Using Manovich to examine ‘Memento’

The first reading of the Manovich article introduced me to interesting concepts concerning databases and the relationships they forge with narratives – or challenge, as Manovich argues.  Manovich suggests that database represents the world as a list of items with no cohesive order while narrative produces a coherent trail of seemingly unordered events; hence, the two are at odds with one another.  He explains, with references to literary scholar Mieke Bal’s definition of narrative qualities, that narratives are linear and contain connected events which draw from a database of choices (or items) to do so.  And as the article continues, Manovich discusses the twentieth century’s narration take over with the sequential format of cinema and its place at the intersection between database and narrative.  Overall, my first incident with the article was informatory and did not really jolt me to make comparisons with media I have experienced; especially in the case of film structure.

After watching the mind-f*ck that is Nolan’s Memento, I came back to Manovich’s Database as Symbolic Form (because obviously there is a reason these two were assigned simultaneously!) and started to deconstruct the definition of narrative and its place in cinema.  The first chunk of text that stood out to me was this section in which Manovich discusses cinema as narrative:  “Why do new media insist on this language-like sequencing?  My hypothesis is that it follows the dominant semiological order of the twentieth century – that of cinema.  Cinema replaced all other modes of narration with a sequential narrative, an assembly-line of shots which appear on the screen one at a time…The ‘real’ culture of the twentieth century came to speak in linear chains…the user is following a sequence of elements which are presented simultaneously” (91).  My initial reaction to this (after viewing Memento, of course) was: LIAR!  Memento challenges the very notion of sequential narration or linear endeavors and therefore, Manovich:  you are a big fat liar.  Ahem, I continued to read, however, and realized his inclusion of Peter Greenaway and other revolutionary film directors are indicative of the ability film has to challenge cinema’s conventional storytelling format.  As Greenaway laments, “the linear pursuit – one story at a time told chronologically – is the standard format of cinema” (94).

Nolan’s use of two plot lines – one (the black and white shots) in chronological order and the other (the color sequences) in reverse order – challenge the traditional narrative which dominates film and concurrently works to force the viewer into a state of shared confusion with the protagonist, Leonard.  The sharp distinction between plot and story is what drives Memento to be the whirlwind experience it is; we humans are creatures of habit and such a jarring attack on narrative is foreign to us.  After watching the film, I used my Flixster app to browse what critics had to say about Nolan’s creation (with a 93% approval rating it was difficult to find anything but praise for his distinct choice of format) and found a review which questioned would the film be anything other than a standard crime drama without the use of a nonlinear narrative structure – would it be anything worthy of praise?  While I am clearly no film critic, I must argue that this person’s critique of the movie was missing the mark – what Nolan did here was defy the routine choice of film storytelling and make us question how we can define narrative within the context of cinema.

2 comments September 25, 2011