百年50部英文燒腦電影賞析:[23]Memento 記憶碎片

A backwards sequence is shown. It starts with the Polaroid photograph of a dead man. As the sequence plays backwards the photo reverts to its undeveloped state, entering the camera before the man is shot in the head. This is followed by interspersed black-and-white and color sequences, with the black-and-white sequences taking place chronologically before the color sequences.

The black-and-white sequences begin with Leonard Shelby(Guy Pearce)in a motel room speaking to an bunnamed caller. Leonard has anterograde amnesia and is unable to store recent memories, the result of an attack by two men. Leonard killed the attacker who raped and strangled his wife(Jorja Fox), but a second clubbed him and escaped. The police did not accept there was a second attacker, but Leonard believes he is called John with a last name starting with G. Leonard conducts his own investigation using a system of notes, Polaroid photos, and tattoos. As an insurance investigator, Leonard recalls one Sammy Jankis(Stephen Tobolowsky), also diagnosed with the same condition. Sammy's diabetic wife repeatedly requested insulin injections to try to trigger his memory, hoping Sammy would remember the previous dose. He did not and as a result she fell into a coma and died.

The color sequences are shown in reverse chronological order. Leonard gets a tattoo, based on instructions to himself, of the license plate of John G. Finding a note in his clothes, he meets Natalie(Carrie Anne Moss), a bartender who resents Leonard as he wears the clothes and drives the car of her boyfriend, Jimmy(Larry Holden). After understanding his condition, she uses it to get Leonard to drive a man named Dodd(Callum Keith Rennie)out of town and offers to run the license plate to help his investigation. Meanwhile, Leonard meets with a contact, Teddy Gammell(Joe Pantoliano). Teddy helps with Dodd, but warns him about Natalie; however, Leonard has written on a photo of Teddy to not trust him. Natalie provides Leonard the driver's license, which shows a John Edward Gammell, Teddy's full name. Confirming Leonard's information on “John G” and his warnings, Leonard meets Teddy and drives him to an abandoned building, killing him as shown in the opening.

In the final black-and-white sequence, prompted by the caller, Leonard meets Teddy in the motel lobby. Teddy is an undercover officer and has found Leonard's “John G“， Natalie's boyfriend Jimmy Grantz, and directs Leonard to the same abandoned building outside of town. When Jimmy arrives, Leonard strangles him and takes a photo of the body. As it develops the black-and-white transitions to color, thus beginning the color sequences. Leonard swaps clothes with Jimmy, hearing Jimmy whisper “Sammy”. As Leonard has only told the story of Sammy to those he has met, he doubts Jimmy is the attacker. Teddy arrives and asserts that Jimmy was John G but when Leonard is not convinced, Teddy reveals that together they had already found and Leonard had killed the real attacker over a year ago. Teddy claims that Leonard confused elements of his life with that of Sammy, who was a con man with no wife, Leonardo wife was diabetic, had survived the attack and was the one who died in the insulin overdose. Teddy accuses Leonard of creating an unsolvable puzzle to give himself purpose and since “John G” is a common name, he will continually forget, beginning his search again and that even Teddy himself has a “John G” name. After hearing Teddy's exposition, Leonard consciously burns the photograph of Jimmy's body, drives off in Jimmy's car and has Teddy's license plate number tattooed on himself as the one of the second attacker, which will lead to the events of Teddy's death.

電影的一開始是回放，從一個死人的拍立得照片開始。由此開始回放到未拍照前，到進入鏡頭，到這個男人被槍擊中頭部。然后是黑白和彩色序列的切換，黑白序列事情發(fā)生的時間順序是在彩色序列之前。

黑白序列是以倫納德·謝爾比(蓋·皮爾斯飾)在一家汽車旅館里和一個無名的招待員說話開始。倫納德患有健忘癥，無法存儲短期記憶，因為他曾遭到過兩個男人的攻擊。倫納德殺了其中的一個，那個人強奸并掐死了他的妻子(喬雅·福克斯飾)，但是另一個男人卻用棒子打倒了他，然后逃走了。警方并沒有認可第二個攻擊者的存在，但倫納德認為他叫約翰，姓氏以G開頭。倫納德使用一系列紙條、拍立得照片和紋身進行自己的調查。倫納德回憶起薩米·簡金斯(斯蒂芬·托布羅斯基飾)，一個保險調查員，也被診斷患有相同的病。薩米患有糖尿病的妻子反復請求他注射胰島素，試圖喚起他的記憶，希望薩米能記得以前的劑量。但是他沒記起來，所以她陷入昏迷，并且去世了。

彩色序列是按時間的先后順序進行顯示的。倫納德做了一個紋身，紋的是對他自己的說明，約翰的車牌。他在衣服里找到了一張紙條，邂逅了納塔利(凱瑞·安·莫斯飾)，一個憎恨倫納德穿她男朋友吉米(拉里·霍爾登飾)的衣服、開她男朋友的車的酒吧服務生。了解到他的情況后，她利用倫納德開車追蹤一個叫多德(考樂姆·吉斯·雷尼飾)的人出了城，并提供了他使用的車牌，幫助他調查。與此同時，倫納德遇見了舊相識泰迪·甘梅爾(喬·潘托里亞諾飾)。泰迪對多德提供了幫助，警告?zhèn)惣{德要當心納塔利;但是倫納德的泰迪的照片上寫有“不要相信他”。納塔利給倫納德提供了寫有約翰·愛德華·甘梅爾的駕照，泰迪的全名。印證了倫納德的約翰的信息和他的警告，倫納德和泰迪見面，并把他載到一個廢棄的建筑，殺了他，就像影片開頭顯示的那樣。

在黑白序列的最后，在招待員的提醒下，倫納德和泰迪在汽車旅館大廳見面。泰迪是個便衣警官，已找到了倫納德的“約翰·G”，納塔利的男友吉米，并引導倫納德到了城外同一座廢棄的大樓。在吉米到達時，倫納德掐死了他，并且給尸體拍了照片。黑白色過渡到彩色。倫納德和吉米互換衣服時，聽到吉米低語“薩米”。由于倫納德只把薩米的故事給那些見過的人講過，所以他懷疑吉米并不是那個襲擊他的人。泰迪來了，聲稱吉米就是約翰·G。但當倫納德表示不相信時，泰迪透露，他們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)一年多前倫納德已經(jīng)殺了真正的襲擊者。泰迪聲稱倫納德把他和薩米的妻子混淆了，他是個騙子，沒有妻子。倫納德的妻子患有糖尿病，受到襲擊后幸存，她才是胰島素注射過量死了的那個人。泰迪指責倫納德給自己制造了解不開的難題，因為“約翰·G”是一個常見的名字，他會不斷地把它忘記，重新開始他的再次搜索，甚至泰迪自己也有“約翰·G”的名字。聽到泰迪的說明之后，倫納德燒毀了吉米尸體的照片，開著吉米的車，把導致泰迪死亡的車牌號碼當成第二個襲擊者紋在了自己身上。

重點掌握

■ The color sequences are shown in reverse chronological order.

在英語中，reverse作為名詞解時，有“背面，反面;相反”的意思，所以文中in reverse是“相反，向相反方向，倒(退)，逆(行、轉等)”的意思，比如：But what if that same process could be run in reverse, like a movie run backward?但是，如果相同的過程逆向運行會怎樣，像一部倒放的電影?