward sound) further unsettles the spectator and mirrors Leonard’s own confusion and lack of reliable memory.

Mise-En-Scene:

• The setting is a dingy motel room, blood on walls/floor, a body, a gun – elements that invoke crime-thriller/neo-noir but also a personal trauma space. This immediate mise-en-scène grounds the narrative in disturbance.

• Props: the Polaroid photo, bullet casings, the gun – these objects become motifs of memory, evidence and violence. Their close-up framing signals their symbolic weight.

• Costume & actor blocking: the over-coated figure looms over the fallen body; the body’s vulnerability is emphasised. The actor’s placement within the frame emphasises power dynamics and sets up Leonard’s quest for revenge.

Sammy Davis Sequence

Cinematography:

• This sequence often uses black-and-white format, giving a documentary-monologue feel and signalling temporal/ narrative shift (chronological vs colour reverse).

• Close-ups of Leonard’s face, shallow depth of field, the telephone ringing – these remain focused on the protagonist’s internal state and failing faculties.

• Lighting remains flat but with high contrast (half-face in shadow) emphasising duality — control vs vulnerability, memory vs forgetting.

Editing:

• The black-and-white sequence moves in chronological order, contrasting with the colour sequences which are reverse-chronological — this editing structure reinforces the film’s “experimental” status.

• Cuts are often straightforward match-on-action in this strand, giving a more conventional feel, which lulls the viewer into presumed normality before being again unsettled.

• The juxtaposition of the black-and-white strand with the colour strand (via intercutting) emphasises the thematic link between memory/ narrative and it compels the viewer to piece together chronology themselves.

Sound:

• Leonard’s voice-over dominates, giving the impression of internal reflection and aligning the spectator with his subjective perspective and memory failing.

• The sound design in this strand is quieter, less intrusive, more reflective – the score is “brooding classical” as one guide states, helping create a contemplative mood.

• Diegetic ambient sound is minimal (telephone ring, ticking clock) emphasising emptiness, waiting, the passage of time — reinforcing Leonard’s anxiety.

Mise-En-Scene:

• The setting is usually a motel room, sterile, isolated, with sparse furniture — this mise-en-scène reflects Leonard’s loneliness and detachment from a ‘normal’ life.

• Props such as the telephone, notepads, Polaroids, tattoos – these items populate the space and visualise Leonard’s coping mechanisms, his patchwork memory system.

• Costume (Leonard in pale, neutral clothing) and actor blocking (often alone, seated, reflection) emphasise his isolation and vulnerability, reinforcing the thematic motif of identity loss.

Natalie’s Confrontation Sequence

Cinematography:

• In the colour strand, the cinematography is more dynamic: medium and close shots alternate, and the camera tracks Leonard’s car arriving at Natalie’s, emphasising movement and instability.

• Lighting is more naturalistic but also uses shadows indoors (Natalie’s house, bar) to suggest duplicity and danger – e.g., Natalie emerges from darker zones into light.

• Depth of field is used to isolate characters in frame – e.g., Leonard or Natalie often in sharp focus against blurred background, emphasising psychological isolation.

Editing:

• Cuts between Leonard’s questioning and Natalie’s ambiguous responses create a back-and-forth rhythm, making the spectator uncertain about who holds information/control.

• The editing mixes present action with flashes of memory (or confusion) – for instance close-ups of Leonard’s tattoo or Polaroid while Natalie speaks – thus layering commentary via editing.

• Pacing tightens during the confrontation: quicker cuts, more reaction shots, emphasising tension and urgency in the manipulation.

Sound:

• The diegetic sound includes car engine, background bar noise, Natalie’s phone call – these ambient sounds make the confrontation feel grounded in real time and space.

• Natalie’s voice is often calm yet indirect; Leonard’s voice-over runs alongside the dialogue, reminding us of his interpretative frame and unreliability.

• Non-diegetic score rises subtly during revelation moments (when Natalie hints at Teddy’s lies) to heighten unease and tension.

Mise-En-Scene:

• Natalie’s house/bar space is filled with props: tattoos, cameras, Polaroids, whiskey bottles – these items suggest her role as manipulator and intermediator of Leonard’s journey.

