Film #2: Memento (2000)
Memento is a film about a guy named Leonard Shelby, an insurance investigator, who is suffering from an untreatable short-term memory loss called anterograde amnesia. He is trying to track down the person who has raped and murdered his diabetic wife. Leonard wakes up every morning, looking through polaroid images and tattoos that he had captured and inked himself before he sleeps to remember what had happened the previous days or on that particular day, but he remembers what happened before he suffers from the disease. He has telephone conversations in his motel room with people that he has dealt with in the past. There are two scenes filmed in black and white which shows present events and in color that shows past events. With Noah Orent (n.d) summarizes the movie, "A man juggles searching for his wife's murderer and keeping his short-term memory loss from being an obstacle."
I like the beginning of the film where Leonard is lying on the bed in the motel room that he rented, trying to remember where is he and what had happened previously. This shows to the audience that he is suffering from a disease that cannot be treated called anterograde amnesia which is a disease that a person can not make new memories before the injury. He discovers new things everyday with facts that he inked himself onto his body. For me, it is quite interesting to discover something new everyday even though you have short-term memory loss.
Another scene that I like is when Leonard describes and recalls memories of his late wife. To Leonard, his wife is perfect. He misses his wife and hates the person who took her life away. To me, this is love. Although Leonard is blinded by love, he wanted to seek revenge for his wife. There is also scene where Natalie tried to kiss Leonard which she did. I think she likes Leonard because she looked disappointed when Leonard just gave her a slight touch on the lips and did not commit to kiss her passionately which she wanted it to happened. The disappointment on her face makes me feel like that she likes Leonard. Natalie is also seen lying on his chest, listening to him recalling memories of his late wife, looking annoyed. When Leonard came back to the bed, she stick onto him, cuddling. This also shows that Natalie might have some feelings towards Leonard.
A scene that I found it amusing is that when he asked Dodd who did the beating on him. It was due to his disease of short-term memory loss that made him forget what he had done to him. It was very funny that scene to me. Then, Leonard let him go because he did not know why he did that to him and what made him do that to him. While he was running, he did not know why he was running, then he saw a guy, thought he was chasing him but actually he was being chased by Dodd. There is a scene when the car behind him honk at him, Leonard thinking that the person behind him knows him, so he stopped his car. Dodd then pointed a gun at him, he immediately drove off. Funny to me.
There is one scene that I hate about this film is when Leonard found out that Teddy is John G. He had written it down at the back of a polaroid of Teddy that he is John G. Kill him. Teddy tricks him by helping him find and hunt the fake John G who is a drug dealer that looks like Teddy, which he has killed. He still lied to him that he is not the real John G. He tried to make Leonard to kill the wrong guy which he did and towards the end of the film. Teddy used Leonard to help him kill drug dealers to get commission. Teddy, later exposed himself that he is John G. He got himself shot by Leonard which is shown at the beginning of the film.
Another scene I hate is when Natalie insults Leonard's late wife. She mentioned why would not Leonard help her kill Dodd but helped his late wife kill the murderer. She then insults Leonard for having memory loss, saying that he will not remember whatever she says on that day. Natalie keeps on calling him and his late wife names that is really mean and rude to me when she did that to someone who is dead.
The editing of this film is magnificent. The black and white scenes portraying the present and the colored scenes portraying the past which is considered not normal in films. Black and white scenes should show the past and colored scenes should show the present. That is normal but the director twisted it. It makes the audience question and think what is happening in this film. The timeline of the film is played backwards, possibly to confuse the audience. According to Susan C, the editing of the film is almost always continuous. This makes the film distinctive in its own way.
References:
1) Orent. N. (n.d). Memento (2000). Plot Summary. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/plotsummary
2) Rivera, J. (2015, September 6). Christopher Nolan's Memento. Retrieved from http://www.2ndfirstlook.com/2015/09/memento.html
3) Cao, S. (2016, October 16). Editing in Memento. Retrieved from http://susancfilmstudiesblogfall2016.blogspot.com/2016/10/editing-in-memento.html
I like the beginning of the film where Leonard is lying on the bed in the motel room that he rented, trying to remember where is he and what had happened previously. This shows to the audience that he is suffering from a disease that cannot be treated called anterograde amnesia which is a disease that a person can not make new memories before the injury. He discovers new things everyday with facts that he inked himself onto his body. For me, it is quite interesting to discover something new everyday even though you have short-term memory loss.
Another scene that I like is when Leonard describes and recalls memories of his late wife. To Leonard, his wife is perfect. He misses his wife and hates the person who took her life away. To me, this is love. Although Leonard is blinded by love, he wanted to seek revenge for his wife. There is also scene where Natalie tried to kiss Leonard which she did. I think she likes Leonard because she looked disappointed when Leonard just gave her a slight touch on the lips and did not commit to kiss her passionately which she wanted it to happened. The disappointment on her face makes me feel like that she likes Leonard. Natalie is also seen lying on his chest, listening to him recalling memories of his late wife, looking annoyed. When Leonard came back to the bed, she stick onto him, cuddling. This also shows that Natalie might have some feelings towards Leonard.
A scene that I found it amusing is that when he asked Dodd who did the beating on him. It was due to his disease of short-term memory loss that made him forget what he had done to him. It was very funny that scene to me. Then, Leonard let him go because he did not know why he did that to him and what made him do that to him. While he was running, he did not know why he was running, then he saw a guy, thought he was chasing him but actually he was being chased by Dodd. There is a scene when the car behind him honk at him, Leonard thinking that the person behind him knows him, so he stopped his car. Dodd then pointed a gun at him, he immediately drove off. Funny to me.
There is one scene that I hate about this film is when Leonard found out that Teddy is John G. He had written it down at the back of a polaroid of Teddy that he is John G. Kill him. Teddy tricks him by helping him find and hunt the fake John G who is a drug dealer that looks like Teddy, which he has killed. He still lied to him that he is not the real John G. He tried to make Leonard to kill the wrong guy which he did and towards the end of the film. Teddy used Leonard to help him kill drug dealers to get commission. Teddy, later exposed himself that he is John G. He got himself shot by Leonard which is shown at the beginning of the film.
Another scene I hate is when Natalie insults Leonard's late wife. She mentioned why would not Leonard help her kill Dodd but helped his late wife kill the murderer. She then insults Leonard for having memory loss, saying that he will not remember whatever she says on that day. Natalie keeps on calling him and his late wife names that is really mean and rude to me when she did that to someone who is dead.
The editing of this film is magnificent. The black and white scenes portraying the present and the colored scenes portraying the past which is considered not normal in films. Black and white scenes should show the past and colored scenes should show the present. That is normal but the director twisted it. It makes the audience question and think what is happening in this film. The timeline of the film is played backwards, possibly to confuse the audience. According to Susan C, the editing of the film is almost always continuous. This makes the film distinctive in its own way.
References:
1) Orent. N. (n.d). Memento (2000). Plot Summary. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/plotsummary
2) Rivera, J. (2015, September 6). Christopher Nolan's Memento. Retrieved from http://www.2ndfirstlook.com/2015/09/memento.html
3) Cao, S. (2016, October 16). Editing in Memento. Retrieved from http://susancfilmstudiesblogfall2016.blogspot.com/2016/10/editing-in-memento.html
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