Customer Reviews

The Making of Memento

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Mottram's book offers a fascinating account of how Memento came into being, the trials its creators went through to get it distributed, and offers several interpretations of the film's meaning. It's also filled with interesting vignettes from movie set. The book roughly parallels the movie in that its chapters work backwards toward the source material, Nolan's brother's shortstory Memento Mori. However, its primary focus is on the construction of the movie itself, and how the disparate elements (acting, direction, writing, sound, music) came together to form the first truly great film of the 21st century. Mottram's writing style is clean, focused, and never overwraught. He doesn't make the mistake of overintellectualizing or overinterpreting the the film. This is a must have for Memento fans and offers keen insight as to how independent movies are made.

James Mottram's "Making of Memento" is an interesting and intriguing look into the making of the modern day classic Memento. Offered up are excerpts from conversations with director/screen writer Christopher Nolan and actors Guy Pearce, Carrie Anne-Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, while offering a few different interpertations on the film itself. Mottram's style is crisp and clear and he never seems to go too far from his source material while offering up some interesting little known facts (the fact that Brad Pitt strongly considered and wanted to do the role of Lenny came as a shock and I have more respect for him now than I ever did before) that keep the reader interested for most of the time. Also included is the original short story by Jonathan Nolan (brother to Christopher) that inspired the film. All in all, consider this an essential companion piece if your a fan of the film or are trying to tie up some loose ends.

First third of the book provides unfounded, fallacious and misleading theories, subsequent two thirds is boring production details like what was shot on which day and obvious production details like the cast and what not.