Editing And Compression In Memento, By Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s neo noir thriller film, Memento (2000), follows the life of the protagonist, Leonard Shelby, as he searches for the person who murdered his wife, whilst dealing with anterograde amnesia, forcing him to use “memento’s” to retain new memories. Through the employment of mise-en-scène and sound design, the central theme of ‘the pursuit of vengeance’ could be conveyed. Additionally, the theme ‘the fragility of memory’, is illustrated to the viewer through cinematography and editing. These techniques and themes are most evident in the dramatic final sequence in the film, specifically when Leonard finally gets revenge and Teddy unveils the truth about John G to him.

The book "The Assault" by Harry Mulisch is very centered around the main character Anton's struggle with memory. The relationship between his approach to memory and the effects of his approach proved to be the main conflict of the story. Being complicated, it is hard to decipher. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is very much a shell of his memories. Many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, too small (seemingly) insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes can all be traced back to his supposedly forgotten memories of the events surrounding his families tragedy.

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

In Memento Mori¸ The story revolves around a man names Earl. Earl has amnesia, to the grade where he forgets what happens in the past 24 hours. Specifically, in which as he persists through time physically but once Earl goes to sleep, he forgets all the past actions of the day. When Earl cannot remember a past event and needs to remember something for the future he puts it down on a note, or gets a tattoo of the Memento. We start the story of Memento Mori with no prior information of Earl’s past, so as the story goes on, we find out about as much as Earl is currently finding out regarding his past. We find out through multiple notes and photos scattered about the room that his wife was murdered by someone and the brain trauma that he

Film and realism are connected to one another; it gives the audience an opportunity to interpret the film in their own perspective, in relation to the real world. As someone with a firm opposition to editing and montage, Bazin stated that the mise en scène truly represents “true continuity” in film, reproducing the real world more realistically. (Cardullo, 7) There are two editing systems: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Neorealist Cinema. From their similarities and differences, it can be said that Neorealist Cinema portrays the real world more realistically and effectively than CHC… In order to produce Bazin’s “true continuity” and reproduce situations more realistically, the filmmaker must choose an effective editing system, refrain from interrupting the flow of images, and use minimal editing, proven through the two films Bicycle Thieves (Neorealist Cinema) and Stagecoach (CHC).

In the book “The Assault,” by Harry Mulisch, the author demonstrates how the main character, Anton, becomes free of the influence of his memories by showing that Anton's approach to memory changes over the novel course of the novel – from protective denial to acknowledgment. However, what remains static is a constant self awareness that Anton shows in-regards to his attempts to repress these memories. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is a shell of his memories of the night where is family was killed. This is shown through how many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, to insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes, can all be traced back to his allegedly forgotten memories.  The

Every act of remembering is also, intrinsically, an act of forgetting. Giving preference to particular details of an event lessens the immediacy of others. Thus, memory is its own, unique narrative culled from an almost endless sea of details present, and sometimes not present, in the original event. Memory is the past, reformulated and interpreted through the lens of the present (Huyssen 1995). When an event is commemorated through a physical act of memory, the narrowing of possible details becomes even more finely tuned, limited by the physical scope of possibilities for bodies in a three-dimensional space.

Action speaks louder than words. These actions are shown in both in Memento (film) by Christopher Nolan and Memento Mori (short story) by Jonathan Nolan. The short story is turned into a movie, but it will never be as good. A book has a storyline, base descriptions are given, and our mind gets to create it with every turn of the page. A movie is someone else vision and very directed with certain details. The story starts off with Earl who has amnesia due to a traumatic event that his wife got rape and murder due to this he is unable to create new memories. Earl uses specific strategies to remember what he has already done and will be doing by he uses pictures, letters and transfers important notes onto his body. However, both brothers were able to create a point about Earl mental illness condition who is the main character of Memento Mori in different ways. One of the most important techniques that were both shown in the Memento Mori is time, thus, the film had a better justice of showing the audience/reader the power of past, present, and future.

Not adhering or clinging to the facts of the narrative is later described as pointless. In this case, the world is saying to disregard the things that add to one’s identity. “You can’t put the past behind you. It’s buried in you; it’s turned your flesh into its own cupboard” (Rankine 63). Describing memory as facts show that there is some clear evidence to those memories regardless of what the world says. The importance of those facts in memories experienced through an individual help create that individuals present identity.

Memory – what it is, how it works, and how it might be manipulated – has long been a subject of curious fascination. Remembering, the mind-boggling ability in which the human brain can conjure up very specific, very lucid, long-gone episodes from any given point on the timeline of our lives, is an astounding feat. Yet, along with our brain’s ability of remembrance comes also the concept of forgetting: interruptions of memory or “an inability of consciousness to make present to itself what it wants” (Honold, 1994, p. 2). There is a very close relationship between remembering and forgetting; in fact, the two come hand-in-hand. A close reading of Joshua Foer’s essay, “The End of Remembering”, and Susan Griffin’s piece, “Our Secret”, directs us

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.

Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis. They believe that information gathered at the time of an icident is

Memento is an American psychological thriller adapted from a short story, Memento Mori written by James Nolan. The story displays the life of Leonard Shelby. Shelby has anterograde Amnesia brought about by an injury to his head. He suffered this injury while confronting two people who attacked his wife at their home in the middle of the night. Leonard kills one of the attackers during the attack, although the second one escapes. Due to the injury and resultant amnesia, the last thing Leonard remembers is his wife dying. He is unable to remember new information after that day. The movie shows how he devotes his life to finding and killing the second attacker.

Many other people have been in similar situations which have taught them a ‘life lesson’. In Gondry and Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine, Dr Howard Mierzwiak knew of the power of memories. He went about erasing people’s memories without telling them the full consciences of their actions; like Joel who midway through the erasing process realised he wanted to keep them, his life afterwards was different as he didn’t have his memories of Clementine to remind him of what love felt like.

What makes up a person is their past experiences and what they have been through, memory is not a necessary element in ones’ identity because if a person’s memory fails, they will most likely still have the same beliefs which they developed from their past experiences and thoughts, even if they do not remember them accurately. For example, if you are told to think of your “self” what picture comes to your mind? Do you picture a self/soul? There is no way you can know what your soul looks like, because simply there is no soul; you just picture your experiences and perceptions which make up your identity. David Hume, a philosopher, said that our minds