Memento is a Thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan that I decided to watch as added research into how Psychoanalytical theories can be applied to film. The film features a non linear narrative that focuses on the themes of memory and self deception, Since its narrative is non linear it has a major focus on the theme of memory as the film consists of two story lines, one shot in black and white which is played in chronological order and one shot in colour which is played in reverse and at the end of the film the two narratives converge on each other to conclude the narrative as a complete story.
The narrative follows Leonard Shelby who suffers from anterograde amnesia which impairs his ability to create new memories and lives his life based on a recollection system using hand written notes, tattoos on his body and polaroid photos so he can remember new events, the most important events needed to remember he tattoos on his body. Leonard is trying to find and murder the man who raped and killed his wife as an act of vengeance, simply known as "John G" which he has tattooed on his chest to remind himself of his purpose, he tries to connect a series of clues which he discovers from various people, including an undercover cop known as "Teddy" and Natalie a barmaid working in the town where he is staying. Throughout the film Leonard is constantly telling the people around him about his condition as he can't remember telling them before, which leads people to take advantage of him in certain situations, which adds a bit of humour to an otherwise serious film. The use of the converging story lines in this film are a very interesting form of narration as the start of the film turns out to actually be the end of the film, as it is being played in reverse, the events that are occurring happen due to what happened previously, which are then shown afterwards in the next sequence, so everything is being shown in reverse order. Whereas the sequences in black and white are shown in chronological order, so the sequences in colour are being played in reverse, the black and white sequences are being played from the start and as the film goes on these two narrative sequences eventually converge to create the whole story so that all the events link together. Over the course of the film during the sequences in black and white, Leonard is constantly talking about a man named Sammy Jankins, he is recounting the story about how Sammy suffered with Anterograde amnesia the same condition Leonard now suffers with, who he met when Leonard supposedly worked at an insurance company and was investigating a claim made by Sammy's wife, he recounts how he could not offer them any insurance as his condition was not psychical and so couldn't help them. Which according to Leonard led Sammy's wife who was diabetic to test him by making Sammy inject her daily insulin more than once resulting in lethal levels of insulin, since he couldn't form new memories he didn't realise what he was doing and subsequently killed her through overdose, and he was later put in a mental institute, Leonard is constantly telling this story to people and even has "remember Sammy Jankins" tattooed on his wrist, as it reminds him of how this condition affects him, and also helps him manage his recollection system as he recalls that Sammy didn't have one and that's what went wrong.
The most prominent psychoanalytical aspect of this film is the theme of memory and drive, Leonard's condition causes him to lose all recollection of recent events and cannot process new memories which leads him to go to sometimes extreme lengths to remember important facts by tattooing them on his body. Leonard's condition causes him to need to develop a system of recollection techniques, such as tattooing himself, taking pictures of the people he meets and the locations he visits and also obsessively writing down notes, these actions take over the role of his memory as due to his condition he cannot remember the most recent events so these notes and pictures take over that aspect, he even states that "you can't trust your memory", as he thinks memories can be unreliable and can be mislead whereas his notes,images and tattoos are facts that are solid proof to him, so he cannot forget them. Another theme within the film that can apply psychoanalytical theory is the theme of drive and desire, Leonard feels that his purpose in life is to avenge his wife and kill her murderer so he is driven to hunt them down, using his recollection system by gathering information about her killer to help him search. However as we discover later in the film Leonard has already succeeded in hunting down and killing the man who attacked his wife, although without the desire to murder his wife's attacker anymore he would have nothing to drive him forward and have no purpose in life, so Leonard burns the picture he took after he killed his wife's attacker, as an attempt to give him a sense of purpose in life, to continuously hunt down a man who had already died. Due to his condition he would forget that he had ever killed anyone once he burned the evidence of him doing so, meaning he would continue to pursue "John G" even though he had already succeeded, even Teddy states that "John G" is a very common name and that even his real name was John G, so Leonard could continue hunting forever, although he would be killing innocent men because of his amnesia he would forget he had ever done anything wrong, and every time he succeeded he would feel momentarily at ease and happy, but then he would forget and continue to pursue a now non existent enemy.
I feel that this film ultimately focuses on a much more varied and common theme than other films I've studied, as the theory concerning drive and desire can apply to various things and can involve peoples obsessions, fantasies and inner most thoughts and this makes for a more interesting film. Whilst watching this it was initially quite difficult to understand the narrative due to the converging story lines, but as it all linked together in the end I felt that once it reached its conclusion the narrative made sense to me, the use of the non linear narrative sequences being mixed with the chronological black and white sequences made the film a very different experience, as I found it was hard to determine which section of the film came first, which I think adds to the films atmosphere as it was certainly interesting to discover the chain of events as they unfolded.
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