Some Memento We Have Here
I’ve had the chance this semester to study sequence and sequential art in my Honors class (Graphic Novels with Hollis, MW 2-3pm) and it honestly has made watching Memento a bit easier time than I’m sure others have had. It reminded me of Watchmen, a neo-noir graphic novel with the dark themes and nonlinear narrative that Memento has to offer. However, the structure is a lot more defined in Memento and you quickly realize that the interspersing of black and white to color scenes are meant to show the difference in time.
The black and white scenes are chronologically first, and shown in that order. The color scenes come after chronologically and are shown in reverse, which was unclear to the audience until the final black and white scene in which Teddy explains it all. After that last black and white scene, the last color scene occurs (in time) exactly after. Leonard begins looking for John G for now the third time, and will eventually kill Teddy, who had been helping him find search for a John G all along. The movie was put together this way to mimic what it’s like to have anterograde amnesia (anterograde amnesia isn’t as common as retrograde – being unable to recall memories before the incident causing the amnesia- and doesn’t even come up as word in my computer’s dictionary). Leonard’s reality of searching for his wife’s “killer” is no different between the timelines, and will never stray from that path. He will always be looking for John G, and no matter how many times he finds him, will be looking for him again.
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