Brain Damage: Neo Noir in the Nineties (Part II)

by Eric Szyszka

(continued from Part I)

The Usual Suspects functions as a "cool" movie through the mental landscape and usage of a disjointed narrative structure through flashbacks. The style of the film is clearly in the hyper style, as there are multiple montages, including the one we looked at, that just cut and cut and cut. We are presented with information in this film at break-neck speeds. However, in this the movie takes on a new aesthetic path far different from classic noir. There are a few shots with shadowy figures but in general the film is rather clear and straight-forward in its camera work. Instead of showing Soze in a shadow, we simply see his mid-section; it is the same ideal as the original film noirs but executed differently. While this effect, used consistently in the film, does make Keyser Soze and crime seem glamorous, it is different than the classic look and is not being retro for simply retro's sake, but rather an attempt to take a retro idea to a new level. However, Memento (2000) directed by Christopher Nolan has even less of a visual homage to classic noir but remains still heavy on gimmick. Memento yet has a much deeper and more complex anxiety than neo-noirs of the early 90's or any other time could have maintained.

While it can be terrifying to realize you were just suffocated in a web of lies, it is far worse to realize that you were actually the one lying to yourself. Noir protagonists are usually single men emotionally burdened with betrayals or losses suffered somewhere in the past, often psychologically flawed or wounded and sometimes fatally incapacitated. This summary of the noir leading man defined by critic Ray Pratt rings true for the neo-noir picture Memento (2000). In Memento we are presented with Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) who is a composite of the standard private investigator of film noir fame, a regular Sam Spade or Mike Hammer, but cross-bred with someone like completely flawed insurance salesman Walter Neff from Billy Wilder's 1944 masterpiece Double Indemnity. What is the result of this mixture? A brain damaged insurance investigator. It was Leonard Shelby's job to investigate insurance claims and the profession alone is extremely fascinating but Nolan one-ups it once more by making Shelby a serial killer that is unbeknownst to his own wake of murder. He also has no short-term memory what-so-ever since the rape and murder of his wife by the alleged "John G," whom he is hunting across the Californian country-side. He had been knocked in the head by a rapist and murderer giving, him severe head trauma, and almost completely destroying the function of memory making, save for the fact Leonard can learn through instincts and repetition, a.k.a. conditioning. In a typical "noir"-ish fashion, Shelby is surrounded by people who may be aiding him, deceiving him, or doing a little of both. Though the film teasingly simulates the authority of the hardboiled private-eye by granting him a voice-over narration, his debilitating condition of short-term memory loss subverts any claim he makes to producing a sustained, coherent narrative, either about himself or others. Shelby is an incredibly unreliable narrator who does tell us through voice over what is going on in his head, yet most of this serves to guide us through the fact he does not remember what is happening. The voice-over is not an effective or integrated storytelling device as it was The Usual Suspects (1995). It mostly functions for laughs during moments such as when Shelby is seemingly chasing a man. ("Okay, what am I doing? I'm chasing this guy. ... Nope. He's chasing me.") The film is also run backwards, scene by scene, as the protagonist actively lies to himself. Leonard's condition makes self-deception not only possible, but potentially deadly.

Memento (2000) is perhaps the most accurate and compelling neo-noir that works through the mental landscape. Leonard Shelby's condition of not being able to make new memories has been an actual documented phenomenon and his case is similar to one recorded by noted neurologist and author Oliver Sacks. The patient being referred to by Sacks as Jimmie G could be the source name the prey of Leonard he has been hunting ever since the demise of his wife. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) did a report on movies that deal with memory and concluded that in Memento (2000), unlike most films in this genre, this amnesic character retains his identity, has little retrograde amnesia, and shows several of the severe everyday memory difficulties associated with the disorder. The fragmented, almost mosaic quality to the sequence of scenes in the film also cleverly reflects the "perpetual present" nature of the syndrome. However, the film is not simply an illustration of a neurological disorder – like any noir it also helps reinforce the white male dominant perspective. This is done specifically by introducing a vicious femme fatale by the name of Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) who uses Leonard with his full knowledge only because she knew the memory would fade. This makes Leonard completely victimized and a very sympathetic protagonist. There is also a strong undercurrent of misogyny that develops through the character of Natalie: just as The Usual Suspects (1995) exploits the Far East for its cool factor in the modern Fu Manchu ironically portrayed by a white man, Memento (2000) does the same with women.

Towards the end of the film there is a scene that takes the audience and puts them into Leonard's shoes so we don't know what to believe. Do we believe our guide, Shelby himself, who admits to being unreliable, or John "Teddy" Gammell who admits to lying to Shelby? As William G. Little who has written extensively on the film, notes that Leonard's "lengthy exchange with Teddy is so heavy with layers of possible fabrication as to make it impossible to know the truth," and that's the dilemma we're faced with. As in The Usual Suspects, here the active role of the viewer takes on the role of detective in an attempt at deciphering the narrative truth.

