Memento Film Analysis

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.

Macario is a 1960 Mexican film. This film was based on the novel of the same name by B. Traven. This movie was directed by Roberto Gavaldon which was a very well recognized director in New Spain (modern-day Mexico). This ninety-minute film became so popular in Mexico. This Film was the first Mexican film to be nominated for an academy award! This film entered the Best Foreign Language Film. It became so popular that it won its entrance to the 1960 Cannes film Festival. Macario the films’ name, is also the main character in this film. Another main character that is seemed in the film is the death (la muerte). We also have our secondary characters such as Macario’s wife, God, the devil, and some members of the inquisition.

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 my list of movies that always make me cry is the movie “Ghost” which was released on July 13, 1990. This movie made that summer really worth while and gave us romance, comedy and much to think about. The movie starred Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg.

Imitation of Life directed by Douglas Sirk, 1959. This movie is a melodrama that shows the love and the hardships between mother and daughter while juggling the tasks of work, love, and personal problems. The French term mise-en-scène is shown throughout the film in different ways through the camera angles, lighting, and costumes. These elements help show the little details about the characters, and their life lessons with themselves and each other.

The film “Stand By Me” by director (Rob Reiner) shows the physical journey of four boys the boys are from a little town named castle rock. The four boys names are Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) and Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman).

The Comparisons and Contrasts of the films of The Thing and The Thing From another world

Throughout Memento the shifting between objective and subjective point of views shapes our perception of Leonard, Natalie and Teddy. There are two types of scenes in Memento, the black and white scenes in chronological order and the color scenes which are shown in reverse order, which eventually meet up chronologically with the black and white scenes. The black and white scenes are objective, the audience and Leonard can see all the facts and they are not influenced by Leonard’s emotions or opinions. The color scenes are subjective, they are from Leonard’s perspective and we are denied the same information Leonard is denied during these scenes.

A person’s identity relies heavily on one’s memories. How can one know who they are, if they cannot remember who they were and what they experienced to get to the present? In Memento, director Christopher Nolan highlights the importance of memory in forming one’s identity. The movie follows a man named Leonard who is determined to track down and kill the man who raped and murdered his wife. Unfortunately, Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia, meaning he can remember everything leading up to the incident, but he is incapable of forming memories of anything which occurred after his wife’s death. Throughout his investigation, Leonard compensates for his handicap by writing himself notes which he tattoos on his body. But as Leonard’s investigation moves forward, Leonard himself cannot. With his wife’s death as his last memory, he finds himself out of sync with the rest of the world as his identity remains stuck in the past. In Memento, Nolan uses editing and mise en scene to reinforce the idea that a person’s identity relies heavily upon their memories.

The movie is about sheriff heck Tate a one of a kind sheriff that lives in a little town called Dawson texas. He is a decent man who tries to protect the innocent from danger. But in doing this he finds out that the people in this town are stubborn and have there own ways. Most of them are not subject to change.

Christopher Nolan is an auteur and postmodern filmmaker. He started off making low budget ‘indie’ films, his first being Doodlebug. He has now risen to being one of the biggest names in Hollywood and creating blockbusters that not only are visual masterpieces but thought provoking journeys. He respects film as an art form, thus allowing him to create some of the top ranked films this century and The Dark Night and Momento are even classed among the greatest films of all time. He has 122 major wins and 163 nominations, most notably three Oscars, three golden globes and three BAFTAS. His films have grossed a total of US$4.2 billion making him, not only one of the most visionary, but one of the most successful directors of all time. Many say “what he’s trying to be is some kind of modern Kubrick. I think he’d be better off being a modern Hitchcock ” I believe he is a mix of the two, both pleasing the general audience and those that are there for intellectual stimulation. After Doodlebug gained him critical attention he then moved on to a bigger project, Following. The films I will analyse are The Prestige and Interstellar, which are films filled with his trademark of non-linear storytelling, grand-camera angles and powerful diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.

In The Vanishing, the movie starts out with the main antagonist, Barney, working out all the kinks in his plan to abduct a woman. The audience learns later in the movie that he only wishes to do this so he can prove to both himself and his daughter that he deserves to be looked up to as a god, all because he saved a drowning child. Barney is portrayed to be mentally ill, at least to the American public. The 1993 English movie, compared to the Dutch movie released in 1988, had made Barney out to be more psychology unstable, and had given him an unknown accent, or speech impediment. It could be due to the difference in actors, but the actor himself, Jeff Bridges, doesn't seem to have Barney's speech issues anywhere outside of the role. It seems,

Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, combines the element, film noir and science fiction, thus creating a outstanding visual aesthetic that has been embraced by most critics. Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), many critics embraced this sci- fi film, although it leaves out a majority of the novel’s plot and themes while scenes are modified significantly. The plot follows police officer Rick Deckard, known on the street as a “blade runner,” as he tracks four renegade androids that are genetically engineered replicants that are almost impossible to distinguish from humans. This leads Deckard to the Tyrell Corporation, the firm that

In the 1995 version of the movie Ghost in the Shell, the story follows Motoko Kusanagi, who is an assault team leader for Section 9. In this futuristic movie, the human bodies can be alternated to be partially or completely replaced by cybernetic parts. For those like Kusanagi, she has a cyber brain that allows her to have access to the internet and many other networks. During the movie, the Puppet Master, who was created by Section 6, ghosts hacks various figures. As a responsibility from Section 9, Kusanagi is tasked to find the Puppet Master. When she catches the Puppet Master, she finds out that the Puppet Master is an artificial intelligence program that has developed self-awareness. As the movie progresses, the Puppet Master tries to

Before the Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock made its way into theaters across the world, film was produced in a completely different way. Some of the elements that were in Psycho were things that nobody saw in movies before. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, when the movie came out, it took place in “an atmosphere of dark and stifling ‘50s conformity” and that the elements of the film “tore through the repressive ‘50s blandness just a potently as Elvis had.” (Hudson). Alfred Hitchcock changed the way that cinema was made by breaking away from the old, “safe” way of creating a movie and decided to throw all of the unwritten rules of film making out the window. The main ways he accomplished this task was by adding graphic violence, sexuality, and different ways to view the film differently than any other movie before its time.