Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

Film Form and Mnemonic Devices in Memento 101The Problem with LennyAnother very important cluster of elements is presented in a similar way:Leonard’s memories and mental images, systematically distributed throughoutthe film via flashbacks. These images give glimpses of Leonard’s earlierlife, and lead the viewer to make uncertain or at least doubtful conclusionsby the end of the film. The information conveyed by this set of images showsa development along the temporal line of the screening, leading from thecuriosity about his wife’s murder, to the discovery of what happened – asLeonard remembers it – and to two antithetical versions, evoked by Teddy’srevelations. Most of these images belong to color segments of the film, butthey follow the forward direction.As we can see in Table 4.1 and Figure 4.4, several mental images are presented,associated with different characters or situations. We have also markedthe black and white flashbacks concerning Sammy Jankis, and one can seehow closely they are embedded in the other images’ arrangement: they appearafter the first memories of Leonard’s wife (S), and their conclusion, showingthe death of Sammy’s wife (21), is not far from the scene of Teddy’srevelations (A).In the cluster of color mental images, depending on what they depict,we can recognize three main groups. The first group (S, K, A [Jimmy])shows memories of Leonard’s wife as she was alive. A stream of affectionand a sense of loss are conveyed by these images, which have the intensityof Leonard’s point-of-view shots. The second group (O, J, E [flashback])increases curiosity and climaxes with a classical flashback of the nightof the accident. The third group (E [syringe], A [Teddy], A [Leonard inthe Jaguar]) collects startling mental images and uncertain memories.First of all is the mental image of Leonard handling an insulin syringe:there is an ominous association with Sammy Jankis’ story, whose endingwill arrive few minutes later, reverberating over Leonard’s past. The sameassociation is overtly reiterated during Teddy’s revelations dialogue. In thiscase two groups of three images set an opposition between two conflictinginterpretations of Leonard’s story. In the first one, already seen insegment K, Leonard pinches his wife’s thigh while she is brushing herhair, provoking her reaction; in the second one Leonard injects insulininto his wife’s thigh, as Sammy Jankis did with the last injection, whichprovoked his wife’s death. The ominous association with Sammy Jankisbecomes, in Teddy’s words, a complete identification: Leonard’s wife