University of British Columbia

Subject M: The Influence of Photography on Christopher Nolan’s Memento

Kenneth Chong

English Major Thesis

Professor Glenn Deer

26th October, 2012

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In the words of Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, “the Photograph is

dangerous”(28). It could be said that there is no other modern film that subscribes

to this adage as well as Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller, Memento. While

those four words from Camera Lucida can be taken literally in discussing the film, it

is more apt to discuss the behaviors that lead to this connection between peril and

photography. In particular, I wish to argue that Memento is an exploration of

photography’s relationship with memory and writing. In support of my argument, I

will draw upon Barthes’ Camera Lucida, Lorraine York’s “A Message with a Code”,

and Susan Sontag’s On Photography. While these works do not directly discuss

Memento, they give great insight into the psychology and sociology behind

photography, aspects which are relevant not only to this paper but to any critical

study of the film.

Memento revolves around the thoughts and actions of Leonard Shelby, a man

who suffers from anterograde amnesia, a psychological condition that impairs the

formation of new memories. In order to more effectively portray Leonard’s

condition, the film is presented using a non-linear narrative structure, consisting of

a series of sequences in monochrome that are shown chronologically, and a series of

color sequences show in reverse order. In “A Message with a Code”, Lorraine York

suggests that writers “who are experimenting with fictional forms which emphasize

non-linearity, find in photography a ready analogue.”(17) Throughout the film,

Leonard takes photographs to document his life and uses them as an imperfect

substitute for his own memory. However, these photographs are limited by the fact

that they can only capture a single moment in time and in York’s words, “excludes

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the moments before and after the exposure”.(17) These photographs then, are much

like the color sequences that are shown in the film. Being presented in reverse

chronological order, the audience is unaware of what has happened before the

sequence being shown.

Going beyond the assumption that a non-linear narrative more accurately

portrays Leonard’s condition, what these sequences provide for the audience are

pieces of a puzzle, one that we are hoping to solve by the end of the film. In the same

sense, Leonard’s photographs are his personal puzzle pieces, and it is up to him to

put the pieces together, to make them speak and create a narrative out of them.

However, York suggests that, “narrative in photographs is always implied

narrative”. This brings up the question of whether what Leonard has gleamed from

the photographs is really the objective truth. Through the use of a non-linear

narrative structure, the audience is not given an answer until the exposition of the

film, creating a sense of uncertainty and allowing the audience to question and

analyze the merit of photography as a form of communication and recording.

However, before I discuss how photography relates to writing and memory in

the film, it is important to understand how it affects Leonard’s vision of the world.

Without the ability to create new memories, photography becomes Leonard’s sole

form of visual memory. The images he captures with his camera are what Susan

Sontag refers to as “photographic seeing” (88). In discussing “photographic seeing”,

Sontag suggests that “photographs are evidence not only of what's there but of what

an individual sees, not just a record but an evaluation of the world” (88). Without

memories to draw upon, Leonard views the photos that he captures as an

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“evaluation of the world”, a way for him to assign meaning to faces, places and

objects. Photography for him becomes not just an “enjoyable” activity as Sontag puts

it, but one that is necessary to his survival and pursuit for vengeance. In this sense,

Memento provides the audience with a fictional, yet convincing vision of a life where

“photographic seeing” is as important as actual sight.

In the film, Leonard not only relies on photographs in his quest but also puts a

certain amount of faith into the images that he captures. In Camera Lucida, Barthes

suggests that “the Photograph possesses an evidential force, and that its testimony

bears not on the object but on time. From a phenomenological viewpoint, in the

Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation” (88).

It is this “power of authentication” that causes Leonard to have faith in his

photographs and gives him a power, a sense of authority arising from the celluloid.

This is made apparent early on in the film, for example, in the opening scene when

he kills Teddy. As Leonard views Teddy’s picture just before he strikes him, his

sudden calmness portrays a sense of clarity, as if the picture and its caption were an

execution order. In connecting the photograph with Leonard’s act of murder, the

audience is imparted with Leonard’s faith in photography and the photograph’s

“power of authentication”.

Besides society’s authenticative view of photography, there is another rationale

behind Leonard’s use of photography. In On Photography, Sontag suggests that

despite the limitations of photographers, a photograph seems to “have a more

innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other

mimetic objects” (6). In the world of Memento, filled with characters and signs that

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Leonard cannot trust, it is this “innocence” that makes Photography so appealing to

him. Without new memories to distract him from his wife’s murder, his photographs

are the only form of “innocence” available to him and make up a large portion of the

puzzle that he live in.

