American Cinematographer - November 2001 - 22

Tripod Killer

bending film has enjoyed

a

long, robust

in arthouse theaters, where viewers
starved for cerebral fare have gratefully
run

obsessed

the

complex plot like chil¬
delighting in a new Rubik's Cube.
The screenplays twists and turns
were drawn from an original short-story
concept by Nolan's brother Jonathan,
over

Leonard's

creates a narrative link between his short

story and the film.
There

dren

who described the idea to his older
The Cinesaddle does

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tripod does but better. It also works as
a dolly and crane besides being a ear,
bike, boat and helicopter mount.
Weighs 1-1/2 lbs. 1 cubic foot in size.
CINESADDLE for
and video

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blow to the head has robbed him of his

cameras

MINISADDLE for
cameras

professional film

sibling during a drive from Chicago to Los
Angeles. Trapped within the tale's everwidening gyre is Leonard Shelby (Guy
Pearce), a man determined to track down
his wife's killer
despite the fact that a

consumer

DV

and camcorders

Tripod Killer Video - $10
Cinesaddle + Video $300
Minisaddle + Video $275

short-term memory. Leonard uses a
combination of hastily scribbled notes,
Polaroid

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G/ri&K/NGTfC

Leonard

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photos, detailed diagrams and

self-inflicted tattoos to stay on track in
his dogged quest for vengeance. As

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approaches

the

"truth,"

however, the story begins to double back
on

itself with the

Mobius

www.cinesaddle.com

inevitability of

a

strip.

In lesser hands, this

act

high-wire
might have tumbled into the abyss

of incoherence, but Nolan and cine¬

matographer Wally Pfister avoid the fall
blocking, artfully rendered
compositions and a logical progression
of ideas. Pfister obviously relished the
challenge of exploring the mystery from
Leonard's fractured point of view, and
he takes great care in presenting the
film's myriad clues from both subjective
(color) and objective (black-and-white)
perspectives. (For more details about
Pfister's first-rate cinematography, see
AC April '01.)
The film's beautifully nuanced
images are impeccably rendered on this
digitally mastered DVD, which manages
to retain the theatrical version's cryptic
pull. Rumors that the disc might include a
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reedited version of the movie, laid out in

straight chronological order, turn out to
be false, but truly fanatical sleuths could
conceivably restructure the film them¬
selves by cueing up the individual
sequences in reverse order. The DVD's

heavily inked skin; and a peek
designed by Jonathan that

at a Web site

are

no

audio

commen¬

taries, but the DVD includes New York
Times film critic Elvis Mitchell's interview
of director Nolan, which originally aired
on the Independent Film Channel. The
articulate filmmaker offers Mitchell
some

illuminating insights into his artis¬

tic process; noting that he sought to rein¬
vent the classic "amnesia thrillers" he
has

always enjoyed as a viewer, Nolan
his sly use of intentionally unreli¬
able voiceover narration by Leonard. Fie
adds that he was also intrigued by the
opportunity to play with the "over-famil¬
iar tropes" of film-noir, which led him to
try to put viewers "as firmly as possible
cops to

into Leonard's head" in order to make

them

"question their own process of
little bit, the way we did when
we were making the film." Given that
many film buffs are still dissecting and
debating the picture's more elusive clues,
it's safe to say that Nolan succeeded.
memory a

(Ed. note: Memento admirers may
want to seek out the 1983 British drama

Betrayal, whose screenplay, penned by
playfully perverse Harold Pinter,
moves backward in time to explore the
gradual, agonizing breakdown of a
marriage.)
Stephen Pizzello

the

-

Bronx Cheer

Eagle-eyed ASC member Sol
Negrin points out that our September
installment of DVD Playback mistakenly
asserts that Stanley Kubrick was raised
in Brooklyn, New York, when in fact the
great filmmaker was a native of the
Bronx.

Since

DVD

columnist

Chris

Pizzello grew up in Boston, perhaps he
can be excused for this mistake, which
may
-

be due to

a

subconscious prejudice

after all, the Bronx is home to the

extras include Jonathan Nolan's short

Yankees, the archenemies of every Red

story; the theatrical trailer and TV ad; a
trailer for Chris Nolan's first film, the

Sox fan.

existential cult gem

Following; a "tattoo
gallery" offering close-up views of
American Cinematographer - November 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2001
