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Memento & Following
Christopher Nolan's Memento is an intricate, original, fascinating thriller, hailed by Philip French of the Observer as 'one of the year's most exciting pictures'. Its protagonist Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a puzzle, even to himself. He sports the trappings of an expensive lifestyle, yet he lives in seedy motels, and seems to be on a desperate mission of revenge to find the man who murdered his wife. Worse, Leonard suffers from a rare form of amnesia that plagues his short-term memory, so in order to keep track of his life, he must surround himself with written reminders, some of them etched onto his own flesh. In this state, Leonard finds that nothing is what it seems, and no one can easily be trusted.
Following (1998) was Christopher Nolan's micro-budgeted debut feature. Bill (Jeremy Theobald), a lonely would-be writer, spends his considerable free time stalking strangers at random through the streets of London. This vicarious form of 'research' takes an unexpected turn when Bill is caught out by one of his quarries: a suave cat burglar who introduces him to the art of breaking and entering. Soon Bill is striking up a liaison with a girl whose flat he has turned over. But Bill discovers too late that he is out of his depth.
This volume includes both screenplays, plus an interview with Christopher Nolan and Jeremy Theobald in which they talk to James Mottram about the making of Following, and a piece by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, author of the story on which Memento was based, in which they recall the conception of the film.
Following (1998) was Christopher Nolan's micro-budgeted debut feature. Bill (Jeremy Theobald), a lonely would-be writer, spends his considerable free time stalking strangers at random through the streets of London. This vicarious form of 'research' takes an unexpected turn when Bill is caught out by one of his quarries: a suave cat burglar who introduces him to the art of breaking and entering. Soon Bill is striking up a liaison with a girl whose flat he has turned over. But Bill discovers too late that he is out of his depth.
This volume includes both screenplays, plus an interview with Christopher Nolan and Jeremy Theobald in which they talk to James Mottram about the making of Following, and a piece by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, author of the story on which Memento was based, in which they recall the conception of the film.
234 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2001
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565 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Nolan
34 books464 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for writing and directing such critically acclaimed films as Memento (2000), the remake Insomnia (2002), the film adaptation The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), and rebooting the Batman film franchise. The latter made him the second most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind David Yates. Nolan is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films.
He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, as well as cinematographer Wally Pfister, film editor Lee Smith, composers David Julyan and Hans Zimmer, special effects coordinator Chris Corbould, and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine.
Nolan often casts the same actors in different films. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Russ Fega, Cillian Murphy and Larry Holden are among his more frequent acting collaborators.
Nolan's wife Emma Thomas has produced most of his films, with the exception of Memento and Insomnia. Lee Smith has been Nolan's editor since Batman Begins, with Dody Dorn editing Memento and Insomnia. Wally Pfister has served as cinematographer for all of Nolan's films starting with Memento. David Julyan composed music for Following, Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, while Hans Zimmer provided music for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception.
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for writing and directing such critically acclaimed films as Memento (2000), the remake Insomnia (2002), the film adaptation The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), and rebooting the Batman film franchise. The latter made him the second most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind David Yates. Nolan is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films.
He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, as well as cinematographer Wally Pfister, film editor Lee Smith, composers David Julyan and Hans Zimmer, special effects coordinator Chris Corbould, and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine.
Nolan often casts the same actors in different films. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Russ Fega, Cillian Murphy and Larry Holden are among his more frequent acting collaborators.
Nolan's wife Emma Thomas has produced most of his films, with the exception of Memento and Insomnia. Lee Smith has been Nolan's editor since Batman Begins, with Dody Dorn editing Memento and Insomnia. Wally Pfister has served as cinematographer for all of Nolan's films starting with Memento. David Julyan composed music for Following, Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, while Hans Zimmer provided music for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 26, 2016
The first work of Christopher Nolan and perhaps it is one intelligent, interesting and independent script.
The basic idea of the story is in a bogus but bright thought:
You take it away... to show them what they had.
Steal things merely for fun, or steal things to make people know what they have - BOGUS BUT BRIGHT IDEA - of this story.
Moreover, the story works in the a defined order...somewhat different from a nonlinear structure but somehow an amusing structure.
