Temporal distortion, a characteristic of postmodernism, has become increasingly popular in films. In Vantage Point, the director uses temporal distortion to provide the viewer with an understanding of the various viewpoints of the characters, without piecing the entire movie together. Instead the viewer is left with many "aha" moments and a few surprises at the end. Temporal distortion allows the director to give the clues to the watcher, while simultaneously confusing him and forcing him to miss a few clues. This provides a more dramatic and unexpected conclusion to the movie.
Memento also functions around temporal distortion as the viewer is only provided with short snippets of time that are gradually pieced together for him. This forces the reader to be more attentive and active when he tries to piece together a linear timeline for the events.
In Memento the temporal distortion is necessary in order to inhibit the viewer similarly to Lenny. Lenny's condition severely inhibits him from being able to piece together clues in order to realize what is happening to him, who his wife's murderer is, and who he can trust/how he is being deceived. Because the temporal distortion of the movie prevents the viewer from forming a reliable timeline of events, and only allows the viewer to see certain clips of events at a time, he is similarly inhibited and is left questioning what is happening to Lenny. While the viewer does have the power of memory, which allows him to piece together the snippets he is shown, he is only presented confusing bits of information, and therefore left questioning just as Lenny is. The viewer, therefore, doesn't have much more knowledge than Lenny does and is still subject to the manipulation of the director.
No comments:
Post a Comment