• The blocking of characters – Natalie slightly raised, casual; Leonard uneasy, leaning – visually indicates power shift, and that Leonard is being guided/manipulated.

• Costume and makeup: Natalie’s dark lipstick, revealing clothing, suggest femme-fatale coding; Leonard’s plain clothes emphasise his vulnerability and outsider status.

Teddy’s Revelation (Final Chronological Scene)

Cinematography:

• Close-ups and medium shots dominate as the truth is exposed: Leonard’s face as realisation dawns is tightly framed, emphasising emotional rupture.

• Lighting is stark, with half-faces in shadow, emphasising moral ambiguity and the dual nature of Teddy/Narrative.

• The spatial setup (motel/interview room) is claustrophobic, with little depth – the cinematography emphasises entrapment rather than freedom.

Editing:

• The reveal is constructed via a montage of Polaroids, tattoos, notes, and conversations – intercut so that new meaning is built synthetically rather than simply revealed.

• There is a shift in editing rhythm: the cuts become longer and allow the viewer to absorb the betrayal, the pacing slows slightly after high tension to let the realisation settle.

• Match-on-action and continuity are maintained, but the narrative logic shifts – the film’s structure itself collapses as Leonard rewrites his story, so editing becomes self-reflexive.

Sound:

• The voice-over remains dominant, yet its certainty is revealed to be misguided; the calm tone of Leonard’s narration now has ironic effect.

• Ambient sound of the motel (TV hum, traffic outside) returns to underscore the banal reality behind Leonard’s mythic revenge quest.

• Music is minimal; this quiet allows the formulations (Polaroid refresh, Teddy’s words) to dominate – the absence of soundtrack heightens the revelation’s impact.

Mise-En-Scene:

• Props: Polaroids being burned, tattoos being used as evidence – these material objects become theatrical evidence of memory construction.

• Costume and make-up: Leonard still in his jacket, Teddy less imposing than initially—this visual shift signals the role reversal.

• Setting: the motel room that recurs throughout the film becomes the locus of narrative truth – the mise-en-scène loops back, emphasising circular time and the film’s experimental structure.

End Sequence

Cinematography:

• Tracking and medium shots of Leonard driving through bright daylight provide visual contrast to the shadowy motel interiors, symbolising apparent clarity but emotional blindness.

• Close-ups of Leonard’s face in the car mirror and the Polaroid he manipulates reinforce the film’s obsession with visual evidence and self-deception.

• Naturalistic lighting in the daylight exteriors conveys a false sense of truth and revelation, undercut by the viewer’s knowledge that Leonard is already choosing to lie to himself.

Editing:

• The cut from the black-and-white to colour marks the merging of timelines, signalling the film’s circular narrative — experimental editing as meaning-making.

• The pacing slows as Leonard sits outside the tattoo parlour, reflecting on his notes and taking the Polaroid of Teddy’s licence plate — giving viewers time to register his self-deception.

• The final fade-out or long dissolve functions as a temporal loop, suggesting there will be no closure — a structural feature typical of experimental narrative form.

Sound:

• Non-diegetic score becomes subdued and reflective, using sustained notes that evoke melancholy rather than triumph, signalling tragic inevitability.

• Leonard’s voice-over continues, rationalising his decision to create a new target — the calm tone contrasts sharply with the moral horror of his act.

• Diegetic car noises (engine hum, indicator click) and the buzz of the tattoo parlour re-establish mundane realism, anchoring the extraordinary psychological distortion in everyday life.

Mise-En-Scene:

• The car becomes another enclosed, transient space like his motel room — a mobile prison reinforcing his psychological entrapment.

• Props such as the Polaroid camera, notes, and licence plate embody his system of false logic and memory; they are visual metaphors for fabricated truth.

• Tattoo parlour setting — sterile, impersonal — emphasises permanence and ritual: Leonard literally inscribes lies onto his own body, a physical manifestation of cyclical self-destruction.

Narrative

• The complex and fractured narrative structure of Memento is one of its main features. The film is unusual in its very clear delineation of plot and story.

In conventional films (especially in Classical Hollywood style), events happen in a linear, chronological order, and are usually seen from an objective point of view. The story (what has happened) and plot (how we are told about it) unite and build to a clear conclusion.

