Memento Flashcards
Representations: How is femininity presented in memento
-a nuanced presentation of femininity, stereotypical tropes shown through the victimhood of Lenny’s wife and Sammy’s wife
-Natalie represents a femme fatale role, however instead of serving the male character, has her own motives and desires for which she manipulates Lenny to achieve these
Representations: How is Masculinity presented in memento
-Presented stereotypically as Rash and violent characteristics shown through almost all of the male characters
-Lenny somewhat fits the Noir male archetype through his violent motivations for revenge, however he is emasculated via his dependence on external devices like polaroids and tatoos, and his inability to make informed moral decisions due to his condition
Character notes: Lenny
-morally ambiguous
-anti hero, unreliable narrator, fits the noir archetype
-complexed troubled man on a quest to avenge his wife, is manipulated by almost everyone around him
-is a nuanced portrayal of masculinity, while violent and rash, lacks the rational and logical decisions that is typically associated with men
Auteurship: Christopher Nolan
-mind bending concepts
-time warping
-lowkey lighting
-urban settings
-on location filming
-non linear story telling
-hans zimmer score
-themes of human morality, ambiguity, identity
-protagonists are controversial, often morally ambiguous
What makes Memento Post Modernist
-non linear narrative and reverse chronological story telling disrupts traditional style forcing the audience to actively rethink
-Unreliable Protagonist, a feature of Nolans auteurship and PoMo, as the main character is usually the ‘good guy’
-Baudrillard’s Simulacra, Lennys memories are unreliable, he constructs his own personal truth based on external record rather than experience, reflecting the blurred line between reality and fiction
-deconstruction of Genre, Lenny is the detective of the story but then finds himself the victim, which is uncommon
What makes memento experimental
-Dual narrative, indicated by colour sequences (non chronological) and black and white (chronological) sequences, that come together at the end
-subjective perspective due to unreliable narrator
-challenges traditional cinematic form, forces audience to engage with alternate time and memory concept
Memento Scene analysis: Opening scene
-reverse footage of polaroid un developing establishes the erasure from his memory
-somber non diegetic sound and title card
-reverse sequence of Lenny killing teddy again symbolising him forgetting
-close ups of blood, bullets, stained glasses
-black and white sequence begins showing him confused and disoriented
-back to colour, lenny and teddy go back to where we seen the murder moments before, showing the reverse chronology
Memento Key scene: Leonard burning his wifes things
-thriller noir esc, low key lighting, lone car at night
-burning a metaphor for deleting memories
-jump cuts to flashbacks of his wife in vibrant colour, contrasting the dull and dark present day
-the cuts to the flashbacks are jarring and fast, aligning us with the rocky memory of Lennyp
Memento Key scene: Natalies deception
-natalie swtiches her behaviour from kind to manipulative, then taunts lenny into hitting her
-shot revs shot show the interaction
-“i’ll see you soon”- from natalie shows it was planned
-she returns claiming Dodd beat her sending Lenny after him
Memento Scene analysis: closing scene
-meet jimmy grantz
-black and white fades to colour, combining the dual narratives
-after killing Jimmy believing he was John G he changes into Jimmys suit, the costume he has been wearing since the beginning of the film
-reconfronts teddy, who brings up self deception
-we realise Lenny has been killing people who he believes manipulates himself to believe is John G