And here too, as in The Usual Suspects, one scene in particular stands out in the realm of flashback and memory. This is a scene towards the climax of the film where Leonard is told by Teddy that there was no Sammy Jankis (another man with memory problems who through them accidentally murdered his wife) and that Leonard made him up through conditioning his own memory and thereby changing it post-facto. Much as in The Usual Suspects (1995) we're given a series of flashbacks that change from moment to moment. We do not know what to believe in. We are unsure if Teddy is lying or Leonard is lying to himself. However, since we have been limited to his perspective for the whole film it is jarring to see him second guess himself but nevertheless that is what he is doing. The flashbacks in this film are not the made-up ideas of another person like David Kujan's ideas conquering Verbal's flashback story. Here neo-noir has hit the ultimate level of paranoia, with a protagonist who can never trust himself and instead must leave himself a postmodern maze that he has to weed through several times a day. The scene in question follows:

We stare into the shocked eyes of our bumbling protagonist, Leonard, as Teddy starts to explain a version of "the truth." Which neither we nor Leonard know how to even begin to decipher. "It was your wife who had diabetes," Teddy says with almost a smile. We get a fast cut to Mrs. Shelby blinking under the shower curtain in which she was raped. We cut closer to her as she pulls off the curtain. We get even closer to her once she is uncovered; it is all done in a very kinetic style. Back to Leonard with Teddy as they just look at each other for a moment. We then get another flashback of Mrs. Shelby brushing her hair, she says "Ouch," and looks down. It is revealed that Leonard just finished injecting her with insulin. Onto Leonard again, "My wife wasn't diabetic." The series of shots are fast, quick, and in the MTV style. Suddenly we are back on Teddy's face: "you sure?" Close on Leonard, yet again, and then we see her again saying, "Ouch," but this time Leonard is simply pinching her. Leonard steps back, "She wasn't diabetic. Think I don't know my own wife?" Leonard begins to lean on the wall then squats down to the ground, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he asks. Teddy responds, "Well, I guess I can only make you remember the things you want to remember."

This is another case of flashbacks being unreliable but instead of just being presented with a lie we honestly don't know nor will know the actual truth. Indeed, Memento (2000) deals explicitly with the mental as it was the focal point of the film and its selling point. Shelby has been the most interesting and multi-dimensional character to come out of the recent noir world. Out of the classic period, Memento probably most resembles a little known film gris, Fear in the Night (1947) starring a young DeForest Kelley. This particular story involves a man with amnesia trying to solve a crime he can not remember, but while Fear in the Night ultimately ends happily, Memento does not. We get a bitter view of the world with Memento, where the only escape Leonard can see is to force himself to murder once more simply to complete a self-destructive cycle and once and for all end his relationship with Teddy, a corrupt cop, who is using him to murder people for him. Out of the many people that take advantage of Leonard Shelby and his condition, the character of Natalie stands out. She tests his memory by getting everyone in a bar, including Shelby himself, to spit into a beer. She then serves him the beer. After this she forces him to hit her by constantly teasing him and characterizing his dead wife as nothing more than "a fucking whore." She also attempts to get Leonard to kill a drug dealer for her own personal, presumably financial, gain. Natalie is a classic femme fatale: brutal, cunning, and out for only her own interest. This is a common noir portrait of women and has continued throughout the ages. Memento's substance does not only lie in the detailed information on this particular type of condition but in the supposed fact that women are evil. Again this is far from a progressive message, but all these types of films work as ideological reinforcement for the audience.

Neo-noir in the 1990's and every incarnation of noir had to adapt into every historical phase as it grew. The mean streets of contemporary America have nothing do with guys in trenchcoats on rain-slicked pavement, nothing to do with martinis and smoke rings. The field of imagination and memory seemed like a logical leap as films like The Usual Suspects (1995) and Memento (2000) sprang up. While both of these are on a new chartered plane of the mental for this "perspective" on cinema, some may argue that even basic murder shows a sign of mental illness and is within nearly every noir narrative, including the classic period. The 1970's, however, took it much further by attacking institutions and governments in thrillers like The Parallax View (1974) and the institution of city life in movies like Taxi Driver (1976) and Death Wish (1974); but the 1990's then brought us to a level beyond distrust of those around us (classic period) and distrust of institutions (70's) and into a realm where the protagonist can't even trust himself. The noir had transcended the physical world to that of the mental. Some may argue that this jump was only done for low-budget reasons as according to Village Voice writer Paul Arthur, "[neo-noir] has emerged as the missing link between classical and postmodern moviemaking and a virtual rite of passage for indie directors," (Bryan Singer director of The Usual Suspects himself stated, "Film noir, especially the heist film, is a cheap way to make an action movie. That's what makes it so attractive to new filmmakers.") However, the amount of money involved in a project does not necessarily mandate the substance it provides or sticks to the classic period's meditations on foreigners and gender relations, nor is it the sole reason for a journey into the head. The mental was the final frontier in the 90's. The films also had to find a way to make themselves fresh in an increasingly tired and aging category known as "noir." However, as we do continue into the new millennium, the noir style will continue to surface – call it "neo-noir" or "new noir" or "film après noir," there will always be a woman dragging a weak man down, using her sexuality as a weapon to make him commit criminal acts – and he won't get the money or the dame, just punishment, legal or self-inflicted, for his stupidity. The world of the film noir will endure as long as there are ideological struggles within culture and the urge for those threatened to find a creative outlet for it. The biggest question for the future is the following: if and when the noir of the mind is over, what will be the next step? What can exist beyond the realm of thought?