Memento

A film about a man who lost his memory after his wife was killed. Leonard cannot make new memories. He remembers his earlier life, but anything after ten minutes is gone. He has solved this with a system. He takes Polaroid photographs, writes notes on the back, and has the most important facts tattooed on his body. He is looking for the killer. All he has is the record system he built himself. The film runs in two directions. The colour scenes go from the end to the beginning; the black and white scenes go forward. They meet not in the middle but at the end. The structure is not a trick. In every colour scene the audience, like Leonard, does not know how it got there, and the missing information is shared. What the narrative is interested in is not memory but self-deception: the film finally shows that the notes and the photographs depend on who wrote them, and that person is not reliable. There are two supporting characters and both are using his condition; one says so outright. The Sammy Jankis line is the film's second layer and its meaning changes completely in the last minute. It was made on a small budget in a short schedule; the script came from a story by the director's brother Jonathan Nolan, which was still unpublished when the film appeared. Some home video editions carried an option to watch the scenes in chronological order. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are in the cast. Christopher Nolan directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes films built on their structure. Who it is not for: anyone watching with half their attention; miss one scene and the narrative does not come back for you.