'Vertigo' versus 'Memento': Page 10

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361:

Vertigo 2:02:32 vs.

Memento 1:42:52

Being haunted by the person they lost.

362:

Vertigo 2:02:41 vs.

Memento 1:43:00

Don’t confuse me with that other person.

363:

Vertigo 2:04:04 vs.

Memento 1:43:05

Remembering.

364:

Vertigo 2:04:10 vs.

Memento 1:43:12

The taunt that goes too far.

Judy, in a last ditch effort to save herself, reminds Scottie of his disability. Teddy mimics Leonard’s retelling of Sammy’s story mockingly – but gets the most consistent detail wrong.

365:

Vertigo 2:04:12 vs.

Memento 1:43:16

No, you’ve got me wrong.

366:

Vertigo 2:04:17 vs.

Memento 1:43:22

That was my failing, and I admit to it now.

367:

Vertigo 2:04:19 vs.

Memento 1:43:24

That man’s wife? No, he didn’t have a wife (in the end, at least).

368:

Vertigo 2:04:24 vs.

Memento 1:43:30

The real/fake wife.

369:

Vertigo 2:04:26 vs.

Memento 1:43:43

No, that’s a counterfeit – a false copy.

Important to note that the next few seconds in Memento have Leonard first seeing a false memory (giving his wife an insulin shot) and the second being the real memory of pinching her hip teasingly.

370:

Vertigo 2:04:29 vs.

Memento 1:44:03

This innocent person, someone else's spouse or partner, was/is already dead.

371:

Vertigo 2:04:37 vs.

Memento 1:44:11

This tiny detail really does matter to him.

372:

Vertigo 2:04:39 vs.

Memento 1:44:14

To the blonde, this means everything.

According to Judy, her love for Scottie made her want to stop the murder she was already accomplice to – and getting the correct vengeance for his wife matters more to Leonard than his ability to remember it.

373:

Vertigo 2:04:51 vs.

Memento 1:44:23

This has all happened before.

Judy’s makeover into Madeleine happened previously at Gavin’s hands, and Teddy reveals that Leonard has killed more than one “John G” without remembering it.

374:

Vertigo 2:05:03 vs.

Memento 1:44:36

Don’t lie to me anymore.

375:

Vertigo 2:05:08 vs.

Memento 1:44:39

He trained you and rehearsed you.

Scottie continues about Gavin’s makeover of Judy, while Teddy’s letting us know that he was in position to manipulate everything from the start. An application of logic tells us that Teddy would have had access to plant the drugs in the attacker’s car, alter the crime scene, and redact the files given to Leonard. Literally he has guided much of Leonard’s life since his wife’s death.

376:

Vertigo 2:05:14 vs.

Memento 1:44:51

You did everything just like he told you to.

Teddy engineered the conditions under which Leonard murdered the first “John G.”

377:

Vertigo 2:05:16 vs.

Memento 1:45:20

You (didn’t) learn very well.

378:

Vertigo 2:05:24 vs.

Memento 1:45:24

Your disability is the reason why this happened.

Scottie was asking Judy why he was chosen to be the patsy for this murder plot.

379:

Vertigo 2:05:28 vs.

Memento 1:45:32

I was the setup/I set you up.

Scottie was set up to alibi the real Madeleine’s “suicide”, and Teddy took an incriminating picture of Leonard covered in blood, with the picture itself smeared with the victim’s blood.

380:

Vertigo 2:05:39 vs.

Memento 1:45:42

I made it versus I’ve done it (but the game’s not actually over yet.)

Scottie’s reached the top of the tower without being crippled by his vertigo, and in the picture Leonard’s indicating where his eventual “I’ve done it” tattoo will go… but we haven’t reached the end yet.

381:

Vertigo 2:05:47 vs.

Memento 1:45:55

Looking at the scene of the crime.

Scottie means literally – but in Memento the only way for Leonard to review the scene of the crime is to keep revisiting his police file. (It’s also something of an active crime scene, as it’s the means by which Teddy has continued manipulating him.)

382:

Vertigo 2:06:08 vs.

Memento 1:45:57

You hid (things from yourself).

Teddy suggests that Leonard performed his own redactions to the file. But if that were so, how would he know exactly how many pages are missing?

383:

Vertigo 2:06:11 vs.

Memento 1:46:06

Town.

384:

Vertigo 2:06:15 vs.

Memento 1:46:14

You were his girl/I was her boy.

This one tickles me so much; I love it.

385:

Vertigo 2:06:21 vs.

Memento 1:46:27

You poor thing (he taunts the blonde sarcastically).

386:

Vertigo 2:06:25 vs.

Memento 1:46:33

Living the/a dream.

Note also the brunet character being lit by a rough portal behind him in both shots.

387:

Vertigo 2:06:29 vs.

Memento 1:46:38

A dead wife, and (no) sense of purpose to your life.

The wife’s dead in both cases, but Judy’s left without purpose after Gavin abandons her. Meanwhile Teddy’s suggesting that Leonard has constructed this fantasy to justify his continued existence. Nice rough stone behind the blonde in both shots.

388:

Vertigo 2:06:31 vs.

Memento 1:46:48

But he knew he was safe. He knew you couldn’t talk/kill.

Teddy is remarkably sanguine about Leonard holding a gun to his throat.

389:

Vertigo 2:06:33 vs.

Memento 1:46:57

Did he give you anything?

The necklace in the shot in Vertigo lines up with the keys in Memento, and we’ll see that confirmed in a moment.

390:

Vertigo 2:06:35 vs.

Memento 1:46:59

Some money.

Actual cash in Judy’s case – and Teddy offering to buy Leonard a beer. Alternate sides of the blonde’s face are lit.

391:

Vertigo 2:06:37 vs.

Memento 1:47:02

Keeping the necklace versus throwing away the keys.

392:

Vertigo 2:06:40 vs.

Memento 1:47:17

Made your mistake versus make things right.

393:

Vertigo 2:06:43 vs.

Memento 1:47:44

You shouldn’t keep souvenirs of a killing.

394:

Vertigo 2:06:50 vs.

Memento 1:48:03

You shouldn’t be/You think I’m sentimental?

395:

Vertigo 2:06:56 vs.

Memento 1:48:13

You could have been/can be mine.

396:

Vertigo 2:07:07 vs.

Memento 1:48:23

Do I lie to myself to be happy?

The argument could be made that Judy’s lying now to save herself – or that she lied to herself about loving Scottie so much that she couldn’t just leave the area.

397:

Vertigo 2:07:12 vs.

Memento 1:48:57

Mistaken for a dead girl/guy, and love versus death yet again.

398:

Vertigo 2:07:22 vs.

Memento 1:49:06

The last person in a position to make demands makes one final demand.

Teddy’s request here is so ludicrous it stuck out to me on the first watching and I laugh at it every time I see it.

399:

Vertigo 2:07:24 vs.

Memento 1:49:33

This is where I make my stand.

Scottie decides that nothing can save the love he had for the lost Madeleine, and Leonard resolves to trust that he hasn’t invented his situation wholecloth.

400:

Vertigo 2:07:31 vs.

Memento 1:49:47

One last flirtation with love and death.

Scottie kisses the woman who will be lost to him forever (on a number of levels, even if she had lived) – and Leonard closes his eyes white driving a car at a fairly good speed.

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