Double Feature: Memento & Bad Timing

Christopher Nolan is considered by many to be one of the most celebrated directors working in the new millennium. Films like “Dunkirk”, “Interstellar”, “Inception” and The Dark Knight Trilogy have cemented his status as an auteur. Before making his status with big budget features, he made his film debut with the ultra low budget “Following” which was then followed by the film that caught the attention of studios, “Memento”. The film tells the story of Leonard, (Guy Pierce) a man with short term memory loss who looks for his wife’s killer. The film is told in non-linear fashion as it plays backwards and flashes back in time. It also has elements of a film noir with examples like Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” and Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past”. I have seen the film many times after the first viewing left me confused but this is normal for these kinds of films where we are not familiar with the structure of the narrative. However, there was a film released twenty years prior that I think influenced the story structure to Nolan’s film.

British cinematographer turned director Nicolas Roeg is known for his films that have been likened to a maze. Films such as “Performance”, “Walkabout”, “Don’t Look Now” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth” have been praised for their style and storylines. In 1980, Roeg releases “Bad Timing” which tells the story of a psychoanalyst (Art Garfunkel) in Cold War Vienna who has an intense love affair with a married woman (Theresa Russell) that leads her to overdose on drugs. Harvey Keitel plays an Austrian detective who is trying to figure what happened with the woman. Like “Memento”, “Bad Timing” jumps back and forth in time to their first encounter and the investigation at the hospital. The innovative editing and a soundtrack that includes music by The Who and Tom Waits make this film a stand out. The casting of Art Garfunkel as a psychoanalyst might seem weird but his performance works as is the rest of the cast. Upon first release, the film was met with harsh criticism due to its raw sexual content and the actions of the characters. I first saw the film a few months back and it was an experience. After seeing it recently, the plot was easy to understand and questions I had on my first viewing answered. Interestingly, both Nolan and Roeg have cited Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges as an influence on their work. Borges’ work was mostly short stories that have themes of labyrinths, dreams, philosophy and religion. It is easy to see both filmmakers put these themes into their films.

A film professor told the class once that a great film leads to multiple viewings. I have seen both of these films more than once and it really helped me appreciate them. Watching it a second time, I began to see things I didn’t’ notice the first time. Had the films structure was in chronological order, it would have lost that element of mystery. I have no doubt that Nolan was influenced by the films of Roeg not just in “Memento” but also in his other work. Other filmmakers that seem to be influence by Roeg also include Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and other directors who attempted to make a non-linear plot. I highly recommend having a double feature with these two films and see if there are any similarities with the two.