Over and above I just love all the work of Christopher Nolan.
Merged review:
Fuck you: I gave you a reason to live, you were more than happy to help. You lie to yourself to keep yourself happy. You don't want the truth. The truth is a fucking coward so you make your own truth.
-Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan, take the central theme of truth and lie and elegantly advances the story in a retreat manner. He also uses revenge as a crucial part of the entire story, but what if the "Revenge" is already behind. Then one must say ...Fuck you...
I generally adore the stories that commence at an oblivious state and just after reading two or four page i was like:
Perhaps, it is the only story in the entire world that starts with the end and ends at the start.
This is one of the biggest fore of Christopher Nolan that he brings in new ideas and a lot of theoretical knowledge. That is why we dont only like his stories, but they become a reason to live. :P I gave you a reason to live, you were more than happy to help
Many people are under the impression that this just like another amnesia thriller, but the truth is that this is a story about a guy suffering from another type of memory loss, with is called short term memory loss. He knows himself, who he is, where is he from and what was is his past, but he just cant make up new memories.
The last thing he remembers is his wife - DYING - in front of his eyes.
The we began a journey to find the guy who killed his wife.
In the end the story makes us question, our reality. You lie to yourself to keep yourself happy. You don't want the truth. The truth is a fucking coward so you make your own truth. It makes us question ourselves that do we lie to keep ourselves happy...DO WE?
We have to believe in a world outside our own mind. We have to believe that our actions still have meaning, even if we can't remember them. We have to believe that when our eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do we believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.
Merged review:
Following
The first work of Christopher Nolan and perhaps it is one intelligent, interesting and independent script.
The basic idea of the story is in a bogus but bright thought:
You take it away... to show them what they had.
Steal things merely for fun, or steal things to make people know what they have - BOGUS BUT BRIGHT IDEA - of this story.
Moreover, the story works in the a defined order...somewhat different from a nonlinear structure but somehow an amusing structure.
Over and above I just love all the work of Christopher Nolan.
Memento
Fuck you: I gave you a reason to live, you were more than happy to help. You lie to yourself to keep yourself happy. You don't want the truth. The truth is a fucking coward so you make your own truth.
-Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan, take the central theme of truth and lie and elegantly advances the story in a retreat manner. He also uses revenge as a crucial part of the entire story, but what if the "Revenge" is already behind. Then one must say ...Fuck you...
I generally adore the stories that commence at an oblivious state and just after reading two or four page i was like:
Perhaps, it is the only story in the entire world that starts with the end and ends at the start.
This is one of the biggest fore of Christopher Nolan that he brings in new ideas and a lot of theoretical knowledge. That is why we dont only like his stories, but they become a reason to live. :P I gave you a reason to live, you were more than happy to help
Many people are under the impression that this just like another amnesia thriller, but the truth is that this is a story about a guy suffering from another type of memory loss, with is called short term memory loss. He knows himself, who he is, where is he from and what was is his past, but he just cant make up new memories.
The last thing he remembers is his wife - DYING - in front of his eyes.
The we began a journey to find the guy who killed his wife.
In the end the story makes us question, our reality. You lie to yourself to keep yourself happy. You don't want the truth. The truth is a fucking coward so you make your own truth. It makes us question ourselves that do we lie to keep ourselves happy...DO WE?
We have to believe in a world outside our own mind. We have to believe that our actions still have meaning, even if we can't remember them. We have to believe that when our eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do we believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.
October 1, 2010
Following is a pretty interesting script, but Memento is amazing. If you want to take the book out from our library you can just skip to that script if you prefer. It tells the story of a man who is determined to avenge his wife's death, but who has lost all short-term memory. The movie goes backwards in time, scene by scene. It is suspenseful, shocking, and very original. (The movies are written by the same man who did Inception and The Dark Knight.)
March 19, 2018
''I can't remember to forget you.''