As for the source of this “innocence”, Camera Lucida suggest that “the

Photograph is indifferent to all intermediaries: it does not invent; it is

authentication itself” (87). It could be interpreted that Leonard’s trust in his

photographs stems from this indifference and the fact that photographs do not seek

to invent. While the characters he interacts with are biased and can invent “truth”,

his photographs are the exact opposite. They are neutral and passive objects, and

Leonard’s power over them allows him to incorporate them into deciphering the

puzzle with some sense of authority and verity.

While photography may be “perfect” as a means to capture the visual aspect of a

scene, it is imperfect in the sense that it is unable to provide a narrative to the

viewer. As such, photography only make up a portion of the pieces of Leonard’s

puzzle and as explained in the monochrome sequences of the film, Leonard fills in

the rest of the pieces with a “graceful solution”, consisting of captions, notes,

documents, and tattoos.

Perhaps the most interesting point of analysis for the film is how these pieces

interact with one another, and with Leonard’s remaining memory. These

interactions are also the driving force behind the events of the film, which are a

result of how Leonard chooses to connect the pieces.

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The most direct way in which photography interacts with writing in the films is

when Leonard captions his photographs by writing on the photographs produced by

his Polaroid camera. With the exception of legacy “peel-apart” type films, most

instant photographic formats in use at the time of the film’s conception leave a blank

space below the actual image itself. This space seemingly invites the photographer

to add something to the image, be it another form of art or in Leonard’s case, a

written caption providing information related to the image.

The captioning of his photographs appears to serve two significant functions to

Leonard. The first of which is to identify the subject of the images. This is most

commonly seen with his photographs of people that he deems essential in his quest

for vengeance. On the front of these prints, Leonard inscribes the name of the

person pictured. The prints then serve as a means of recognition and a way in

which to communicate with the person pictured or to create reference to the subject

pictured. The former frequently appears in Leonard’s interaction with Teddy and

Natalie. In Camera Lucida, Barthes suggests, “the incapacity to name is a good

symptom of disturbance”(51). Without memory, Leonard’s inability to associate a

name, emotion or even the tiniest silver of information to a face disturbs him. By

having his name and photograph as a physical object on his body, it satisfies his

psyche and identifies the person pictured either as somebody he should trust or a

person of interest.

Later on in the film, when Leonard helps Natalie by “dealing with” Dodd, the

importance of putting a name to a face is demonstrated again when he asks Dodd

what his names is. By learning of this information and writing it on Dodd’s

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photograph it seems to give Leonard a sense of comfort in that he can associate a

piece of information to the bewildering sight of a bound up man. In addition, the

photograph of the restrained Dodd helps to explain his still confused state to

Natalie. In this case then, the photograph manages to not only capture a moment but

to tell a short narrative of what has occurred. However, it is only with Natalie and

Leonard’s memories that this narrative is formed.

The second function of Leonard’s captioning of his images is to connect a specific

action or guideline to the image. This function is much less innocuous than the first

and leads to many of the significant events of the film. There are only a few

occurrences of this use of captioning in Memento, and they are all applied to the

photographs taken of two major characters, Teddy and Natalie. Unable to rely on

memory, Leonard chooses to take these captions and their attached images with a

sense of authority, guiding him through what he assumes is a quest for vengeance.

However, there are flaws in choice to do so and it is these flaws that have caused

Leonard’s downfall.

One of the flaws is made apparent when Leonard holds up the reverse sides of

Natalie and Teddy’s Polaroids next to each other. On the former, Leonard has

inscribed, “Do not trust her” and on the latter, he has inscribed, “Don’t believe his

lies”. In this moment, Leonard is faced with a dilemma over who to trust and

without any memory or further information to rely upon, he has to depend on his

instincts and earlier memory to trust his description of Natalie over Teddy’s. He

then crosses out the inscription on Natalie’s Polaroid.

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It could be said that through the inclusion of this sequence in the film, Nolan has,

in a visually striking manner, revealed a major flaw in the evidential nature of the

written word, in that the actions that come about from the piece of evidence are still

heavily dependent on the subjective view of a human being, completely nullifying

any objectivity in the recording of information.

In Leonard’s act of crossing out the words on Natalie’s photograph, Nolan also

emphasizes the malleability of writing. As Lorraine York points out in “A Message

With a Code”, there is mistrust in poststructuralist theory of “any phenomenon as

"Edenic," or captured forever in a perfect, pristine state.” (10) However, Leonard

has chosen to put a certain amount of trust into his own handwriting and as he

reveals in one of the monochrome sequences, his handwriting has become a way in

which he can tell something is true. It is clear that Leonard is holding on to

handwriting as being “Edenic” and “pristine” but the act of “second-guessing”

himself and choosing to obscure a piece of handwriting conflicts with his self-

proclaimed faith in writing.

