http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/
Everything you wanted to know about "Memento"
A critic dissects the most complex -- and controversial -- film of the year.
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What follows is an explication for those who have seen the film -- if you haven't seen it, beware, because I'm going to discuss the plot and its revelations in detail.
Next page | A noir full of shocks, jokes and horrors
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Credits, 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, 5, R, 6, Q ... all the way to 20, C, 21, B, and, finally, a scene I'm going to call 22/A, for reasons I'll explain in a minute.
So, if you want to look at the story as it would actually transpire chronologically, rather than in the disjointed way Nolan presents it -- oh, will this ever be fun to do on DVD! -- you would watch the black-and-white scenes in the same order (1 to 21), followed by the black-and-white/color transition scene (22/A). You would then have to watch the remaining color scenes in reverse order, from B up to V, finishing with the opening credit sequence, in which we see Teddy meet his maker at Leonard's hands:
1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22/A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V.
Reading the film this way, here's what happens in real-world chronology.
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Is there an answer? I don't know. Christopher Nolan claims there is one. In an article in New Times Los Angeles on March 15, Scott Timberg writes: "Nolan, for his part, won't tell. When asked about the film's outcome, he goes on about ambiguity and subjectivity, but insists he knows the movie's Truth -- who's good, who's bad, who can be trusted and who can't -- and insists that close viewing will reveal all."
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webfilms/memento155-film-.html
A useful companion text might be "The Lost Mariner," Oliver Sacks's account of Jimmie G, a patient with the same kind of memory loss resulting from Korsakov's Syndrome (see The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, in this data base). (It may be a deliberate allusion that the suspected killer in Memento is called "John G or Jimmie G . . . ")
http://www.memorylossonline.com/spring2002/memlossatmovies.htm
In important ways, Memento depicts amnesia more accurately than any major film release to date. But it also contains a few notable errors, offering an opportunity to set the record straight on a much-misunderstood memory impairment.
plot point in Memento that doesn't quite ring true is his vivid memory of the physical attack in which he was injured. People with anterograde amnesia often cannot remember the trauma that caused their memory loss as well as some memories of events just before the trauma.
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webfilms/memento155-film-.html
A useful companion text might be "The Lost Mariner," Oliver Sacks's account of Jimmie G, a patient with the same kind of memory loss resulting from Korsakov's Syndrome (see The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, in this data base).
(It may be a deliberate allusion that the suspected killer in Memento is called "John G or Jimmie G . . . ")
２．主人公が、鏡で「"John G. raped and killed your wife. Kill him."」という刺青を見ただけで仇を取る（殺人）意思を持つことは有り得ない。（説明は略。Cf.Oliver Sacks）
３．主人公が、自分が「こういう症状なんだ」と説明できる事は有り得ない。（説明は略）
４．主人公が、自分が頭に怪我をした場面を覚えている事は有り得ない。（その前から記憶が欠落する。）
http://www.memorylossonline.com/spring2002/memlossatmovies.htm
plot point in Memento that doesn't quite ring true is his vivid memory of the physical attack in which he was injured.
People with anterograde amnesia often cannot remember the trauma that caused their memory loss as well as some memories of events just before the trauma.
"The Machinist" reminded me of "Memento." ("The Machinist" postdates "Memento".)
21 Grams was pretty bold in its time-scrambling...
Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs --- Kubrick's The killing, Rashomon
In Holland in 1997 there was a TV-movie that told the story completely backwords.
The Harold Pinter-penned Betrayal has the scenes in reverse chronological order.
From: "Jim Beaver" IIRC George Kaufmann and Moss Hart's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG had a reverse timeline way back in 1934. There's nothing new under the sun.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/REVIEWS/51213001
I suspect that the more you know about Japan and movies, the less you will enjoy "Memoirs of a Geisha."
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There is a sense in which I enjoyed every frame of this movie, and another sense in which my enjoyment made me uneasy. I felt some of the same feelings during "Pretty Baby," the 1978 film in which Brooke Shields, playing a girl of 12, has her virginity auctioned away in New Orleans. The difference is that "Pretty Baby" doesn't evoke nostalgia, or regret the passing of the world it depicts.
