As David Campany notes, photography often plays a role as a tool for memory and authenticity in film. This is even more obvious in film noir and detective movie where forensic pictures are often represented.73 It is no coincidence in this respect, if Nolan uses photography as a tool in his noir-ish Memento. In a similar vein the film
Blow-Up, also throws into question the authenticity taken by photography. One of the
photographs the protagonist Thomas shot in a park, showing a body lying on the ground shows a very vague quality. The more he “blows-up” the problematic portion of the photograph, the more abstract and grainy the photographic image looks. Can this photograph prove that a murder has happened? Is this image authentic? The director Antonioni does not try to solve this question, because what Thomas sees is not equal to what the event turns out to be. The question of authenticity in photography also rises in Memento. To examine the issue of authenticity, we have to73 David Company, Photography and Cinema, London 2008, pp. 95-97.
29
consider first the relationship between photography and the detective story.
Photography and Investigation
Walter Benjamin saw a common development of photography and detective fiction in the nineteenth century:
The invention of photography was a turning point in the history of this process.
It was no less significant for criminology than the invention of the printing press was for literature. Photography made it possible for the first time to preserve permanent and unmistakable traces of a human being. The detective story came into being when this most decisive of all conquests of a person’s incognito had been accomplished. Since that time, there has been no end to the efforts to capture a man in his speech and actions.74
Since its invention, photography has had multiple applications, not only presented in the artistic form, but serving as scientific evidence due to its “fidelity equal[ing] to nature itself.”75 It influenced the development of detective story. As Ronald R.
Thomas notes, the nineteenth-century detective storyteller Edgar Allan Poe believed that “a photograph produced nothing less than truth itself by achieving a perfect identity with its referent.”76 Nolan might re-exploit this long-lasting belief in his scenario with his character who behaves like a detective and pretends to solve his case by using a Polaroid camera.77 As the story unfolds, we see Leonard not only making use of the photographs as his memos to compensate his lack of short-term memory, but taking them as a tool to record and investigate the crime scene as in the case of Jimmy and Teddy’s death (Fig. 13). Normally, it would be unusual for an “ordinary”
74 Walter Benjamin, “The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire”, in Michael W. Jennings (trans.), The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire, London 2006, pp. 46-133, p. 79.
75 After Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality, Oxford 1960, p. 4.
Quoted from Gay-Lussac’s speech in the French House of Peers, July 30, 1839, by Eder, History of Photography, p. 242.
76 Ronald R. Thomas, Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science, Cambridge 1999, p. 112.
77 In Memento, Leonard uses a Polaroid SLR 690 which offers the advanced instant photographic features of its legendary Polaroid SX-70.
30
man to record a crime scene after killing people.78 It is however clear that the sense of investigation is deeply rooted in Leonard’s nature since he was an insurance investigator before the loss of his memory. It is what Teddy says to Leonard, “You don’t know who you are […], you are wandering around, playing detective […].” It is also expressed when he talks to Teddy and asserts that: “they (the police) collect facts, they make notes, and they draw conclusions.” He further emphasizes his process of collecting data as an unmistakable fact by saying “Facts, not memories. That’s how you investigate. It is what I used to do.” When Leonard finds clues that might be related to his assault case, he takes photos which he develops within a few seconds and writes down a caption on them. Due to this process, he believes that what the photograph presents is authentic evidence. This belief in the power of photography is stressed by the use of a camera that could deliver photographs within a minute without a long processing in a darkroom. According to Campany, the authoritative character of a Polaroid photograph lies in its time and place, there is no artificial manipulation within its processing.79 Therefore, photography becomes crucial evidence for Leonard to investigate the assault case.
As the story unveils further, we come to realize that Leonard not only presumes himself as a detective, but he also might be a potential serial killer in the name of justice. This potentiality is suggested in the ambiguous relation between taking pictures and literal shooting activated by Nolan at the beginning of the movie, when Leonard holding a Polaroid camera, aims and shoots literally his target with his gun.
This “snapshot”80 action implies literally the arrest and the killing of his targets,
78 Here I specifically mean “ordinary” man is to stress that Leonard is not a professional killer or detective, according to the movie he is a white-collar worker, an insurance investigator before the incident.
79 David Company, Photography and Cinema, London 2008, p. 112.
80 According to Oxford Dictionary, the definition of the term “snapshot” means “an informal
31
Jimmy and Teddy. As Susan Sontag puts it “[…] the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a sublimated murder […].”81 It seems that Nolan exploits this idea, showing that the use of a camera implies the action of killing. Thus we can consider that the function of photography lies in Memento in a broader perspective: fundamentally speaking, it works as a mnemonic tool to assist Leonard with his memory troubles; in terms of investigation, it serves as a forensic evidence, and helps Leonard to collect clues in order to solve his assault case; in terms of hunting, his photo shooting becomes the metaphor of his brutality.
