Quentin Tarantino explains the “appeal” of Christopher Nolan movie ‘Memento’
In addition to making multiple iconic gems like Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino has also garnered a reputation for being a prominent tastemaker. While he has frequently commented on relatively obscure artistic trends like the unique traditions of grindhouse cinema to gripping South Korean thrillers, Tarantino also regularly uses his platform to congratulate the achievements of his contemporaries like Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan.
Nolan’s approach to the cinematic spectacle has steadily established him as one of the most recognisable auteurs in the modern film landscape. Known for his love of working within epic genre frameworks, Nolan’s artistic sensibilities have resonated with audiences all over the world. That’s exactly why his upcoming project Oppenheimer, which is going to hit theatres later this summer, is one of the most anticipated releases of the year.
On multiple occasions, Tarantino has expressed his admiration for Nolan’s films and has even compared Interstellar to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky. The Pulp Fiction director is also a fan of Nolan’s second film Memento which brought him international acclaim and set a fascinating precedent for the grander experiments he conducted later in his career. According to Tarantino, the major appeal of Memento is the questions it raises about its own narrative structure.
While decoding the mystery of the film, Tarantino told The Guardian: “Part of the appeal of Memento is he’s challenging you in a game to poke holes in the mystery, and the scenario, and the storytelling. As opposed to something like The Sixth Sense or Fight Club, where you watch it, and then you want to see it a second time to poke holes in it. He’s actually challenging you to do that. If you find a hole in it that’s almost as much fun as not finding a hole.”
In the same interview, Nolan explained: “What I’ve found is, people who let my films wash over them – who don’t treat it like a crossword puzzle, or like there is a test afterwards – they get the most out of the film. I have done various things in my career, including, with Memento, telling a very simple story in an incredibly complex way. Inception is a very complicated story told in a very complicated way. Interstellar is very upfront about being simple as a story.”
Memento’s non-linear narrative and its unique editing announced Nolan’s intentions to the entire world, grabbing the attention of cinephiles everywhere who knew they were watching something special. Although Nolan has made bigger and better projects later on, his second feature will always hold a special place for fans because of what it represents.
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