The National Gallery at Castellani House says Christopher Nolan’s mystery thriller Memento is its pick for this week’s ‘Classic Tuesdays’ movie.
According to a press release the movie is based on a short story by Nolan’s brother Jonathan. The anti-hero is Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, who cannot form memories about the events of his present-day life but who remembers his past to the point of a traumatic attack because of a murder he had witnessed which caused his subsequent memory loss.
“Haunted by the pain and violence of this event he is obsessed with finding a murderer whom he cannot identify, handicapped by his inability to form new memories,” the release said. Filmed with a pared-down but intense immediacy in acting, story telling and setting, dead-pan humour alternates with a bleak insight into the human condition as the story reaches its surprising conclusion.
Memento has won over 40 international film and critics awards and over 30 other nominations most of them for its editing and Nolan’s direction and screenplay. Nolan went on to direct two of the most recent Batman films Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) to high acclaim, as well as The Prestige (2006) which was also well-received.
The film is one hour and 53 minutes long.
It starts at 6pm and the public is invited. The Gallery said it has put arrangements in place in the event of inclement weather or a power outage.
