Memento

Matthew Guarnieri

            The film Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, certainly challenges the conventional methods of storytelling. Most plots unfold in a linear fashion going from A to B to C. However Nolan told his crime drama in the less conventional, C to B to A manner.

            The way I see the film, is not in the juxtaposition of clips and scenes, but rather in the form of acts. Each act separated by scenes that divulge information about the mysterious main character.

            The first scene of the film is essentially the end of the story and the rest of the movie operates in this fashion, slowly working its way to the last scene but the beginning of the story. Through the use of unique editing, Nolan was able to make this abstract form of storytelling work. The inattentive viewer may not be able to adequately follow the story but the engaged viewer would be able to put the “puzzle” together to make sense of the story.

            After reading up on the film, I found out that the editor, Doty Dorn, was asked to read the script multiple times before beginning the actual editing process, so that she would know the relationship between each scene to the plot.

            The film is interesting because of the way the scenes coincide with each other. Through the juxtaposition of scenes in reverse order, the viewer becomes somewhat of a detective, having to compile the information they are given, and draw their own conclusions. When a scene begins, the viewer has absolutely no background information pertaining to what is going on. The scene unfolds; the viewer absorbs what has happened, all without context. The next scene then provides the background information for the previous scene, allowing the viewer to come to an understanding as to what is going on.

            In regards to the scenes in-between the “acts” that provide background information, they are displayed in black and white. This visual queue somewhat allows the viewer to know that this isn’t necessarily happening in “real time”. However he does act upon these scenes in the “real time” sequences. For instance, when Lenny (the main character) receives a phone call in the black and white scene he clearly becomes paranoid. Then when it cuts to “real time”, Lenny goes to the front desk at his motel and requests that they block his phone calls. To refer to the scenes as “real time” may not be the best way to describe them but it was the best way I could think to convey my point.

            There is a video on YouTube that plays the scenes in Memento in the “correct” order. It’s interesting to watch this video because in doing so, you come to realize that the plot actually made more sense in the reverse order. For example, when the scenes are played out in the conventional order, the relationship between Lenny and Natalie doesn’t really make any sense, in that Natalie is mean to Lenny for no apparent reason.

            Memento is another example of a film that employs unique editing in order to enhance the story telling process.