As discussed previously, photography relates to detective investigation and therefore opens the possibility to question its authenticity value which could trace back to the development of forensics. In 1839, Louis Jacques Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot both announced the invention of photography, and from the 1840s, photography has been used as a “scientific tool” for criminal identifications and prisoner documentation.82 The invention of photography transformed the status of personal portraiture, making the images function as identifiers.83 This transformation shows
photograph taken quickly, typically with a small handheld camera.”
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/snapshot?searchDictCode=all (accessed 10 February 2015)
Before the “snapshot” was associated with photo shooting, the term was originally used in hunting means one uses gunshot with a very quick aim. In 1860, Sir John Herschel used the term “snapshot” to discuss about the potentiality of a rapid sequence of instantaneous photographs. The term came to common use until the late 1880s, when instantaneous photography became more practical since Kodak Company introduced its first successful amateur camera in 1888. In a more modern sense, Leonard takes his handheld camera, a Polaroid SLR 690, aims his targets and shoots. Thus “snapshot”
photography takes a different relevance if we connect the term to its old etymology.
See Todd Gustavson, “Innovative Devices: George Eastman and the Handheld Camera”, in Elizabeth W.
Easton (ed.), Snapshot: Painters and photography, Bonnard to Vuillard, New Haven and London, 2011, pp. 13-21, pp. 15-17. And Yu-Yun Liu, “The Birth and Evolution of the Snapshot”, in Snapshot: Birth, Evolution, and Definition of a Problematic Notion, Taipei 2013, p. 7.
Brian Coe and Paul Gates, The Snapshot Photography: The Rise of Popular Photography 1888-1939, London 1977, p. 6.
81 Susan Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave”, in On Photography, New York 1977, pp. 3-24, p. 14.
82 After Ronald R. Thomas, Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science, Cambridge 1999, pp.
111-114. On the history of photographic evidence, see Waltz, Criminal Evidence, pp. 361-371. And Waltz, Jon R., Criminal Evidence, Chicage: Nelson Hall, 1975.
83 Peter J. Hutchings, “Modern Forensics: Photography and Other Suspects”, in Cardozo Studies in
32
that personal portraiture that once represented a symbol of wealth became at the end of the 19th century the tool of documentation and identification in police work.84 According to Peter J. Hutchings, a clerk serving in the Paris Prefecture of Police named Alphonse Bertillon invented a system of identification which was called
“bertillonage,” “by taking eleven physical measurements, recorded on cards along with verbal description and, increasingly, ‘photographs’ in order to distinguish individuals.”85 The measurements were the foundation for its archival system. Later the Bertillon’s archive extended to two kinds of photography – full face and profile, to make the individual more easily identifiable.86 What Leonard does when adding descriptions to the photographic profile in order to assist him in the recognition of the individuals he is investigating, is like Bertillon’s method constructing and juxtaposing the photographs as his personal archive for his forensic investigation.
Photography intertwines with the emergence of forensic knowledge and the development of detective story, usually associated with its ontological nature and authenticity. This emphasis is stressed in Bazin’s Ontology of the Photographic Image.
He explains: “The objective nature of photography confers on it a quality of credibility absent from all other picture-making. […] we are forced to accept as real the existence of the object reproduced, actually re-presented, set before us, that is to say, in time and space.”87 He further relates photography to forensics by asserting that
“The photograph as such and the object in itself share a common being, after the
Law and Literature, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter, 1997), pp. 229-243, p. 234.
84 Ronald R. Thomas, Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science, Cambridge 1999, pp.
112-113.
85 Peter J. Hutchings, “Modern Forensics: Photography and Other Suspects”, in: Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter, 1997), pp. 229-243, p. 235.
86 Peter J. Hutchings, “Modern Forensics: Photography and Other Suspects”, in: Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter, 1997), pp. 229-243, p. 235.
87 André Bazin, Hugh Gray (trans.),“The Ontology of the Photographic Image”, in Film Quarterly, Vol.
13, No. 4, (Summer, 1960), pp. 4-9, p. 8.
33
fashion of a fingerprint.”88 Bazin believes that photography is not the copy or substitute of the object, but it transforms its time and space into its reproduction, as if the past reality of the object re-emerges in the photograph. It is indexical as a fingerprint. This belief is also shared by Roland Barthes: “[…] the photograph possesses an evidential force, and that its testimony bears not on the object but on time. […] the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation.”89 The
“credibility” of photography relies in its absolute power to convince the spectator that what is “re-presented” is the “trace” of a real thing or event that has happened and existed. Nolan wittingly exploits this belief to create ambiguity through photography in Memento. The viewer would, thus, easily be convinced that the annotations written on the back of the photographs are factual.
