[Niamh.]

Just back to Memento again, a question for those that watched it :

Spoiler:

So, when I finished watching it my understanding of it was that Sammy Jankis was a real person but that the story about his wife never happened to Sammy but to Lenny but I was reading other opinions on line and some people seem to think that Lenny and Sammy were the same person, I don't think that's right because how would he train himself to know his condition so well?

[Braden]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Just back to Memento again, a question for those that watched it :

Spoiler:

So, when I finished watching it my understanding of it was that Sammy Jankis was a real person but that the story about his wife never happened to Sammy but to Lenny but I was reading other opinions on line and some people seem to think that Lenny and Sammy were the same person, I don't think that's right because how would he train himself to know his condition so well?

Spoiler:

I feel like it was heavily insinuated that Lenny and Sammy were the same people, but you raise a good point. I'm not sure how he'd remember those details so well if he wasn't real.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Braden

Spoiler:

I feel like it was heavily insinuated that Lenny and Sammy were the same people, but you raise a good point. I'm not sure how he'd remember those details so well if he wasn't real.

Spoiler:

I've also read a theory that Teddy was just lying and Lenny didn't kill his wife at all because Teddy is as unreliable a character as Lenny is(maybe even more so because Lennys memories before the accident should be reliable and he didn't remember his wife as the one with diabetes). Teddy has been lying to and manipulating Lenny all through the movie so why should we believe he's telling him the truth this time and not just blatantly lying to hurt Lenny like Natalie did to him. Yes there was the flash of Sammy in hospital that turned into Lenny but that could have been Lenny being really confused about what's real and what's not real hhhmmmm

I thought the film was straight forward but now I'm confused

[Braden]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Spoiler:

I've also read a theory that Teddy was just lying and Lenny didn't kill his wife at all because Teddy is as unreliable a character as Lenny is(maybe even more so because Lennys memories before the accident should be reliable and he didn't remember his wife as the one with diabetes). Teddy has been lying to and manipulating Lenny all through the movie so why should we believe he's telling him the truth this time and not just blatantly lying to hurt Lenny like Natalie did to him. Yes there was the flash of Sammy in hospital that turned into Lenny but that could have been Lenny being really confused about what's real and what's not real hhhmmmm

I thought the film was straight forward but now I'm confused

Spoiler:

I thought the same until I started reading things online, lmao.

I swear there was a scene (when Dodd was tied up in the closet) where Teddy pretended to not know who Natalie was. He said something like ‘who’s Natalie, maybe I know her.’

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Braden

Spoiler:

I thought the same until I started reading things online, lmao.

I swear there was a scene (when Dodd was tied up in the closet) where Teddy pretended to not know who Natalie was. He said something like ‘who’s Natalie, maybe I know her.’

Spoiler:

I must re watch that scene, it does make him a very unreliable source of information though. Also, just to mention the scene at the end again where Sammy in the institute turns into Lenny, don't forget that there's also a scene where Lenny is lying in bed with his wife with a Tattoo saying I Did it in his reserved spot on his chest (and I think all his other tattoos are gone) and that can't be real so why is him in the institute turning from Sammy in to Lenny real?

[Bollo]

OMG guys so sorry! We had two Corona positives in our office and this week has been absolute carnage! I'm fine I'm negative and so is the rest of the office but we've had to deal with the fallout. I finally have a day off tommorrow so i'm going to re watch memento, it's my all time favourite film but I haven't watched it in years...

Spoiler:

one of the main things i loved about this film is that you go through it feeling sorry for the main character because of what he's been through and how people treat him, but what i took from this was that his notes/tattoos/ memories skewed all of his actions and that ultimately despite what everything was telling him he was dead set on avenging his wifes death over and over again even if it was the wrong person because he had nothing else to live for and felt massive guilt, so he's stuck in a horrific cycle.... but it's been a while so I will rewatch and revisit

[James]

I was looking at the Wikipedia page for Memento and it has this graphic about the film's structure.

Spoiler:

The film is structured with two timelines: color sequences are alternated with black-and-white sequences. The latter are put together in chronological order. The color ones, though shown forward (except for the first one, which is shown in reverse), are ordered in reverse. Chronologically, the black-and-white sequences come first, the color sequences come next.