A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
(A review of memento and the story... 9 years ago on 21 September 2008 20:03 http://www.listal.com/viewentry/148315)
Memento is a 2000 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his younger brother Jonathan's short story Memento Mori. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia which renders his brain unable to store new memories. During the opening credits, (which portrays the end of the story) it is shown that Leonard kills Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) for the rape and murder of his wife based on information provided by Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Memento is often used to show the distinction between plot and story. The film's events unfold in two separate, alternating narratives — one in colour, and the other in black and white. The black and white sections are told in chronological order, showing Leonard conversing with an anonymous phone caller in a motel room. Leonard's investigation is depicted in colour sequences that are in reverse chronological order. As each sequence begins, the audience is unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard, thereby giving the viewer a sense of his confusion. By the film's end when the two narratives converge we understand the investigation and the events that lead up to Teddy's death.
The film's fabula and sujet are very important with regards to understanding the story's narrative. The sujet or the presentation of the film is structured with two timelines: one in colour and one in black-and-white. The colour sequences are alternated with black-and-white sequences. The black-and-white sequences are put together in the chronological order. The colour ones, though shown forward (except for the very first one, which is shown in reverse) are ordered in reverse chronological order.
As each sequence begins, the audience is unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard, thereby giving the viewer a sense of his confusion.
Jonathan Nolan's short story, titled Memento Mori, is radically different from Christopher's film, although it maintains the same essential elements. In Jonathan's version, Leonard is instead named Earl and is a patient at a mental institution. As in the film, his wife was killed by an anonymous man, and during the attack on his wife, Earl lost his short-term memory. Like Leonard, Earl leaves notes to himself and has tattoos with information about the killer. However, in the short story, Earl convinces himself through his own written notes to escape the mental institution and murder his wife's killer. Unlike the film, there is no ambiguity that Earl finds and kills the anonymous man.
David Julyan composed the film's synthesized score. Julyan acknowledges several synthesized soundtracks that inspired him, such as Vangelis' Blade Runner and Hans Zimmer's The Thin Red Line.
While composing the score, Julyan created different, distinct sounds to differentiate between the colour and black-and-white scenes: "brooding and classical" themes in the former, and "oppressive and rumbly noise" in the latter.
Since he describes the entire score as Leonard's theme, Julyan says, "The emotion I was aiming at with my music was yearning and loss. But a sense of loss you feel but at the same time you don't know what it is you have lost, a sense of being adrift." Initially, Nolan wanted to use Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" during the end credits, but he was unable to secure the rights.
Instead, David Bowie's "Something in the Air" is used, although another of Radiohead's songs, an extended version of "Treefingers", is included on the film's soundtrack.
The main role went to Guy Pearce, whom impressed Christopher Nolan the most. Pearce was chosen partly for his "lack of celebrity" (after Brad Pitt passed on the film, the budget could not afford A-list stars), and his enthusiasm for the role, evidenced by a personal phone call Pearce made to Nolan to discuss the part.
After being impressed by Carrie-Anne Moss' performance as Trinity in the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, Jennifer Todd suggested her for the part of Natalie. While Mary McCormack lobbied for the role, Nolan decided to cast Moss as Natalie, saying, "She added an enormous amount to the role of Natalie that wasn't on the page". For the corrupt police officer Teddy, Moss suggested her co-star from The Matrix, Joe Pantoliano. Although there was a concern that Pantoliano might be too villainous for the part, he was still cast, and Nolan said he was pleasantly surprised by the actor's subtlety in his performance.
The rest of the film's characters were quickly cast after the three main leads were established. Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris play Sammy Jankis and his wife, respectively. Mark Boone Junior landed the role of Burt, the motel clerk, because Jennifer Todd liked his "look and attitude" for the part (as a result he has re-appeared in minor roles in other productions by Nolan). Larry Holden plays Jimmy Grantz, a drug dealer and Natalie's boyfriend, while Callum Keith Rennie performs the part of Dodd, a thug to whom Jimmy owes money. Rounding out the cast is Jorja Fox as Leonard's wife and Kimberly Campbell as a prostitute.
''I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them.''
So what exactly is Memento? It consists of an emotional shock that results in unhinged revenge, Leonard Shelby is now piecing back the bits of remembered past... Or is he? Is he alive? If we agree that a person doesn't exist as an entity without memory, in an uncanny state of limbo, and that this frozen Leonard is watching his life flash by. It is a ponderous question invented for all us deep thinkers, allowing us to theorize our own conclusions and interpretations.