In an experimental narrative like Memento, the events of the story (what has happened) are challenged and disrupted by the plot (in this case, how the protagonist is subjectively experiencing events). The viewer is unsure at what point the story ‘ends’ and the conclusion is open and ambiguous.

• The story events in colour are told in reverse order; but they are intercut with a different, apparently isolated scenario (filmed in black and white), that features Leonard in a hotel room explaining to an unknown person on the phone the nature of his condition and his investigation.

We are unsure where and when in the story this section is taking place.

• To further complicate matters, the black and white sequences are intercut with an adjacent narrative (Sammy Jankis and his wife). Later revelations make us question whether this story is accurate – and if not, whether anything Leonard has told us in these sequences is authentic.

• Some DVD/Blu-ray editions have the option of watching the narrative in chronological, forwardcprogression to aid audiences. In 2019, Dr Steven Aprahamian devised a complex and challenging diagram to map out the structure.

Aueteur

• The phrase auteur (author) was popularised by the French New Wave in the 1960s. It describes filmmakers that have a very distinctive ‘voice,’ and who display a significant level of creative control over their work. They repeatedly explore similar themes or issues or feature unusual motifs or other aesthetic features.

• One trait of an auteur is the ability to retain a distinctive ‘signature’ despite making films in a range of different genres. Christopher Nolan is a good example. He has made blockbuster superhero movies (his Dark Knight trilogy, 2005–12), period pieces (The Prestige, 2006), big budget intellectual science fiction (Inception, Interstellar, Tenet) and even a World War II film (Dunkirk, 2017).

• Despite this, there are recurrent themes and character types. The protagonists are often “men who believe they are in control, only to learn control is an illusion;” they are often traumatised and haunted by a lost loved one; and they are tormented by a manipulative antagonist.

• Often, the concept of linear chronology is questioned and disrupted, even in apparently realistic films (e.g. Dunkirk).

• Nolan also regularly uses physical symbols as part of the narrative. Good examples are Leonard’s Polaroids and tattoos; the spinning ‘totem’ in Inception; the magical top hat in The Prestige. Often, these items have a meaning that tries (unsuccessfully!) to pin down what is real and what is imagined.

• Memento, like many of Nolan’s films, is about the search for an objective ‘truth’ that remains elusive to both protagonists and the viewer – particularly in Inception, where the line between dream and reality is unclear, most famously in the final shot. This ambiguity intellectually engages the viewer – but it also ensures each films’ legacy, with many fans continuing to discuss their interpretations decades after the original release.

Context

Institutional

• Memento is based on a short story by Christopher Nolan’s brother, Jonathan. Christopher wrote a draft of the screenplay in linear order, then rearranged it into the plot structure of the final script.

• Nolan’s wife, producer Emma Thomas, showed the script to executives from Newmarket Films, who said the script was “amongst the most innovative” they’d seen. Shooting began with a budget of $9 million.

• One of the most complicated scenes to shoot was the opening ‘reverse’ sequence, said Nolan: “An optical to make a backwards running shot forwards, and the forwards shot is a simulation of a backwards shot.”

Cultural

• The ‘puzzle box’ movie or TV show has become a popular subgenre of the mystery/thriller. The title refers to the viewer not merely being entertained by a text, but rather consuming it in ‘interpretive mode’ – piecing together enigmatic events and clues to create their own version of what they think is happening in an ambiguous narrative. Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) is one of the first examples in cinema. Recently long form TV drama such as Lost (2004–10) and Dark (2017–20) have also popularised the subgenre.

• Memento could also be seen as part of the Postmodern film movement (1990–2001). Postmodern films often have non-linear, elliptical (key scenes seem omitted) or ambiguous narratives. These require the viewer to make their own interpretations, constructing a version of the plot for themselves. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994) and Donnie Darko (Kelly,2001) are other good examples.

Social/Political

• During Memento’s 20 th anniversary re-release, many critics commented on the increased relevance of the film’s themes. In a so-called ‘Post-Truth Age’ of online disinformation, distortion and ‘fake news’, Memento’s protagonist’s quest for an elusive and unreliable ‘truth’ becomes remarkably pertinent.