Memento (2000) Response

Memento (2000) is a film directed by Christopher Nolan and the story is depicted through the perspective of Leonard Shelby who suffers from anterograde amnesia, aka not having the ability to create new memories, after his injury. Throughout the entire movie he tries to find out the murderer who killed his wife and he takes Polaroid photos of people and objects, writes himself notes, and uses tattoos to remind himself of the information he has obtained before losing his memories.

This entire movie resembles a labyrinth in terms of its structure and concept. Since this story is told through Leonard's perspective and as a man who suffers from amnesia, his mindset can be very confusing and ambiguous. Therefore, it contributes to the formation of the structure of this movie which creates a labyrinth that lacks clarity and chronology.

The movie starts out confusing as it constantly shifts in between the black-and-white and colored films, which are presenting the same storyline but in different orders. Viewers are able to make the assumption that the colored films are shown in a reversed manner as the first section of the colored film literally shows actions going backwards in time. The black-and-white films portrays the story in a linear time order. In addition, there is a clear connection between the colored films themselves and the black-and-white films demonstrated by their continuation from the previous film. The interchanging scenes allow the viewers to connect different parts of the story to form the actual one and this constant change in between the past/present and beginning/end, but also Leonard's continuous cycle of forgetting and reminding illustrates a labyrinth that involves a cycle of confusion.

However, the confusion due to the result of the structure and narration (Leonard's perspective) makes the movie is very interesting. Every scene in colors explains the factors that contributed to the happening of the previous one. For the black-and-white films, the viewers learn the history or contributing elements that took place in the beginning of his search for the murderer. Therefore, starting with the ending of the movie, slowly giving away information that leads up to the ending that is shown in the beginning, and ending with the actual beginning of the story makes the story mysterious and intriguing.

In conclusion, Memento is a thought-provoking film that challenges the standard representation of time in movies and resembles a labyrinth. The distortion created by the interchanging sequences not only is a type of labyrinth itself but Leonard's mental status is also a labyrinth, conveyed by the used of different time sequences.