Memento
Short description
Memento follows Leonard Shelby, a man determined to find whoever attacked his wife and ended her life. His search is complicated by a rare form of memory loss: he retains everything from before the incident but cannot form new memories, so each encounter fades within minutes. To hold his purpose together, he relies on notes, photographs and tattoos, and two acquaintances, Natalie and Teddy, who may or may not be helping him.
Christopher Nolan directed and wrote the film, his third feature after Following and before Insomnia. Guy Pearce plays Leonard, with Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy; Jorja Fox appears as Leonard's wife. The film was produced by Jennifer and Suzanne Todd for Newmarket Films and related companies.
Made for about nine million dollars, Memento earned roughly forty million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.4 from over 1.29 million votes, and on TMDB 8.2 from more than sixteen thousand. A critics' rating of 8.8 from 184 reviews places professional assessments above both audience scores. The gap between the modest budget and the box office, together with the volume of votes, indicates a thriller whose reputation has lasted well beyond its initial release.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, it was planned that Radiohead's song "Paranoid Android" would play during the end credits. However, Christopher Nolan decided that the licensing cost for using this composition was too high for his low-budget film.
- The film was shot in Southern California over 25 days.
- The disease Leonard suffers from is anterograde amnesia: the inability to recall new information learned after the event that caused the amnesia.
- A white Honda Civic can be seen parked near Leonard's Jaguar around the motel. It belongs to director Christopher Nolan.
- A limited-edition DVD release includes a film in which the scenes are presented in chronological order.
- In the initial reverse scene, the shell casing rolls not because it's falling, but because Christopher Nolan blew on it. Filming a close-up of a shell casing falling onto the floor with a static camera proved too difficult. Rather than simply filming the scene and then playing it in reverse, the filmmakers managed to film the scene by feeding the film into the camera in reverse, making the scene appear reversed when played normally. However, the take with the shell casing, simulating a reverse motion, had to be filmed normally, and since it was accidentally shot with the film running backwards, it had to be reversed during editing. Thus, the rolling of the shell casing is a simulation of a reverse take filmed in reverse and then reversed again in editing.
- Christopher Nolan wanted Peter Deming to be the film's cinematographer, but he was busy working on "Scream 3".
- During the filming of the scene where Teddy says, "You don't have a clue, you freak!", director Christopher Nolan didn't like how Joe Pantoliano, who played Teddy, delivered the ending of the phrase. As a result, Nolan dubbed the last words himself.
- The tattoo parlor where the main character received his tattoos is named «Emma Thomas». This is the name of Christopher Nolan's wife, who is also a producer of the film.
- Leonard Shelby takes all his photos with a Polaroid 690 camera.
- According to Christopher Nolan, all scenes with Carrie-Anne Moss were filmed in 8 days.
- Aaron Eckhart, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, and Thomas Jane were considered for the role of Leonard.
- In the scene where Sammy gives his wife insulin injections, he makes the first injection intravenously. Insulin cannot be injected this way. Furthermore, the plunger on the indicator shows 5 ml after drawing up the medication, and 15 ml immediately before injection. Subsequent injections into the abdomen and thigh are correct.
- The protagonist claims to have no short-term memory, when in reality he is unable to form long-term memories.
- Teddy's phone number, 555-01-34, is the same as Marla Singer's from "Fight Club".
- Among Leonard's wife's belongings laid out in the motel room, you can notice a watch. It was stolen by the character Bill in Nolan's film "Following".
- Before Carrie-Anne Moss was cast as Natalie, Ashley Judd, Famke Janssen, and Angelina Jolie were considered for the role.
- In the scene where Leonard tells the story of Sammy being placed in a mental hospital, there's a moment where Sammy is sitting at a table in the hospital, and for a split second, he is replaced by Leonard himself.
- Before filming the fight between Leonard and drug dealer Jimmy, Larry Holden, who played Jimmy, asked Guy Pearce to fight for real. Pearce, a former bodybuilder, agreed and thoroughly beat up his partner.
- Christopher Nolan's first choice for the role of Leonard was actor Alec Baldwin.
- Denis Leary turned down the role of Teddy.
- Christopher Nolan's screenplay is based on the short story "Memento Mori" written by his brother, Jonathan. However, the film is considered an original work rather than an adaptation, solely because the story was published after the film's release.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
