We are looking at Memento as a way of going back over the very complex theoretical ideas that we covered during lockdown. As such, for this film you will need to refer to NARRATIVE (essentially how narratives are structured) and POSTMODERNISM (a way of thinking about some of themes that are in this film). You may also want to refer to The Language of Moving Image, which will enable to think about how movies are put together which should help you when you revisit your music video production.

Some ‘micro’-questions:

THINKING ABOUT NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

• The film begins with Leonard shooting Teddy – the climax of his quest for vengeance. The main question facing Leonard is ‘Who killed his wife?’ and ‘How can he find him to take revenge?’ These questions seem to be answered in the first five minutes – so what enigmas are created for the audience as the plot moves (backwards in time)? How are these enigmas answered? Are the answers stable (i.e. are the undermined by what we discover later)?

• If you had to plot this narrative – what shape would it take? Think about direction and shape ie Freytag’s pyramid. Can you draw out a schematic representation (ie a drawing) of this narrative structure?

• What are the key ‘KERNELS‘ in this narrative structure? What ‘SATELLITES‘ particularly stand out for you?

THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER

• “Extreme emotions… pieced together… add ‘em together, you end up with a person.” This is Leonard describing his memories of his wife – to what extent is this also a good description of Leonard’s own identity?

• What strategies does Leonard use to combat his condition? In the scene where he and Teddy discuss his ‘aide memoirs’ Leonard insists these mementoes are better than ‘normal’ memories – what are his arguments? How ‘trustworthy’ (or open to distortion) are his mementoes in the story?

NARRATIVE, CHARACTER, IDENTITY, CONSISTENCY, STABILITY

• What are your impressions of Natalie – in the first scene in coffee shop? In second, at her house when Leonard awakes in her bed? In third when she comforts Leonard? In fourth, when she arrives at the house bloodied… and the fifth, where she and Leonard argue? To what extent could you see her as a completely different person in each situation?

NARRATIVE, CHARACTER, TRUTH

• What is the significance of the story of Sammy Jenkiss to Leonard? How ‘true’ is this story? What does this tell us about the relationship between facts, memories and fiction?

• By the end of the film, do we feel like Leonard got the right man by shooting Teddy? List arguments for and against this view. How satisfying is the end of the film? What questions do you have left?

Postmodernism & Memento

Big Question:

How could ‘Memento’ be classed as a postmodern text?

Look for evidence of these postmodern phenomena:

• Intertexuality: sampling artistic styles, plot or character conventions from other forms and genres

• The ‘writerly text’ (Roland Barthes): a text whose meaning is created by the reader/consumer rather than being fixed in the text by the writer/producer.

• There is no cohesive identity, no ‘real you’; we are different people in each individual situation, virtual and actual. Our identities are in constant flux.

• There is no ‘truth’ in history (personal or national), memory cannot be relied upon as evidence for knowledge;

• People who claim to know the ‘truth’ can’t be trusted;

• Fiction and fact depend on each other to the point that they can’t be divided – in the end they can’t be separated;

• Knowledge doesn’t ‘add up’ cohesively to ‘truth’; there are too many contradictory elements.

Support material

Rhizomatic thought

Rhizomatic thought = ‘rhizomes’ are plant life that don’t follow the root-tree system e.g. fungus or mould. There is no ‘core’, no lesser or greater elements. If you destroy the centre of a mould the rest doesn’t die (like if you destroyed the trunk of a tree), it continues to thrive. Modern terrorist movements have a ‘rhizomatic’ structure: there is no single leader, issuing orders down the chain of command with an overall goal that every unit is working towards. Terrorists work in cells, with their own individual goals and objectives, and though instructions may be sent to them, these are very rarely orders, and they may or may not be followed e.g. when the IRA abandoned armed activity as part of the Northern Irish peace process, some cells decided their leaders had betrayed their ideals, and continued bombing under the name ‘The Real IRA’. Similarly, there is no evidence the 7/7 bombers received any orders or had any contact with the so-called ‘generals’ in the Al-Qaeda; instead they planned, resourced and implemented their attack independently.

Theorists

Gilles Deleuze, philosopher and film critic, worked with a radical psychoanalyst called Felix Guattari to write some of the most impenetrable but insightful books attacking what we think of as ‘common sense’. He championed a vision of human identity that saw the self as multiple, with each ‘self’ possessing an immanence. Therefore there is no higher, ‘core’ you, with other selves that have less meaning – instead each self, each aspect of your identity has an existence that is intense and, though connected to other more stable selves, it doesn’t fit into a hierarchy where there are selves which are ‘more’ or ‘less’ you. He also wrote about lots of other ideas that you have to study philosophy to post-graduate level to be able to understand!

Why is this postmodern?

Along with other postmodern philosophers, Deleuze disputes the idea of a hierarchy to knowledge or experience or identity; and the notion of there being a core ‘truth’ that we can find by adding together knowledge. Instead, like Baudrillard and Lyotard, he encourages a view of the world as full of diversity, multiple truths, none less or more meaningful than the next; what he termed A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze a great deal more cheerful than the other two, however. Instead of bemoaning the ‘end of history’, Deleuze sees the abundance of ‘immanence’ as creative and playful, with each ‘immanence’ affecting and influencing others, and consequently spawning new experiences, selves and realities (much in the way a mould or fungus spreads out into new and random forms).

Immanence = means literally ‘to remain within’, but seen by postmodernists as concept whereby things can exist without referring to anything outside of themselves for meaning. It is an intensity by itself, without needing to refer to a hierarchy for meaning. (Don’t confuse with imminence, which means the quality of something about to occur!)