Editing – Memento
What makes Memento special when it comes to editing is that it is cut backwards. The first scene is actually played in reverse, which establishes the viewer in this “setting”. The first scene of the movie is really the last one, and vice versa. The reasoning behind this device is that the main character Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has a short-term memory loss, and we feel exactly as confused as he does in every new scene. It is as the viewers can feel Leonard’s disabillity themselves. Leonard and the audience get hints through annotated photographs and tattoos that Leonard has placed in strategic places. While this may seem like an innovative idea for its own sake, it is a necessary decision for the film to work. Writer/director Christopher Nolan has not made a straight-forward thriller that needed a twist to be “original.” The entire film rests on the idea that the beginning of Leonard’s journey comes at the end. By the time we see how it begins, the opening scene, and indeed, the entire film take an entirely new perspective—one more shattering than can be expected.
Memento takes a familiar story line and twists it around on itself. It freshens old genre with slick editing and intricate plotting, but in the way they it the genre on its ear and challenge human perception of revenge and its ramifications. Memento is a completely engrossing experience that demands and deserves multiple viewings.
Very good!!