Memento

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When people talk about Christopher Nolan (and it is often the case), they usually link this producer with a lot of things but quite never with Memento.

Memen-what? is what you might be thinking right now… Aren’t you ? And it is quite outrageous but I’m going to forgive you. Firstly because this is my first post and it is, in my opinion, kind of early to already get in troubles with my readers and secondly because I used to think the same until yesterday night.

I was laying on my bed, too tired to hang out but not that much to feel asleep. Everybody knows this awkward moment you already watched the news on tv, snoped on all the profils you could on Facebook, told your 32 followers on Twitter that your apple was not really tasty today, and when your brain is obviously unable to wake up and make the dissertation you must have done for tomorrow 8am. In this situation,the best alternative always seems to be the movie.

Here we are. Memento, movie realised by Christopher Nolan in 2000. New century. New wave ? With Nolan, for sur. Brilliant.

Memento is presented as two different sequences of scenes: a series in black-and-white that are shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order. Nolan chose to innove using this structure. It is a complexe film, you must keep your eyes glued to the screen to understand the whole story but it’s worth it.

Leonard Shelby is a man whose ability to make new memories is damaged after having confronted two people who were killing his life. He devotes his life to finding and killing the attacker… The thing is that with his short-term memory destroyed he’s unable to retain any new information, and must take some notes and polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day… He has even tattooed himself with a few crucial bits of information he can’t get along without (but don’t worry, it is not a vapid version of Prison Break !).

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What is really interesting with this movie is that it is only the second film by Nolan but we already can find all the elements that characterize his style. For example, the treatment of a character tortured by his inner demons found later in the movie Inception. And if Memento is not well known by people around me, I’ve been reassured when I saw it is at less recognized by the profession. Indeed, Memento got numerous honors (including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay).

For the rest, I will just advice you there is at the moment a promotion about popcorn in all the spar shops. Enjoy !