The Inherent Imperfections of Memory

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Lenny’s reliance on Polaroid photographs to remember the appearance of important people, places and events is another form of written memory that can be distorted. There are a number of factors including lighting and camera placement that impact the process of capturing reality in photos and as a result photographs can be deceiving. This is evident when Lenny takes a photograph of Teddy, who moves to a better position (by the car in the shade) and remarks “I look thin,” when seeing the image. The photograph of Natalie is also misleading due to the shadows that hide her face. Another deficiency in the form of memory making is apparent when Lenny takes a Polaroid of a bruised and bloody Dodd and doesn’t know who it is, why he is in such a state and how this happened. This indicates that photographs alone can not effectively function as short-term memory replacements.

Lenny’s use of a permanent medium to register short-term memories via tattoos is also shown as flawed. The only short-term memories Lenny has imprinted onto his skin are those dealing with the investigation and vengeance of his wife’s death, those that Lenny’s wishes to make long-term. Lenny’s gets tattoos of these details so they cannot be removed or forgotten (even those he rediscovers them often). Each tattoo is recorded as a statement or fact similar to the collection of evidence for a crime investigation. Whilst Lenny believes his tattoos are concrete facts, it is revealed that the tattoo on his left thigh bearing “Fact 6: Car Licence SG13 7IU” is false and written down when Lenny is in a state of distress. This indicates that personal emotions influence his recordings of short-term memory and cause his ‘facts’ to be imprecise or misleading.

The role of written text in the film Memento by Christopher Nolan is to take place of the short-term memories Lenny cannot make due to his condition. The film juxtaposes this written form of recollection with mental memory-making, not to question which medium is more reliable, but to highlight the flaws and inaccuracies of both mediums due to the personal perspective of the observer. Lenny points out during the film that his way of creating new memories through writing is more reliable than memory which is “not even that good…(and) can be changed and distorted”. However, as viewers we realise that Lenny’s documentative style has its flaws. Therefore the role of writing in the film is not only to act as Lenny’s short-term memory but to indicate to the viewers that whatever form remembering takes it is often distorted by the personal context of the individual.

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