A Psychological Viewpoint on Memento

Through Nolan’s application of editing, such as flashbacks, in Memento, the story of Sammy Jankis can be linked back to Leonard’s past as well as the central theme of the fragility and unreliability of memory. Leonard’s unreliable memory is clearly conveyed as the sequence rhythmically displays scenes showing that the protagonist’s wife survived the assault, which is evident as she removes the shower curtain from her head in a flashback. This indicates the unreliability of Leonard’s memory and the devastating result of ‘Conditioning [himself] to remember, learning through repetition’. Nolan’s employment of flashbacks within the sequence expresses Leonards desperate attempt to escape guilt through the fragility of his memory. This is exemplified in the flashback when Leonard’s memory of pinching his wife adjusts to him injecting insulin into her. Nolan’s utilisation of editing illustrates the fragility and unreliability of Leonard’s memory, specifically when he learns that he

Unlike other pairs of literary work and their adaptations that the movie version is published after the literary work, “Memento” and “Memento Mori” are created in the inverse order. The main plot of the two stories is very similar: a man having no short-term memory finding and killing the murder of his wife. They are inspired by the same idea, anterograde amnesia. For creators, the factors they need to look at when presenting a story largely depend on the medium of story-telling. The qualities of different mediums and the characteristics of the audiences of that medium determine many preferences of creators when designing the plot and the characters. Of course, those preferences are not rigid rules, but we can easily find that there are many common traits among the literary products or movie products of the same type. This is also why some literary works and movies are criticized to be formulaic. In “Memento Mori”, the author deleted some elements that are presented in the movie to make the story more suitable to be presented in the text.

This caused in him a feeling in which he had never felt before, and thus inspired him to new things to get himself more aquatinted with God:

In the film Memento, written by director Christopher Nolan, the main character Leonard Shelby, is a confused and damaged man that wants the revenge for the murder of his wife. We can say that Lenny lives in his own world uniquely different from everyone else. The reason for this is his inability to store short term memory and convert into long term memory. This disability renders Lenny’s life into a repeatable lifestyle and has to start from scratch about every 15 minutes. The only source he has is to go back to is his notes and tattoos he discovers every morning on his body. It seems as though he only has his past memories but the only memories we learn about in the movie is about Sammy Jenkins and the murder of his wife. I think that

It is clear once reading his journal entries from his travels leading up to his death, that all he wanted to do was find himself. The only way he thought he could find himself was to strip himself of everything in the modern world and fend for himself in the wild. In his final journal entry he said, “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL.” , this shows that he was content and had fulfilled his purpose.

Also, from the viewpoint of neuroscience, Leonard confabulates some of the stories on the day of the incident. He thought that his wife was killed by the assailant and wanted to take revenge all along; however, his wife was not dead at that time. It was Leonard himself who had killed his wife by giving her insulin shots more than

way of thinking and eased him of the worries that he had been struggling with for so

As he attempted to continue his adventures his reasoning for many things became evident. There

However, he did not allow this impediment to deter him; he was determined to attain a proper

The first scene we see in Memento, is Leonard, in color holding up photo of a man he just killed to serve as a memory of what he had done. Throughout the film, both in color and in black and white, we see various forms of memories Leonard has manufactured such as photographs of people, notes, and tattoos on his body. Christopher Nolan does a good job of utilizing this mise en scene and timeline structure to help influence our perspective of characters like Natalie, Leonard and Teddy.

Time can be a thinker’s most thought-provoking yet infuriating concept to grasp. Infinitely complex, time plays a crucial role in everyone’s life. We do not know much about it, other than that it is there. What is before time or after time? Most movies move through a linear fashion. There is a beginning, middle, and end. Narrative structure can slightly be bended or modified, but for the most part it follows the same basic formula. The movie Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, follows Leonard Shelby, the main character with short term memory loss, trying to avenge his fallen spouse. He only remembers up until the time his head was bashed into a mirror after his spouse was sexually assaulted. The movie is told in a unique way through two stories that do not make complete sense until the end. Memento’s unconventional narrative structure puts the audience into Leonard’s shoes, which is apparent in the movie’s convoluted flashbacks, out of sequence story, and bleak ending.

Memento paved the way as one of the most comprehensive and complicated use of film shots within the choice of films. The director, Christopher Nolan used a variety of shots and editing to get his point across and delve the viewer into the main characters point of view. Memento is centered on Leonard, who suffers from a form of amnesia that makes it so he cannot form new memories. To aid him with his short-term memory loss, he utilizes tattoos and polaroid pictures with notes to recall his primary objective: avenge his wife’s rape and murder. The film starts from the end and works its way back, in a clever technique that allows the viewer to see as if they were also suffering from Leonard’s disability. The reverse telling of the screenplay leads itself as one of the most peculiar films to be seen. This style is confusing but ultimately offers a different experience to that of a “normal” film storyline. Many of the scenes feature extreme close up shots on Lenny, especially when showcasing his personal notes and tattoos that aid him in piecing together “John G”. The usage of such shots allows the viewer to partake in the movie solely from Lenny’s point of view and understand his mind frame. The movie starts at present time and starts working its way back

There is no way to take time to think situations over, a decision must be made immediately or the thought will be forgotten. While Leonard’s memory problem causes him not to be able to form new memories, his memories of everything that happened before the incident are still intact. According to MemoryLossOnline, “Memories for events that occurred before the injury may be largely spared, but events that occurred since the injury may be lost. In practice, this means that an individual with amnesia may have good memory for childhood and for the years before the injury, but may remember little or nothing from the years since” (“Anterograde”).

This film is written by Christopher Nolan as well tells a story of a man who suffers from brain damage condition in which a person can remember their past clearly up to the point of an injury. Leonard, the main character suffers from this disorder. Due to the short term memory loss, he uses notes and photographs to track down the man he suspects to have brutally killed

When reading this quote it made me think of the documentary Symmetry because I remember the film had no voice/narration and minimal interaction between the filmmaker and social actors. Even though the film did not have a narrator I still found it engaging. For example, the last shot of a new born crying and the old man passing away, I remember how the film made me feel a lively tone juxtaposed with a gloomy tone. Furthermore, throughout the film it provoked a cheerful and serious mood, due to the vivid images. The way the film was edited helped build on what the filmmaker wanted to make the audience think or feel.