Cinema
Memento
Christopher Nolan · 2000
Synopsis
Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator, has retained no new memory since the attack in which his wife was killed. He lives in a motel and organises himself with instant photographs that he annotates, notes and tattoos bearing the facts he holds to be established. He hunts the man he believes guilty, known to him by a first name and an initial, meets Natalie, a barmaid, and Teddy, an insistent acquaintance, and repeats to himself the story of a former policyholder, Sammy Jankis, as a warning.
Context
The starting point is a short story by the director's brother, Jonathan Nolan, which the two men developed each on his own, sending each other their successive versions; the text, published in March 2001, differs from the film. Shot for between five and nine million dollars depending on the source, the film was shown in Venice in September 2000 and released in France as early as October. No American distributor wanted it: its financier, Newmarket, distributed it itself in March 2001.
Who it is for
A film of one hour fifty-three minutes, whose backward construction demands attention in every scene.
Prizes and reception
Two Oscar nominations, for screenplay and editing, about forty million dollars in box office takings, and the National Film Registry in 2017.
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