Memento: the importance of remembering

memento is a 2000 film directed by Christopher Nolan. as in the case of Origin and other films by the filmmaker, memento It has its roots in psychology. It is a film that makes the viewer a participant in the illness suffered by the protagonist.

In mementothe protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia, that is, a type of amnesia that prevents you from storing new memories. But not only that, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder which, together with amnesia, makes his daily life extremely difficult.

Leonard, the protagonist, was a married man who worked for an insurance company investigating possible fraud; His whole life was normal until he witnessed the rape and murder of his wife. From that moment on, he suffers a trauma and a blow to the head that will radically change his life; Unable to store new memories, the only idea in his mind is to find the murderer of his wife and take revenge on him.

memento is a psychological thriller that places us in the protagonist’s point of view, since the film is shot backwards: it begins with the outcome and, little by little, we will connect the dots until we discover what led to that ending. The scenes alternate between black and white and color, with the color scenes belonging to scenes from the past, while the black and white scenes go “forward.” At first, these scenes and this altered order may confuse us, we may not understand anything, but what the film is really looking for is for the viewer to make the effort to build memories from nothing, just as Leonard does.

The title itself memento It means in Latin ‘I remember or remember’, so the need to remember and the protagonist’s inability are made explicit. What would a life be like without new memories?

Leonard is able to remember his entire life before the traumatic event, also how to perform any everyday action, but he cannot remember a person he spoke to a few days or a few minutes ago. Thus, his body is covered in tattoos that involve remembering, helping him put the pieces together in his mind. At the same time, it is always accompanied by notes and a camera, to know if you know the person in front of you or not.

This exercise of linking present with past, of joining the pieces of the puzzle and trying to understand that ending that was presented to us in the first scene will be what we viewers do who, like the protagonist, have no knowledge or memories of the story. that we are witnessing. The alternation of scenes and colors, the protagonist’s notes and the reconstruction of the events will make everything, little by little, make sense..

Memory, identity and knowledge

What are memories? What is memory? Without a doubt, answering these questions may seem very simple, but if we try to address them in depth, we will quickly realize that it is not as easy as it seemed at first. If we think about the history of philosophy, we realize that For many thinkers, knowledge has been deeply linked to memory. Plato, for example, told us about anamensis, that is, a reminiscence or remembrance that brings memories of the past to the present.

Plato believed in an immortal soul that came from the world of ideas and that accidentally became trapped in our human and mortal body without being able to remember the past. However, in some situations reminiscence appears, that immortal part recovers certain memories from the past.

Knowledge, philosophical knowledge, would be like a round trip, like crossing the river of life, reach death and then return with that wisdom; leave aside that sensitive and material world and achieve that remembrance of the world of ideas.

The theory of reminiscence has been deeply discussed throughout philosophy, in the same way, the knowledge-memory link has been one of the bases for many thinkers. Perception is a stimulus and, through anamensis, our immortal soul accesses the previous memory, that of the world of ideas.

If we move to a more everyday, more familiar level, we will observe that the memories we store are not totally objective. The same event experienced by two different people will present differences in its remembrance, since Subjectivity plays an important role in our memories. Ortega y Gasset already spoke about this, Perspectivism maintains that all perception is subjective, we give meaning to things with our perception, therefore, knowledge will be linked to a point of view.

Following this line, we can say that Memories are our own, personal and subjective. My memories are mine, from my experience and cannot be communicated. In the same way, our experiences make up the “I”, they are part of our identity. It is not surprising that many people, after suffering severe memory loss, have radically changed their personality, their “I.” If I don’t remember anything from my past, am I still me?

In mementothe paradox is that the subject knows perfectly well who he is, he knows his past, he knows everything about his “I”, but he is unable to remember anything new. And that same game is what is presented to the viewer, just as in the film: not storing new memories can make us enter a kind of infinite loop, where we repeat everything over and over again.

mementolive without memories

Leonard’s last memory is a traumatic event, an event that has ended his life as he knew it.. Therefore, you must learn to store, in some way, these new memories; He does it through tattoos that help him carry out an exercise of connection, notes and photographs of the people and places he knows.

We all need a reason to live and Leonard has lost it, he can no longer continue with his job, he has lost his wife and his life has taken a really dramatic turn., his new reason will be revenge, a kind of attempt to “recover” his previous life and everything that has been stolen from him. No one can give him back his memory, no one can give him back his wife, but he can take the life of the one who took everything from him and, somehow, live in peace again.

What we are faced with is that, If Leonard can’t store new memories, how will he know that his plan has been successful? Can he be happy again if he doesn’t remember that he took revenge on those who stole everything from him? Leonard establishes a routine, he must be very careful and methodical to be able to store new information outside his mind, storing it artificially, like when we save something on a computer or in an external memory.

His life will revolve around his illness and his desire for revenge, something that is not surprising because the last memory he has is the most tragic moment of his life. It is a subjective memory, loaded with emotions and the importance of that memory will make everything a nightmare, It cannot store anything new, but it also cannot “erase” the most tragic event..

memento It puts a truth before our eyes, but we cannot perceive it because the information is given to us fragmented, encrypted and as if we could not remember either. An exercise that invites us to reflect on perceptions and memories.

You might be interested…