Final Paper-Memento

In my final paper I will examine a film produced in 2001, titled Memento, which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan separates this video into a number of sequences, and jumbles each of these sequences around to create a unique effect of temporality within the film. The film is about a young man who is no longer capable of producing short-term memories. In order to keep his life organized he uses Polaroid pictures to identify different people and places as well as their characteristics. In Vivian Sobchack’s article, she refers to family albums as a, “memory bank” saying that photographs has an increasing value, which “materializes and authenticates experience, others, and oneself as empirically real” (Sobchack 143). This completely pertains to Leonard, the main character of the film, and his use of photographs for memory. I will examine other sources, possibly Mary Ann Doane’s book, The Emergence of Cinematic Time, as well as articles from the Cinema Journal and Film Quarterly to aid in my analysis of the photography within the film.