Next CineSci6 screening: Memento 12 February, 2:30pm

The world doesn’t just disappear when you close your eyes. But for Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) it does. After witnessing the violent death of his wife, he is hell-bent on revenge, but the event has triggered short-term memory loss.

To get by, Shelby has to take Polaroid pictures and copious notes, even having memos tattooed on his body as reminders.

Christopher Nolan’s highly acclaimed and inventive thriller subverts movie narrative convention, as we follow Shelby trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his wife’s death, the last clear memory he has.

The film was inspired partly by case study of patient H. M., who developed severe anterograde amnesia after surgery to control his epileptic seizures. Many experts say that Memento has one of the most realistic and accurate depictions of anterograde amnesia in films.

These issues will be discussed after the screening by Hugo Spiers, who researches spatial cognition, memory and goal-directed behaviour at UCL, and Mo Costandi, blogger at Neurophilosophy, which appears on the Guardian Science blogs.

Make sure you come along, it’s the last CineSci6 for now, but we’ll have news of future screenings so keep checking the blog. For previous screening Q&As, you can listen to the podcasts brought to you by the Pod Delusion.

For tickets, visit the Clapham PictureHouse website.

Post written by Simon Frantz, posted by PaoloV