Memento : Genre

The recurring black and white shots in Memento are typical of the Noir genre which are used in almost half of the movies as one of the two narratives. This allows the audience to explore the character Leonard in further detail and learn about his past an relationship with his wife.

"The term 'film noir'- or to be more precise 'films "noirs"- was first applied to a group of American films by the French film critic Nino Frank in 1946 (Frank 1946: 14) Frank Notes the emphasis in these films on 'criminal psychology', violence, misogyny and everyday realism ('vecu') and the extent to which the use of first person narration and multiple flashbacks serve to fragment their narratives."

Memento uses first person narration through the voiceover of Leonard the protagonist which is conventional of the Noir genre and although it is not revealed till the end it could be seen that the film revolves around criminal psychology of Leonard and the audience see's inside the mind of a deluded killer as we see him plan out his attack on 'John G' and in moments of the film starting we see him killing Teddy who we later find to be his innocent friend. Violence also drives the narrative as his main aim is to kill the person who he believes killed his wife and violence can also be seen in numerous scenes such as when Leonard punches Natalie. I do not believe Misogyny is used at all in Memento which Frank says is conventional of the genre to drive the narrative and in my opinion the women shown in Memento are often in control and powerful and are treated fairly, I dont even believe that Memento is in anyway sexist.

"Many of the features associated with Noir- the use of voice-over and flashback, the use of high contrast lighting and other 'expressionist' devices, the focus on mentally, emotionally and physically vulnerable characters, the interest in psychology, the culture of distrust marking relations between male and female characters, and the downbeat emphasises certainly real ones but they were seperate tendencies and trends which traversed a wide variety of genres and cycles in the 1940s and early 1950s."

The voice-over and flashback are a huge part of the film and allow us to explore Leonard psychologically and his views on certain characters although sometimes as audience members we have more knowledge about some characters than Leonard as he has forgot them. Leonard could be seen as vulnerable particularly in the scene involving him and Natalie where she verbally abuses Leonard knowing he will forget and then 5 minutes later walking in and out the house saying she was attacked by a drug dealer but she was really attacked by Leonard 5 minutes before which he has no recollection of which shows the 'culture of distrust'.