Using the numbering scheme suggested by Andy Klein—who took numbers from 1 to 22 for the black-and-white sequences and letters A–V for the color ones in his article for Salon magazine[4]—the plotting of the film as presented is: Opening Credits (shown "backward"), 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, ..., 22/A, Credits.

There is a smooth transition from the black-and-white sequence 22 to color sequence A and it occurs during the development of a Polaroid photograph.

The chronological order of the story can be viewed as a "Hidden feature" on the 2-Disc Limited Edition Region 1 DVD and the 3-Disc special Edition Region 2 DVD. In this special feature the chapters of the film are put together into the chronological order and is shown: Ending Credits (run in reverse), 1, 2, 3, ..., 22/A, B, ..., V, then the opening title runs "backward" to what was shown (the opening title sequence is run in reverse during the actual film, so it is shown forward in this version).

Stefano Ghislotti wrote an article in Film Anthology which discusses how Nolan provides the viewer with the clues necessary to decode the plot as we watch and help us understand the chronology. The color sequences include a brief overlap to help clue the audience into the fact that they are being presented in reverse order. The purpose of the fragmented reverse sequencing is to force the audience into a sympathetic experience of Leonard's defective ability to create new long-term memories, where prior events are not recalled, since the audience has yet to see them.

Also this is what it says about the portrayal of memory loss.

Scientific response
Many medical experts have cited Memento as featuring one of the most realistic and accurate depictions of anterograde amnesia. Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch called Memento "the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular media", while physician Esther M. Sternberg, Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, identified the film as "close to a perfect exploration of the neurobiology of memory."

Sternberg concludes:
This thought-provoking thriller is the kind of movie that keeps reverberating in the viewer's mind, and each iteration makes one examine preconceived notions in a different light. Memento is a movie for anyone interested in the workings of memory and, indeed, in what it is that makes our own reality.

Clinical neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale writes in The BMJ:

The overwhelming majority of amnesic characters in films bear little relation to any neurological or psychiatric realities of memory loss. Apparently inspired partly by the neuropsychological studies of the famous patient HM (who developed severe anterograde memory impairment after neurosurgery to control his epileptic seizures) and the temporal lobe amnesic syndrome, the film documents the difficulties faced by Leonard, who develops a severe anterograde amnesia after an attack in which his wife is killed. Unlike in most films in this genre, this amnesic character retains his identity, has little retrograde amnesia, and shows several of the severe everyday memory difficulties associated with the disorder. The fragmented, almost mosaic quality to the sequence of scenes in the film also reflects the 'perpetual present' nature of the syndrome.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by James

I was looking at the Wikipedia page for Memento and it has this graphic about the film's structure.

Spoiler:

The film is structured with two timelines: color sequences are alternated with black-and-white sequences. The latter are put together in chronological order. The color ones, though shown forward (except for the first one, which is shown in reverse), are ordered in reverse. Chronologically, the black-and-white sequences come first, the color sequences come next.

Using the numbering scheme suggested by Andy Klein—who took numbers from 1 to 22 for the black-and-white sequences and letters A–V for the color ones in his article for Salon magazine[4]—the plotting of the film as presented is: Opening Credits (shown "backward"), 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, ..., 22/A, Credits.

There is a smooth transition from the black-and-white sequence 22 to color sequence A and it occurs during the development of a Polaroid photograph.

The chronological order of the story can be viewed as a "Hidden feature" on the 2-Disc Limited Edition Region 1 DVD and the 3-Disc special Edition Region 2 DVD. In this special feature the chapters of the film are put together into the chronological order and is shown: Ending Credits (run in reverse), 1, 2, 3, ..., 22/A, B, ..., V, then the opening title runs "backward" to what was shown (the opening title sequence is run in reverse during the actual film, so it is shown forward in this version).

Stefano Ghislotti wrote an article in Film Anthology which discusses how Nolan provides the viewer with the clues necessary to decode the plot as we watch and help us understand the chronology. The color sequences include a brief overlap to help clue the audience into the fact that they are being presented in reverse order. The purpose of the fragmented reverse sequencing is to force the audience into a sympathetic experience of Leonard's defective ability to create new long-term memories, where prior events are not recalled, since the audience has yet to see them.

