'Vertigo' versus 'Memento': Page 2

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41:
Vertigo 31:04 vs.
Memento 19:02

But it does seem silly.


42:
Vertigo 31:30 vs.
Memento 19:14

See, or don’t see, for yourself.


Bonus: In Vertigo, Madeleine actually did disappear the moment Scottie took his eyes off her.

43:
Vertigo 32:34 vs.
Memento 19:29

I want to hear some history.


44:
Vertigo 32:43 vs.
Memento 19:37

How the girl looks (is actually unimportant).


45:
Vertigo 32:55 vs.
Memento 19:43

No, I mean give me something real.


46:
Vertigo 33:08 vs.
Memento 20:03

Feeling all the very specific details.


47:
Vertigo 33:15 vs.
Memento 20:07

A collection of words... which is really all a bookshop is.


48:
Vertigo 33:20 vs.
Memento 20:14

The man's feeling all the very specific details again.


I think it might be safe to say that 'who shot who' is an extreme moment.

49:
Vertigo 33:27 vs.
Memento 20:22

You’re (not) someone who puts all the details together.


Bonus: a woman seen in front of versus a woman seen behind several panes of glass.

50:
Vertigo 33:29 vs.
Memento 20:28

Well enough to know.


51:
Vertigo 33:42 vs.
Memento 20:36

The woman we’ve been focused on is abruptly gone.


It’s fun that this action in Vertigo causes the somewhat sudden conversational shift in Memento to...

52:
Vertigo 33:52 vs.
Memento 20:52

A change in location that could be useful.


Speaking of abandoned places, the Argosy Bookshop doesn't have a lot of browsing shoppers at this time of day...

53:
Vertigo 33:58 vs.
Memento 20:56

Someone I remember (who died tragically and violently).


54:
Vertigo 34:02 vs.
Memento 21:01

Descriptors.


55:
Vertigo 34:12 vs.
Memento 21:07

Give the woman what’s hers by rights... but it's not money.


56:
Vertigo 34:24 vs.
Memento 21:11

I’ve forgotten the details, unfortunately.


57:
Vertigo 34:31 vs.
Memento 21:20

An offering of something.


In Vertigo the cigarette is declined by both Scottie and Midge; in Memento Leonard takes the key but honestly isn’t sure if it belongs to him.

58:
Vertigo 35:16 vs.
Memento 21:30

I honestly can’t say if they were treated well. (Spoiler: they weren’t.)


59:
Vertigo 36:15 vs.
Memento 21:40

Death versus life.


Midge appears to be standing directly across from Pop, watching him speak. Natalie is seated across from Leonard, speaking very intently to him.

60:
Vertigo 36:30 vs.
Memento 21:45

And now I’ll take my leave of you.


Loving how this scene gets darker and darker in Vertigo, but ever brighter in Memento.

61:
Vertigo 36:45 vs.
Memento 22:19

Time for you to tell me about the central figure of mistaken/subverted identity.


62:
Vertigo 37:07 vs.
Memento 22:26

The blonde is seeing through people’s bullshit.


63:
Vertigo 37:09 vs.
Memento 22:31

Is it someone I’ve met before? Do I know them?


64:
Vertigo 37:15 vs.
Memento 22:33

But don’t worry – I’ll figure it out from the clues I already have.


Bonus: Midge is looking into Scottie’s eyes/face to watch his reaction and see if she’s right.

65:
Vertigo 37:29 vs.
Memento 22:43

This is what someone else thinks.


I love the matching grins here.

66:
Vertigo 37:31 vs.
Memento 22:46

Question and answer: Well, what do you think?


67:
Vertigo 37:33 vs.
Memento 22:49

It’s all about context (but now we’re not talking about them, we’re talking about her).


68:
Vertigo 37:40 vs.
Memento 22:50

Yes, as a personal admission about myself.


The line in Memento comes as a non sequitur, making it stick out enough to be more noticed.

69:
Vertigo 37:42 vs.
Memento 22:52

And in my whole career, this is the first time I’m feeling challenged.


Slightly different reasons, here: in Vertigo, Scottie’s interested in someone else’s wife enough to begin to trespass his own morality, and in Memento, Sammy is the only person that Leonard can’t accurately read.

70:
Vertigo 37:45 vs.
Memento 23:02

(I thought this was) Goodbye.


Teddy is basically wearing a copy of Midge's blouse and jacket here, on the opposite side of the screen -- but we still get the steering wheel in both shots.

71:
Vertigo 38:06 vs.
Memento 23:13

Sitting behind the wheel of a parked car, looking down at a picture of someone who perhaps has been misrepresented to the man looking at it...


Scottie's looking at the catalog photo of Carlotta; Leonard's looking at the polaroid of Teddy. Nice matched shots, but I suppose you'll get that with two American cars.

72:
Vertigo 38:24 vs.
Memento 23:21

Talking about the misattributed representation of our fears to a murderer, and the other man says Yes.


Bonus, ever so slightly out of order: This is a gentlemen’s club in Vertigo vs a diner in Memento, and the chandelier in the background is giving me a visual rhyme to the order wheel – especially with the two strangers in proximity to it.

73:
Vertigo 38:29 vs.
Memento 23:25

That other character/situation is unimportant. What else do you know?


74:
Vertigo 39:26 vs.
Memento 23:37

And here’s the setup.


75:
Vertigo 39:50 vs.
Memento 23:45

How do you actually know all these things? Just through notes and pictures?


76:
Vertigo 39:53 vs.
Memento 23:50

The perfidy of memory...


– a subject about which Leonard is very passionate (and thus the gap while he rants about it.)

He’s also giving us a meta about the movie itself: small details will change in the movie that could be written off as continuity errors, but are built in to cause us to question our own eyes and recollection – to put us on the off-footing in the same way that Leonard is forced to live his own life.

Bonus: Protagonist in a brownish suit, bad guy in a gray outfit, with positions on screen reversed.

77:
Vertigo 40:02 vs.
Memento 24:23

A woman died, and this affects someone else’s ability to live.


78:
Vertigo 40:15 vs.
Memento 24:50

Ending on a bon mot while we're looking down and away; we’re joking but not really joking.


From 40:15 to 44:45 in Vertigo a gap occurs for more stalking; Madeleine throws herself into the bay, then Scottie rescues her and takes her to his place, strips her down to dry her clothes in his kitchen, and puts her in his bed until she wakes up. Saucy!
79:
Vertigo 44:45 vs.
Memento 25:03

A phone/bell rings.


In Vertigo it’s the phone (presumably Gavin) and in Memento Leonard rings the hotel lobby bell. Neither set of captions captures this so I guess we can’t have it all.

80:
Vertigo 45:11 vs.
Memento 25:10

I know what you want without you having to ask for it.


Plotmapping 101
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