It was a totally unknown Christopher Nolan's second flick, the first being Following, in which a guy, um...."follows" people. To be fair, I need to revisit Following soon. (But its totally about a guy following people). The film plays in the film noir sandbox without being "too noir" or over the top. Voiceover, creepy, untrustworthy sidekick Joey Pants, the ice cold lady. Memento could have easily been filmed completly in black and white (some segments are) and felt completly natural.
It really begins Nolan's genre bending. Insomnia twisted the "crime thriller". The Batman films changed the "super hero" movie. The Prestige tricked us into thinking we were watching a drama. And Inception took a Hitchcock film and turned the whole movie into the "mcguffin", while Nolan made a movie about, well, making movies. Also, if you are "in someone's dream", you MUST wear a smart looking suit.
Memento's main character Leonard, reminds me of Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle. Leonard could easily find himself as part of the Scorseseverse. He's obssessive, guilt ridden and conflicted.If he's Catholic, he's in. Because of his lack of memory, he is all alone. No one can truly share his space, just like Travis. Both are driven to revenge or a misguided form of justice by hazy motives at best. Although if Leonard was your cab driver, he would never remember where you wanted to go.
That was really well written. I'm in total agreement about "Memento" being filmed entirely in B&W, it could have totally worked. In fact, it should have been. The flashback segments (if I remember correctly, it has been a while) are in B&W, yet those are the parts that Leonard remembers completely. You'd think those would be the color parts, with the current storyline being told in a hazy B&W, much like Leonard's memory. Anyway, good piece there, keep up the good work and thanks for swinging by my blog. Good to have you.
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