As all the pieces start to come together in this jigsaw, at the climax yet in the narrative's ascending beginning, Leonard is denied all the usual action of a hero's benefits and indeed rewards reaped: Increased self-knowledge, knowledge of the world and the plots' occurrences.
He is given the answers at the start yet only remembers the questions. Leonard at the end is indeed a more richly coherent character than he was at the beginning, when we first see him.
What really makes this a stunning movie is the way it is constructed and the narrative structure. The scenes are presented in reverse chronological order, then black and white scenes, which are told in a forward order, so that we know the latest action first, and at the end of the movie find out the earlier action. This seems an extraordinary way to tell a story, but it works. Incidentally, there's a Seinfeld episode told this way, the one where they go to India for a wedding; and to some extent this technique was employed in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in 1992. What makes it particularly effective here is the material. Leonard, as Teddy points out, is not the same person he was before his wife's death and his injury. The direction of time has lost its meaning only for him.
''I don't even know how long she's been gone.
It's like I've woken up in bed and she's not here...
because she's gone to the bathroom or something.
But somehow, I know she's never gonna come back to bed.
If I could just... reach over and touch... her side of the bed,
I would know that it was cold, but I can't. I know I can't have her back...
But I don't want to wake up in the morning, thinking she's still here. I lie here not knowing... how long I've been alone. So how... how can I heal? How am I supposed to heal if I can't... feel time?''
Viewing this the second time some of the lines that were not funny initially become very funny. The voice-over in the chase scene with Dodd is an example. Leonard finds himself running and he says, "So what am I doing?...I'm chasing him....No, he's chasing me!" Or when Teddy asks about the gun, Leonard says, "Must be his. I don't think they'd let somebody like me carry a gun." Or Teddy's line to Leonard, "I've had more rewarding friendships than this, but I get to keep telling the same jokes."
The key to the powerful psychological ending of the film, where we realize what will eventually happen, occurs when Natalie tells Leonard that revenge is useless because he won't remember it. He replies, "It doesn't matter whether I remember or not..." Indeed we see that he really doesn't remember his revenge after carrying it out. Thus revenge is a temporary asphyxiation until the point where it is carried out rendered obsolete; The ideology regarding lack of memory shows the never ending cycle regarding a puzzle Leonard can never solve but ultimately he doesn't want to solve. He wants to forget.
On another level this is a film questioning what criterias make us human. What would life be like if we lived in an eternal present without preference or knowledge regarding past prior memories? We could be easily exploited by those with knowledge of the past, as Leonard is, but there is a deeper question being asked. Does life have any real meaning for a person without memory?
Is this due to the fact we've given a mass of information by then and think we know Leonard and his situation better? Or is he, as his narrative progresses, getting vaguer, moving towards inertia, the catatonia that finally swamped his altar-ego Sammy Jankis. Our problem is that the film comprises not one plot, but four, all fragmented, full of gaping black holes, all mediated by this character who knows nothing. One is Leonard's narrative as he sees it, as he tries to avenge his wife's murder. The second is told in monochrome flashback (or whatever this is called in a film that runs backward), mostly told in mysterious phone calls, and seem to flesh out the gaps missing in the first plot, but actually creates more. The third is the real plot that may have something to do with the police, betrayers, false companions, or indeed hallucinated, misremembered by Leonard, or simply placed there as a smokescreen for another plot that is a paradox. The fourth thread is the story of Sammy, whom supposedly suffered the same condition as Leonard. ''Remember Sammy Jankis...'' is what Leonard has tattooed on his hand; It's meaning? Sammy Jankis is symbolizing Leonard's tragic past.
All four unique strains are obviously connected with each other to create a discordant vision, but each undermines the other.
In a relative sense, hell is here, and Leonard is in a never-ending hell. We can only take the opening sequence, where Leonard stands holding a fading photograph over a dead man's bloody body as the only reliable image, and in this image, it is slowly slipping away, untouchable, like Leonard's memory, like the film, like Memento. The ending is the beginning.
''My wife deserves revenge, whether I know about it or not.''
