Cassandra Kipp

Christopher Nolan’s 2000 film Memento explores the filmic form and narrative usage, as well as film noir’s potential in the modern cinematic world. Leonard Shelby, a man incapable of forming short term memories, seeks the surviving man of the murderous pair who raped and killed his wife and gave him his condition. Told in reverse, the narrative of the film is he has forgotten he and his cop partner Teddy killed the man who raped his wife over a year ago, and now Teddy uses Leonard’s vengeance-seeking to kill unrelated criminals. Additionally, Leonard himself killed his wife, as she tested his condition out of desperation, after the rape and memory loss experience. When Teddy tells him this, Leonard purposefully guides himself to repeat the cycle Teddy has been exploiting to kill Teddy instead. A woman named Natalie, whose boyfriend Leonard killed in a Teddy plot, uses Leonard to her own ends, but ultimately helps guide the mission back to Teddy. Memento analyzes human memory and reality, as well as the morality of vengeance, futility of existence, and human evil. The protagonist has dug his own grave, a futile cycle of suffering for him and his victims as a hitman. Tragedy twirls with twisted morals, as every character skews reality to their own ends. Leonard reclaims his agency in a sense, but he is still trapped in endless cruelty and vengeance. There is no objectivity in the world, and everyone is out for themselves.

Repeated images in Memento both make sense of Nolan’s universe and acquire evolving meaning thanks to the reversed form of the film. Polaroids repeat in Memento, Leonard’s short-term and interpretive memory. The film plays with the concept photographs are objective, and that even in direct images there is no fact or truth to have total faith in; the reason his photo collection is valuable is because of the labels he retroactively adds. Sammy Jankis, a tale Leonard made up to distance himself from the painful reality of killing his own wife, is discussed by Leonard throughout. Jankis, a man with the same anterograde amnesia Leonard now suffers, was denied insurance coverage (by Leonard) due to the mental status of his condition. Jankis’ wife, in despair, tested his condition with her life. The viewer sees a brutal, cutthroat side of Leonard in these scenes folded through the narrative, and the ending revelation the end of Jankis’ story was actually Leonard’s recontextualizes the film entirely. Repeated symbols convey the evolving understanding but cyclical nature of Leonard’s story, itself a status quo. The cultural status quo is subtly implicated in allowing Leonard’s circumstances. Leonard can get away with his actions in the end because of Teddy’s cop status, firstly. The idea Natalie pities Leonard out of sympathy homes in on stereotypes of feminine weakness that Leonard believes, and the audience is invited to view her that way until she is revealed in the unfolding past as manipulative. Furthermore Leonard navigates the world in fancy clothes and a Jaguar, letting him get through without obstacles. Even though Leonard suffers, it’s pointless and juxtaposed with his exhibition of status and gendered vengeance.

The formal and narrative elements in Memento construct a universe engaged in a continuous conversation with noir’s themes. Color defines reality and interaction with the world: black and white shots represent Leonard’s memories, a dramatic, noir-esque fantasy, while color is the truth. This implies cinematic reality and the noir are fundamentally separate, as black and white is associated with noir. Close-up shots of heads emoting, angular spaces and objects, and low contrast also act as formal cues that enhance drama. Narratively, the film also unifies indulgence and criticism of film noir style. Through its reverse storytelling the film presents and subverts gendered assumptions, for instance. Natalie is first presented as a beaten, pained, if seductively mysterious woman, providing Leonard information and comfort. The film gradually reveals her goals and the reality of her actions, adding nuance to her character. Leonard pursues his wife’s killer, and it’s revealed at the end his wife survived the attack and did not believe in Leonard’s condition. Out of desperation, she tested it by having him repeatedly inject her with insulin to see if he would stop, but his condition made that impossible—therefore, he’s her killer who he’s been saying he despised the entire film. While his wife is objectified through the film, the ending recontextualizes her as both the arbiter of the entire film’s structure and not just a victim. Ultimately, however, both Natalie and Leonard’s wife’s actions fulfill the women-as-threat-to-men expectation within noir narratives. Natalie, in her purposeful manipulation of Leonard’s amnesia for her personal vengeance on her boyfriend’s killers (Teddy and Leonard), as well as seduction and emotional manipulation to these ends, definitively fits the femme fatale character type. Meanwhile, Leonard’s wife is still deprived of a voice, dead over a year before the plot begins. She is further the source of Leonard’s current suffering, the narrative not necessarily casting her as evil for it but prioritizing Leonard’s pain instead.

Nolan’s film critiques revenge, but also questions noir, ultimately concluding it’s still valuable in society. Pointedly, noir is often criticized for its femme fatales, perceived as reductively portraying independent and powerful women threatening masculinity. Women are active and men are passive in noir narratives, which leads implicitly to suffering. Memento ultimately reinforces this structure, but does provide its woman characters with rounded personalities and reasons for acting. The detective work characterizing noir is perpetual in Memento’s universe, where noir is a state of being.

Memento. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Newmarket, 2000.

Neff, Renfreu, and Daniel Argent. “Remembering Where it All Began: Christopher Nolan on Memento.” Creative Screenwriting, 2015. https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/remembering-where-it-all-began-christopher-nolan-on-memento/.