With writing and photography ruled out as reliable sources of evidence in the

film, the only remaining source of information to be discussed is that of memory

itself. Although Leonard is unable to create memories, he still has his memory from

before he become afflicted with his condition to rely upon. In addition, Leonard

appears to have been successful in conditioning himself to perform several actions

when he loses his memory, such as to search his pockets for clues about what is

happening. In some cases, his past memories and his conditioning do serve him well

and allow him to function with some sense of autonomy. For example, Leonard is

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still able to perform many of the same tasks that he performed before he became

afflicted with his condition, be it driving, firing a gun or interpreting a police report.

However, it is his conditioning that allows him to perform those tasks with any

sense of meaning. When he reaches into his jacket pockets and pulls out his

photograph, he instinctively know that they are an atlas of sorts for him and that

using them as points of reference will result in meaningful outcomes. For example,

when he looks at the photographs of the Discount Inn and the Jaguar automobile, in

connection with his past memories, he knows that the meaning of having these

photographs is that he either owns an object or resides at a place. It could even be

said that it gives him a sort of agency, a concrete sense of veracity. For example,

early on in the film when Teddy tries to convince him that another car belongs to

him, he takes out and presents the photograph of the Jaguar, holding it as if it were a

police badge and giving him a sense of certainty.

However, the film suggests that not only can Leonard condition himself to

perform certain actions; his earlier memories are still perfectly malleable. When

Teddy is having a meal with Leonard in a diner, Teddy warns Leonard that he has to

be careful with his actions because his notes could be unreliable. Leonard then

challenges this statement by asserting that memory is unreliable and that “Memory

can change the shape of a room. It can change the color of a car.” Despite his

assertion, Leonard’s critical flaw is that he continually fails to see that it applies to

him as well.

As a result of this, Leonard lives his life with a set of assumptions that are

unknowingly false to him. These assumptions are best reflected in his story of

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Sammy Jankis. In this story, Sammy ends up in a nursing home, forgotten by the rest

of the world. As we discover at the end of the film, this story is a fictitious creation

by Leonard’s mind, as a system of self-preservation. Leonard’s greatest fear is to

suffer a similar fate as Sammy and the only way in which he can avoid it is through

actions with reasoning behind them, even if the reasoning is false. As a result of this,

Leonard has somehow created his system, which he believes allows him to

understand the world around him. For example, he has great confidence in his

ability to tell if people are lying to him but he is blatantly lied to in the film countless

times, by Teddy, Natalie, and even the desk clerk that works at the motel.

While reading people is a complex task, Leonard’s imperfect memory also

jeopardizes his ability to interpret and create clues for himself. While there are

many points in the film where he wrongly interprets a photograph or piece of

writing, perhaps the most damning example of his imperfect memory’s detriment to

the other forms of recording appears at the very end of the film, when Leonard

writes down false clues that lead him to kill Teddy. This act confirms that Leonard’s

system is flawed and brings all the times in which Leonard relies upon photographs

or writing into question. As such, what Leonard merely achieves when he takes a

photograph or writes a note is to create pieces of a puzzle for himself to solve, and it

is this puzzle that keeps Leonard sane and satisfied in his existence.

Furthermore, it could be said that Nolan intended to represent not only

Leonard’s predicament through this puzzle but the predicament of our culture as

well. As York suggests, “culture has entirely transformed human beings’ conception

of nature, of visual truth”. (13) Looking at the film from this point of view, what

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Memento could really be suggesting is that as a culture, we all manipulate the truth

and create fiction to our advantage. We may not suffer from the exact same disease

that Leonard does but we do have flawed memories to some extent. Despite the

evidential nature of photography and writing, they are incomplete in the sense that

they are still left to be ultimately perceived by a human being whom is reliant on

memory to give meaning to them, to create a narrative from them. Rather than

merely showing this to its audience, Nolan has chosen to challenge the audience by

giving them their own puzzle to solve, laying the pieces in a non-linear order. When

the audience finally solves the puzzle at the end of the film, they are shown through

their own attempts at interpretation that the imperfect relationship between the

mediums can drive a person away from the “visual truth”, towards a truth that is

influenced by culture, other people and most importantly, our own fears and

desires.

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Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections On Photography. New York: Hill and

Wang, 1981. Print.

Memento. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe

Pantoliano. Summit Entertainment, 2000. DVD.

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. Print.

York, Lorraine Mary. "A Message with a Code." The Other Side of Dailiness:

Photography in the Works of Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Michael Ondaatje,

and Margaret Laurence. Toronto, Ont.: ECW, 1988. 9-17. Print.

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