A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
(A review of memento and the story... 9 years ago on 21 September 2008 20:03 http://www.listal.com/viewentry/148315)
Memento is a 2000 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his younger brother Jonathan's short story Memento Mori. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia which renders his brain unable to store new memories. During the opening credits, (which portrays the end of the story) it is shown that Leonard kills Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) for the rape and murder of his wife based on information provided by Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Memento is often used to show the distinction between plot and story. The film's events unfold in two separate, alternating narratives — one in colour, and the other in black and white. The black and white sections are told in chronological order, showing Leonard conversing with an anonymous phone caller in a motel room. Leonard's investigation is depicted in colour sequences that are in reverse chronological order. As each sequence begins, the audience is unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard, thereby giving the viewer a sense of his confusion. By the film's end when the two narratives converge we understand the investigation and the events that lead up to Teddy's death.
The film's fabula and sujet are very important with regards to understanding the story's narrative. The sujet or the presentation of the film is structured with two timelines: one in colour and one in black-and-white. The colour sequences are alternated with black-and-white sequences. The black-and-white sequences are put together in the chronological order. The colour ones, though shown forward (except for the very first one, which is shown in reverse) are ordered in reverse chronological order.
As each sequence begins, the audience is unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard, thereby giving the viewer a sense of his confusion.
Jonathan Nolan's short story, titled Memento Mori, is radically different from Christopher's film, although it maintains the same essential elements. In Jonathan's version, Leonard is instead named Earl and is a patient at a mental institution. As in the film, his wife was killed by an anonymous man, and during the attack on his wife, Earl lost his short-term memory. Like Leonard, Earl leaves notes to himself and has tattoos with information about the killer. However, in the short story, Earl convinces himself through his own written notes to escape the mental institution and murder his wife's killer. Unlike the film, there is no ambiguity that Earl finds and kills the anonymous man.
David Julyan composed the film's synthesized score. Julyan acknowledges several synthesized soundtracks that inspired him, such as Vangelis' Blade Runner and Hans Zimmer's The Thin Red Line.
While composing the score, Julyan created different, distinct sounds to differentiate between the colour and black-and-white scenes: "brooding and classical" themes in the former, and "oppressive and rumbly noise" in the latter.
Since he describes the entire score as Leonard's theme, Julyan says, "The emotion I was aiming at with my music was yearning and loss. But a sense of loss you feel but at the same time you don't know what it is you have lost, a sense of being adrift." Initially, Nolan wanted to use Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" during the end credits, but he was unable to secure the rights.
Instead, David Bowie's "Something in the Air" is used, although another of Radiohead's songs, an extended version of "Treefingers", is included on the film's soundtrack.
The main role went to Guy Pearce, whom impressed Christopher Nolan the most. Pearce was chosen partly for his "lack of celebrity" (after Brad Pitt passed on the film, the budget could not afford A-list stars), and his enthusiasm for the role, evidenced by a personal phone call Pearce made to Nolan to discuss the part.
After being impressed by Carrie-Anne Moss' performance as Trinity in the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, Jennifer Todd suggested her for the part of Natalie. While Mary McCormack lobbied for the role, Nolan decided to cast Moss as Natalie, saying, "She added an enormous amount to the role of Natalie that wasn't on the page". For the corrupt police officer Teddy, Moss suggested her co-star from The Matrix, Joe Pantoliano. Although there was a concern that Pantoliano might be too villainous for the part, he was still cast, and Nolan said he was pleasantly surprised by the actor's subtlety in his performance.
The rest of the film's characters were quickly cast after the three main leads were established. Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris play Sammy Jankis and his wife, respectively. Mark Boone Junior landed the role of Burt, the motel clerk, because Jennifer Todd liked his "look and attitude" for the part (as a result he has re-appeared in minor roles in other productions by Nolan). Larry Holden plays Jimmy Grantz, a drug dealer and Natalie's boyfriend, while Callum Keith Rennie performs the part of Dodd, a thug to whom Jimmy owes money. Rounding out the cast is Jorja Fox as Leonard's wife and Kimberly Campbell as a prostitute.
''I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them.''