Also this is what it says about the portrayal of memory loss.

...I was thinking how good it would be if someone edited all of the scenes to put it all in order from start to finish....would we all just say...ahhhhaa, how straightforward that is...

[Niamh.]

So is there anywhere we could watch it in forward time? I would love to watch that

[Ammi]

...so this is interesting because its more or less saying that the movie/characters are completely changed in watching it in real time...

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comm...ith_scenes_in/


...there must be a way of doing that, I’ll look for the cuts to see if they’re online...

[Ammi]

...that’s what I so want to do, to compare the two...and see how we view it if we don’t feel Lenny’s mind...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...that’s what I so want to do, to compare the two...and see how we view it if we don’t feel Lenny’s mind...

Yeah same

[James]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

So is there anywhere we could watch it in forward time? I would love to watch that

[Ammi]

...oh, I’ll try to get time to watch it later today, I can’t wait to see how much it changes it...thanks guys...

[Ammi]

...if anyone has any ideas already, we can also start thinking about the next movie watch...so long as it’s something we can all access to watch, ‘classic’ can be stretched a bit as well...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by James

Thanks James, I can't wait to watch it forwards now

[Niamh.]

I think this is it?

[Niamh.]

I'm kind of loving these ones where you have to think about them, we're getting a lot of mileage out of Memento

I saw a list of mind bending movies and I haven't seen this one (not sure where to watch though)

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I'm kind of loving these ones where you have to think about them, we're getting a lot of mileage out of Memento

I saw a list of mind bending movies and I haven't seen this one (not sure where to watch though)

...hmmmm, I can’t find it free online atm but I’ll keep looking...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...hmmmm, I can’t find it free online atm but I’ll keep looking...

Don't worry about it, we can find something else

[Ammi]

...it really is so different to watch it in real time because it’s almost like it messes with our own memory when it’s diverting backwards and forwards and because of that, I’d forgotten some bits...

[Alf]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I'm kind of loving these ones where you have to think about them, we're getting a lot of mileage out of Memento

I saw a list of mind bending movies and I haven't seen this one (not sure where to watch though)

If you like Lost Highway then I highly recommend Mulholland Drive. Although it needs more than one viewing.

The first time you watch it, you probably won't understand what's happening, but then go find out what the plot is about and watch again from the perspective of knowing what's happening.

Spoiler:

I'll tell you.

The first hour and half of the film is not real, you're in and watching somebody's dream, but you don't know you are, unless you already knew, which you do now.

Then the person who's dream you're in, wakes up, and the last half hour explains the dream you was watching, but you don't know that, unless you already knew, which you do now.

But it's even far more complicated than that.

First time I watched it, I didn't get, but was intrigued by it, then I looked it up online and read a great piece explaining the whole plot of the film, then I watched it again and realised it's a work of genius.

It's sort of a cross between Sunset Boulevard and a very dark Wizard of Oz, which are favourite films of the guy who Directed it, David Lynch, he also directed Lost Highway.

Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are called David Lynch's LA trilogy, although it's not a trilogy as such like Lord of the rings or The Godfather, they're different story's. I've seen Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, I've not seen Inland Empire.

It's a film that if you get it, it's a masterpiece, if you don't, you think what the hell was that rubbish all about?

It ranks number 28 in the sight and sound critics poll of the greatest films ever made. It also ranked number 1 in a 2016 BBC culture poll, of the greatest films made since the year 2000.

Maybe you've already seen it? If so give us your thoughts. If you've not seen it yet, but you do watch it, let me know what you think.

I think you need to have total understanding of what's going on in the film to realise that what Lynch did with that film was genius. Lynch is a very difficult director for most people to understand.

[Vanessa]

I love David Lynch.
Not a movie, but Twin Peaks is one of my favourite shows.

[Vanessa]

Scent of a woman is another of my favourite movies.
An amazing performance by Pacino.

[Ammi]

...Trainspotting as well is one that I haven’t seen before if it’s one that others would like to watch...