How does Christopher Nolan, the director of ‘Memento’

In our lives we rely on our memory for everyday life. We have to remember our houses, our cars, are family, these all seem like normal everyday things but this is a massive difficulty for Leonard Shelby. Leonard Shelby has supposedly got memory condition which means that he cant remember anything that happened 5 minutes or before that. Everyday you would be surrounded with a feeling of confusion . We all take memory for granted, and this is something that Lenny can't rely on.

The only clear thing that Leonard can remember is his wife being in a plastic bag, suffocating.This is after; she was allegedly raped and murdered in front of him. Polaroid photographs help Lenny in his everyday life; the way he does this is by taking pictures of everything he needs to remember, including people and cars. Lenny has many tattoos on his body these are all reminders for everyday life and seem to be clues to find somebody, but we do not know whom at the time. We later find out that John G is believed to be the rapist and murderer of his wife.

"Tattoo 6: fact car licence SG13 7IU" This is one example of Leonard's tattoos.This is the car licence that is believed to be John G's car licence. . Leonard's main goal in life is too find and kill this unidentified John G but there is a twist to finding him. In the first scene of any film we expect everything to run in chronological order. But after a couple of minutes we start to realise that everything in "Memento" going backwards.

We realise this as the Polaroid image disappears while being shaken rather than appearing, this is also like Lenny as his memory fades very quickly. The Polaroid shows a dead person. This is very unusual and leaves the audience confused.The clearest aspect of the story is that the plot is going backwards, this is mainly when the picture is placed back in the camera and the blood starts to work its way back to the unknown man on the floor and the bullet goes back into the gun.

The music in the first scene is very slow and meaningful. This matches the mood of the scene. This scene also ends quickly; because of this we are left questioning what is going to happen in the rest of the film. The second scene is very short but it is a crucial part in the story. At first you see the main character, Leonard.

Lenny introduces himself by voice over which gives a personal feeling then as an effect comforts the audience. He tells us about his condition and asks himself and the audience questions that neither of us know. he explains unnecessary things, that shows that he doesn't understand or remember what is going on around him. This happens regularly. This gives us evidence on how awkward living with short-term memory loss.

The music has changed and so has the tempo of the film. Both are quicker and more edgier. There are many close ups of that main character Leonard which again gives a more personal feeling.Sometimes we are left confused like Lenny often is. For example at the start of some scenes we are left questioning, were he is and. This makes the audience wants to watch the rest of the film too find out these questions.

The director have created suspense by creating questions throughout film and the beginning of scenes and answering them at the end of the film or end of the scene. Throughout "memento" the plot is broken up into scene's which in effect gives us a clearer view on the plot and help us realise what scenes are backwards.One of the main questions throughout the film is who is teddy and whether to trust him. On one of Lenny's tattoos says about Teddy: "Don't believe his lies" This reason for this tattoo we do not, which again leaves us Asking questions again. In the first scene we see a man lying on the floor who has just been killed with a pair of glasses on the floor.

We later realise that this is Teddy and we know that Lenny is involved in the killing of this man and build up of it. Natalie is the main female character in Memento. When we first meet her we feel sorry for her as she has bruising around her eyes.This creates a feeling of sympathy towards her so we automatically trust her. Also on her picture that Lenny has taken of her it says: "She has lost someone She will help you out of pity" Yet again this creates a feeling of sympathy towards her as we automatically think that she has lost someone very close like Lenny has. But then Natalie takes advantage of him.

This is revealed later in the film. Firstly she wants to get rid of her husband Dodd, Dodd was someone Natalie sees as responsible for the death of her boyfriend, John G, not her husband.And also she supplies fake information about Teddy to Lenny. This results in a change of trust of Natalie. The complexity of time makes us realise how Natalie is using Lenny and maybe why we saw Teddy killed at the start of the film because of the false information that she give him. Lenny actually killed Natalie's boyfriend, and she found out because Lenny was driving his car and wearing his clothes.

There is another part of the film that relates to Lenny's condition. It is the story of Sammy Jankis. This is a essential part of the film as it help us realise about Lenny's condition.Sammy suffered from short-term memory loss and Lenny was an investigator to find out if Sammy was faking his condition. There is a very emotional end to this subplot were Sammy wife had to try and prove whether Sammy was faking. She did by asking Sammy to =to do her insulin shot.

This was normality for Sammy, but she asked every ten minutes to see whether he would remember because his wife's life was at stake. He doesn't remember and his wife goes into a-coma and dies, it then shows him sitting in a mental hospital.Mainly the subplot is in black and white and runs in chronological order, which is opposite to the main plot. This is the audience's system of working things out, like Lenny has his Polaroid's. The final shot we see of Sammy is when he is sitting in his normal chair watching television and then a person walks past the camera and for a split second Sammy head is actually Lenny's.

This shocks and confuses the audience. But this makes the audience realise that Sammy and Lenny are very similar. If not the same person.At the closing end of the film Teddy explains how there was no such thing as the story of Sammy Jankis, it was actually Lenny's story instead. I predicted this at the end of the scene were there faces change. Yet again this asks the audience another question whether to trust Teddy again.

Teddy is actually a John G and constantly asks Lenny about who the real John G is. We already know that he will be killed later on in the film from the first scene. Teddy seems a suspicious person as he is always trying to find John G. teddy attempts to turn Leonard against Natalie as he explains to him that he can't be trusted.He tries twist Lenny's mind and tells him to write information about her down. At this point we have our trust in Natalie and we do not believe Teddy at all.

He even tells Lenny about a corrupt cop, which turns out to be him. He uses him to kill Natalie's husband Jimmy a drug dealer in the city. The audience is confused about whether to trust Teddy. The time factor has brought many complexions and questions to the audience and this is what has made the film very interesting.

Also the use of colour helps us to understand the times differences and time order.And the use of colour towards the end of the film help to bring the plot together and help use understand the parts of his life that Lenny doesn't know. The first time we realise that the film isn't running in chronological order is with the camera and the photo going back into the camera. Also a metaphor for Lenny's life is when the picture is fading, this represents his memory's an how difficult it is for him in everyday to day life.

This film has helped me realised how important memory is and make me appreciate my memory. Therefore I enjoyed it and would like to see it again.