So Where Are You
2001; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2562-2528
Autores Tópico(s)Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics
ResumoOn Memento, Memory, and the Sincerity of Self-Deception So where are Leonard Shelby/Guy Pearce says as he begins his voice-over narration in the first of many black and white sequences in Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000). This sequence occurs immediately after the film's introductory sequence where Leonard murders a man, soon after recognized as Teddy/Joe Pantoliano, and photographs the result with a Polaroid snapshot. Yet this recounting is insufficient in describing the sequence of events which establish the narrative flow of Memento, a film that consistently proceeds in waves (15 minute memory shaped vignettes) each one successfully answering the cause for the previous scene's effect--and each remarkably (re/dis)orienting Leonard, who lives encased in these brief memory-episodes, as well as the audience sharing his experience. To introduce the formal linear inversion of the film, the initial sequence proceeds in reverse. Teddy's murder and its evidence (the Polaroid) start from its conclusion moving backward. The photographic red soaked image, shaken to quickly aid its d evelopment, slowly fades to white nothingness (comparable to Leonard's own mental processes). The murder moves in reverse motion where the death is undone and Teddy's last words, filled with aggressiveness and resentment offer puzzling and unsettling questions for Leonard which introduce the first of many doubts--doubts Leonard lives with because of his condition and which the audience identifying with him must interpret. In this essay I hope to work through Memento considering its generic and formal qualities and how they contribute to the processes of identification with the protagonist, and by extension the events of the film world, in the construction of memory--both as suspicion and therapy. With each narrative turn the film shifts interpretation and characterization to a state of unsettlement akin to Leonard's life. But this has at its centre the unspoken stability of Leonard himself, the one element that though most unstable is a point of stability (stability in that he is constantly unstable/ unawar e of his environment). What's more, the close identification with Leonard and his role as victim and (a terribly flawed) moral saviour provides a stability that bridges the disparate encounters he faces. is in attaching to Leonard's plight and his expressed drive that the most shocking revelation occurs; where identification clashes with identity and the film is reread (from memory) from its beginning (which is its conclusion). So where are you? You're in some motel room. Leonard wakes with a shock on a motel room bed; the film is now in black and white. The prior events seem almost dreamlike and the mundane (and peaceful) nature of this present shot of Leonard provides a sense of relief from the chaotic moments before. Was the murder a dream or is this? The black and white sequences (this is the first of many) act as interludes between many of the narrative waves; they introduce Leonard and the workings of his fragmented mind. The jump from Leonard as murderer to a figure of close identification is achieved without much difficulty. His passive presence here, frightened and unaware, severely contrasts with the initial murder scene and identification with him is fostered through sharing the experience of his disorientation as well as plain curiosity. This is accomplished through the voice-over narration which persists throughout the film, eventually taking on the diegetically disguised form of a phone conversation. Voice-over narration, a device common to film noir protagonists who often recount their sordid tales (up to their mysterious and ill-fated present) in an elaborate flashback, takes on added resonance in this sequence and all that follow. is common in film noir voice-overs for the protagonist to directly relate their experience in the first person. Walter Neff/Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), to which Memento nods, begins his confession on a Dictaphone on camera which dissolves to his voice-over narration of the history of events: It was mid-afternoon, and it's funny, I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that block. …
Referência(s)