"Memento" Nolan's masterpiece reverse movie that overturns the standard detective/revenge drama *Note! Contains spoilers.

*This article touches on the ending of the story, so we recommend watching the movie before reading it.

The word "MEMENTO" on a black background. A Polaroid photo that fades in with the title still showing a man who has been shot in the back of the head and falls to the floor. The left hand holding the photograph shakes from time to time, and the man in the photograph and the blood-stained room gradually fade. When the perspective switches to the person holding the photo (Guy Pearce), the print is sucked into the Polaroid camera, and the strobe lights up, it becomes clear that the image is being played in reverse. A gun that fits in Pierce's right hand. The empty cartridge that rolled out turned into a gun, the blood-stained glasses returned to the man's face, and the next moment the gun burst into flames, and the man screamed.

The unique opening sequence of Memento(2000), which lasts just under two minutes, makes a strong impact, and at the same time serves to foretell that the film will progress back in time. ``Memento,'' British director Christopher Nolan's second feature film and his first foray into Hollywood, offers a special viewing experience with its meticulously crafted structure and developments that overturn genre conventions.

"Memento" synopsis

Los Angeles. Leonard, who was working as an insurance investigator, has his wife raped and murdered by someone. The shock of witnessing this scene causes him to develop anterograde amnesia (a condition in which he remembers things before the onset of the disease, but after that he forgets even what happened a few minutes ago). Leonard, who begins searching for the culprit for revenge, tries to overcome his handicap by writing down things he needs to remember and accomplish his goal.

Index

• The idea for ``The main character with anterograde amnesia'' came from my younger brother.
• Reason for creating a structure that goes against the time axis
• Detective stories and subversive mysteries
• Revenge drama and “unreliable narrator”

The idea for ``The main character with anterograde amnesia'' came from my younger brother.

This work was born out of a conversation with his younger brother Jonathan Nolan. In the summer of 1996, before the release of their directorial debut, `` Following '' (1998), the Nolan brothers took a long car trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, and Jonathan, then a college student, recalled that he had learned in a psychology class, He told his brother that he had an idea for a short story inspired by a condition called "anterograde amnesia."

Christopher loved the plot, in which a man who has lost the ability to remember and seeks revenge on his wife, encouraged his brother to write a novel and developed the basic plot for the film. I decided to write my own script.

"Memento" preview

The title of the short story that Jonathan published in the US magazine Esquire in March 2001 was ``Memento Mori'' ( also posted on the website). This is a Latin expression well known in Europe and America, and ``Memento'' is an English word. Mori means "to die" and is used as a warning saying, "Don't forget that you will die someday."

Christopher chose the title of the movie as ``MEMENTO'', which clearly indicates the psychological state of the main character Leonard (Guy Pearce): ``Don't forget, remember.''

Reason for creating a structure that goes against time