So what exactly is Memento? It consists of an emotional shock that results in unhinged revenge, Leonard Shelby is now piecing back the bits of remembered past... Or is he? Is he alive? If we agree that a person doesn't exist as an entity without memory, in an uncanny state of limbo, and that this frozen Leonard is watching his life flash by. It is a ponderous question invented for all us deep thinkers, allowing us to theorize our own conclusions and interpretations.
As all the pieces start to come together in this jigsaw, at the climax yet in the narrative's ascending beginning, Leonard is denied all the usual action of a hero's benefits and indeed rewards reaped: Increased self-knowledge, knowledge of the world and the plots' occurrences.
He is given the answers at the start yet only remembers the questions. Leonard at the end is indeed a more richly coherent character than he was at the beginning, when we first see him.
What really makes this a stunning movie is the way it is constructed and the narrative structure. The scenes are presented in reverse chronological order, then black and white scenes, which are told in a forward order, so that we know the latest action first, and at the end of the movie find out the earlier action. This seems an extraordinary way to tell a story, but it works. Incidentally, there's a Seinfeld episode told this way, the one where they go to India for a wedding; and to some extent this technique was employed in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in 1992. What makes it particularly effective here is the material. Leonard, as Teddy points out, is not the same person he was before his wife's death and his injury. The direction of time has lost its meaning only for him.
''I don't even know how long she's been gone.
It's like I've woken up in bed and she's not here...
because she's gone to the bathroom or something.
But somehow, I know she's never gonna come back to bed.
If I could just... reach over and touch... her side of the bed,
I would know that it was cold, but I can't. I know I can't have her back...
But I don't want to wake up in the morning, thinking she's still here. I lie here not knowing... how long I've been alone. So how... how can I heal? How am I supposed to heal if I can't... feel time?''
Viewing this the second time some of the lines that were not funny initially become very funny. The voice-over in the chase scene with Dodd is an example. Leonard finds himself running and he says, "So what am I doing?...I'm chasing him....No, he's chasing me!" Or when Teddy asks about the gun, Leonard says, "Must be his. I don't think they'd let somebody like me carry a gun." Or Teddy's line to Leonard, "I've had more rewarding friendships than this, but I get to keep telling the same jokes."
The key to the powerful psychological ending of the film, where we realize what will eventually happen, occurs when Natalie tells Leonard that revenge is useless because he won't remember it. He replies, "It doesn't matter whether I remember or not..." Indeed we see that he really doesn't remember his revenge after carrying it out. Thus revenge is a temporary asphyxiation until the point where it is carried out rendered obsolete; The ideology regarding lack of memory shows the never ending cycle regarding a puzzle Leonard can never solve but ultimately he doesn't want to solve. He wants to forget.
On another level this is a film questioning what criterias make us human. What would life be like if we lived in an eternal present without preference or knowledge regarding past prior memories? We could be easily exploited by those with knowledge of the past, as Leonard is, but there is a deeper question being asked. Does life have any real meaning for a person without memory?
Is this due to the fact we've given a mass of information by then and think we know Leonard and his situation better? Or is he, as his narrative progresses, getting vaguer, moving towards inertia, the catatonia that finally swamped his altar-ego Sammy Jankis. Our problem is that the film comprises not one plot, but four, all fragmented, full of gaping black holes, all mediated by this character who knows nothing. One is Leonard's narrative as he sees it, as he tries to avenge his wife's murder. The second is told in monochrome flashback (or whatever this is called in a film that runs backward), mostly told in mysterious phone calls, and seem to flesh out the gaps missing in the first plot, but actually creates more. The third is the real plot that may have something to do with the police, betrayers, false companions, or indeed hallucinated, misremembered by Leonard, or simply placed there as a smokescreen for another plot that is a paradox. The fourth thread is the story of Sammy, whom supposedly suffered the same condition as Leonard. ''Remember Sammy Jankis...'' is what Leonard has tattooed on his hand; It's meaning? Sammy Jankis is symbolizing Leonard's tragic past.
All four unique strains are obviously connected with each other to create a discordant vision, but each undermines the other.
In a relative sense, hell is here, and Leonard is in a never-ending hell. We can only take the opening sequence, where Leonard stands holding a fading photograph over a dead man's bloody body as the only reliable image, and in this image, it is slowly slipping away, untouchable, like Leonard's memory, like the film, like Memento. The ending is the beginning.