The subject of the photographs in Memento can be categorized into two types:
physical objects or places, such as the Jaguar car and the Discount Inn motel;
individuals or physical persons as for instance Teddy, Natalie, and Dodd. These photographic portraits need captions to identify their referents. For example, Teddy’s photo, which presents him in an almost full-frontal portrait, smiling under the day light, gives the impression of a friendly and easygoing personality (Fig. 14). On the back of the photo, the caption weakens the visual evidence, since it says “Don’t believe his lies. His is the one. Kill him” (Fig. 15). The caption strengthens the idea that Teddy’s appearance is treacherous, while Natalie’s photo showing the sitter in profile, the contours of her upper body covered in shadow, contrasting with spotlight on her face, gives a sense of loneliness (Fig. 16). The caption seems to confirm her
88 André Bazin, Hugh Gray (trans.),“The Ontology of the Photographic Image”, in Film Quarterly, Vol.
13, No. 4, (Summer, 1960), pp. 4-9, p. 8.
89 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Richard Howard (trans.), New York 2000, pp. 88-89.
34
appearance since it informs that “She has also lost someone. She will help you out of pity” (Fig. 17). The picture and the written description show how sympathetic and sorrowful she is. As the story unfolds, we see Natalie offering Leonard a photocopy of a car registration and a driver’s license to help him find his target “John G”.
According to the caption it makes sense for Leonard that Natalie should be “reliable.”
The fact is Natalie had a fight earlier with Leonard, since she knows that Leonard is responsible for Jimmy’s death. As Leonard could not find a pen to write down how she mistreated him – actually Natalie deliberately hid the pen to prevent him from
“remembering” this experience. This information has not been archived on the Polaroid photograph. Another example shows Teddy trying to inform Leonard that Natalie might use him for her own good, and asks Leonard to write down the caption on Natalie’s photo as “Do not trust her.” Ironically, Leonard later refuses to accept this statement by crossing out the phrase, because the caption on Teddy’s photograph invites him not to believe his lies. More ambiguously speaking, at the end of the story after Leonard kills Jimmy, Teddy informs Leonard that he has got his revenge a year ago with the evidence of a photographic portrait of himself. The picture shows Leonard half naked with blood stained on his face a hand pointing at his chest, smiling in a state of satisfaction (Fig. 18). Teddy claims that he has helped Leonard to find the real “John G,” but he could not remember he had already done his vengeance.
In a furious rage, Leonard thinks that he was set up by Teddy to kill Jimmy, the wrong target. In order to retaliate on Teddy’s treachery, Leonard thus writes down the caption
“Don’t believe his lies” to inform him of Teddy’s ruse.
As mentioned previously, the story is unfolded in a reverse storytelling. In order to find some structure within this complex narration, the spectator has to follow the clues (photos and captions) considered as authentic proofs by Leonard. The spectator is
35
experiencing the same confusion as that of Leonard. This subjective point of view makes us “share his [Leonard’s] misjudgments.”90 At the end of the story, the spectator feels like Leonard with the impression of having been tricked: this treachery has been orchestrated by Nolan who offers what might be considered as authentic clues (the photos and captions) as true illusions; this treachery is also that orchestrated by Teddy and Natalie to fool Leonard or exploit his handicap; it is also Leonard’s own treachery. It thus triggers the viewer to question whether Leonard had actually killed the assaulter or whether this whole tracking is just a manipulation set by himself. In this ambiguous and chaotic situation, the spectator has difficulties to dig out the truth.
Nolan’s exploitation of photography’s forensic quality, emphasizes the confusion.
The ambiguous perception can be compared to the way Blow-Up plays with the issue of photographic illusion. Thomas believes that a murder has been committed. This belief proves to be true after he witnesses the corpse in the park. However, at the end of the film, Thomas’ assumption is completely discredited due to the disappearance of the corpse as well as that of the photographic evidence. Nothing can be proved anymore. Uncertainty and uncanniness remain in both films. Antonioni and Nolan successfully create the illusions through photography, and exploit the idea that an image is just what it is: an image. And they both address the issue of filmic images being deceptive, and similarly cinema itself is an illusion. Therefore, the result of the investigation thus becomes insignificant, yet it is the process of investigation that matters. Although there is no direct reference toward Blow-Up in Memento, the way Antonioni plays with enigmatic illusion with photographs and ambiguous perception can be indeed illuminated in Memento.
90 Peter Thomas, “Victimage and violence: Memento and trauma theory,” in Screen, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2003, pp. 200-207, p. 205.
36