Notes on Anatomy of a Scene: Memento, A Sundance channel original production

• “Memento is a psychological thriller based on the idea that the protagonist can’t make new memories (Director)”
• Memento plays forwards and backward at the same time
• The murder is shown in the first scene of the film
  • A balance of intriguing them and confusing them, but giving them enough time to process and connect the pieces
• If you withhold the information from the audience that is withheld from the protagonist, it does a good job of putting yourself in their shoes
• The structure of the film has alternating color and black and white sequences
  • The color sections us, sequence by sequence, back in time
  • Black and white sequences move more or less forwards in time
  • The color scenes always end at the beginning of the previous color scene
  • The structure is exhibited in the first three scenes
    • The opening shot is a polaroid fading to white as it’s shaking, which is the opposite of what would actually happen, the polaroid is un-developing
    • The next few shots are in reverse but don’t have much reverse action in them, it’s just clear that something is off, and then as that scene ends, which is the scene of Leonard killing Teddy in reverse, it’s clear that reverse action, or time being weird, is a part of the vocabulary in this film
      • Leonard killing Teddy in reverse was a way for it to not be too gory or bloody, we see close up shots of blood receding backward, we see Teddy’s fallen off glasses go back onto his face, and we see the gun fly into Leonard’s hand as he shoots Teddy, and the scene ends as we hear the gunshot
    • Then we move onto a black and white scene
      • The first few shots are close-ups, disorienting, we are being told by the narration where we are but we’re still disoriented and unsure
      • The narration sounds unsure
    • The third scene, color again, precedes the first scene
      • It’s more tangible
• Casting
  • Leonard as a character was quite ambiguous on the page, he doesn’t know how old he is due to his condition, etc.
  • Because of how the film is, and how information is withheld from us, first impressions were even more important than usual, so casting was important
  • It was important to cast Teddy as someone with a little bit of humor, to cast a little lightness on the film
• Production Design
  • Creating a world in which the main character has limited information
  • The palette of colors is blues, whites, grays, a realistic looking palette, so the world looks like we know it, but we don’t have much information at all
    • Classic film noir of having a setting in an ordinary reality
    • The realistic and ordinary setting is ambiguous, does not give us many clues
  • Finding and designing the building where Teddy was killed so that it was very recognizable, so when we went back there and saw it in black and white it was clear where it was
    • Wanting it to be anonymous but to have textural details
  • A lot of over the shoulder shots, the camera always sticking with Leonard in some way
  • Wanted a natural look with natural lighting
  • A higher angle looking down on Leonard in the black and white scenes suggested more of an objective perspective
• Editing
  • Every scene connects in a linear way, so every scene is crucial
  • To guide the audience, shots used at the beginning of one color sequence are shown again at the end of the next
  • None of the sounds are backward, they’re all forward sounds that have been editing to work with the reverse action
  • The black and white scenes are made to seem like a documentary, with the voice-over, shots, and editing
  • The line where Teddy says “You don’t have a clue, you freak” the actor never nailed so Christopher Nolan did it himself
  • The score
    • Giving sound to Leonard’s moods
    • Specific sounds to differentiate between black and white scenes and color scenes
      • Subliminal sounds, not that noticeable
    • The emotions of a character who feels things without really knowing why
      • Music that suggests sadness and melancholy with no explanation
• Unreliable narrator
• Manipulated point of view
• The ending wraps up the movie and leaves people to dissect the truth of what happened, we are slowly given more and more information until we get all the information we want in the end