''My wife deserves revenge, whether I know about it or not.''
March 5, 2021
اگر نولان باز باشی و به خصوص فیلم یادآوری نولان رو دیده باشی، خوندن این کتاب خالی از لطف نیست. چراکه تازه میفهمی نولان با انتخاب فرم مناسب چیکار کرده!
۱۵.اسفند.٩٩
۱۵.اسفند.٩٩
April 22, 2021
This book is made up of two screenplays for films by Christopher Nolan, as well as follow-up material about each of them, that together are a bit more than 200 pages. The first section consists of the screenplay for the film Following, which was the first film that Nolan directed. This play, a complex story told in three timelines, follows the story of a young man who fancies himself to a writer who eavesdrops and follows others to inspire himself. He finds himself cultivated and groomed by a burglar and also involved with an attractive blonde, and involved in crimes far beyond his level, finding himself framed for a murder. This is then followed by the screenplay for a more successful film, Momento, where a man finds himself unable to remember anything in recent history who uses written notes and tattoos to record information and re-record it as he seeks to avenge the death of his ex-wife, leading him to a set of connected murders as well as the chance for a sort of new love. After each of the screenplays there is a discussion of the movie, including a look at the production of Following and a comparison of the different accounts for how it was that the idea for Momento started, which helped to shape the discussion of the fallible nature of memory.
One of the more notable aspects of both Following and Momento is the way that they both play with the sense of time. Both plays feature multiple timelines that play with the question of memory and its reliability as well as how it is that we come to understand the world around us. The unconventionality of the timelines appears to relate to the fact that Chris Nolan comes from an artistic background rather than a film background. And that is an important aspect of the importance of these movies. It appears, at least from Nolan's own account, that there was a deliberate attempt to break up the conventionality of the timeline and the result is the sort of screenplay that we would come to expect from Nolan. I must admit that reading these screenplays, both of which are certainly skilled, made me both respect the director more and like his approach less, in that one can see the seriousness of the design of the screenplays but also dislike the moral framework of the author's writings. Such is often the case, though.
One of the more notable aspects of both Following and Momento is the way that they both play with the sense of time. Both plays feature multiple timelines that play with the question of memory and its reliability as well as how it is that we come to understand the world around us. The unconventionality of the timelines appears to relate to the fact that Chris Nolan comes from an artistic background rather than a film background. And that is an important aspect of the importance of these movies. It appears, at least from Nolan's own account, that there was a deliberate attempt to break up the conventionality of the timeline and the result is the sort of screenplay that we would come to expect from Nolan. I must admit that reading these screenplays, both of which are certainly skilled, made me both respect the director more and like his approach less, in that one can see the seriousness of the design of the screenplays but also dislike the moral framework of the author's writings. Such is often the case, though.
November 29, 2018
As amazing as the movie.
January 29, 2020
Such an educational screenplay! I believe this is a perfect example for inspiring writers to read, read, and read more. The way its constructed and the whole structure of it is so impressive.
November 11, 2022
4.5/5 (When you read it together with the movie)
December 24, 2023
More confusing than the movie but so original and so cool. Only read memento following is mid
September 23, 2017
Memento is an amazingly executed and spectacularly dark story of revenge and mystery. An amazing writing style and a wonderfully executed ending.
February 12, 2017
"How am I supposed to heal when I can't feel time?"
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This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2012
Christopher Nolan is perhaps the most innovative and original filmmaker in Hollywood today, and this is where it all began. Essential for fans of the man who brought us the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, whether you've seen these films or not.
July 4, 2008
I read this to try &get the answers the movie didnt give, liked the book but still have no idea what happened!
September 14, 2012
Screenplay from my favorite all time movie. If you've not seen Memento, you are really missing out. A fine example of the movie being better than this screenplay book.
June 6, 2013
if you want a little mind tease.watch the movie.movies are either a simple normal story line, and flashbacks. the movie goes backwards instead of moving forward.
March 14, 2015
Memento is still the best work of art that Christoper Nolan has ever produced.
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