Memento: Parallel Cut

Updated
 
9.8 (9)
4461 0 1 0 10
mementoparallel_front
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2000
Original Running Time:
113
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
104
Time Cut:
9
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Leonard Shelby can't make new memories. He can remember everything up until the night that his wife was murdered, but everything that happens after fades within a few minutes. Ever since that night, Leonard has been searching for the man that killed his wife, John G.

Leonard wakes up in a motel room and receives a phone call. 5 hours later, Leonard pulls up to a tattoo parlor with information that could enable him to finally track down John G and get revenge. The two plotlines proceed chronologically in parallel until they both culminate in a shocking conclusion.
Intention:
This is an attempt to make a version of the movie that moves forward chronologically while still working as a narrative and standing on its own. Intercutting between the black and white and color plotlines allows the story to have suspense over what's going to happen next, while still maintaining the mystery of how and why this is happening. Some additional cuts and modifications have been made to make the story and pacing work with the new structure.
image
Special Thanks:
My previewers, That One Guy, Wilheim Scream, and Heavyside. It'sOnRandom, for helping with the cover art.
Release Information:
  • Digital
  • DVD
  • Blu-Ray
Editing Details:
Editing Software: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Audacity, Sony DVD Architect Pro
Cuts and Additions:
The color segments have been resequenced in chronological order, intercut with the black and white segments. In many cases, multiple segments that were separate in the theatrical cut have been stitched together to improve pacing and flow.

The fades from and to black at the beginning and end, respectively, of each of the theatrical cut's black and white segments have been removed, so that the movie now has straight cuts between the black and white and color plotlines, and to help stitch some black and white segments together.

The theatrical cut's final color segment has been changed to black and white to provide a conlusion to the edit's black and white plotline, while the edit's color plotline begins with the theatrical cut's second to last color segment, starting with Leonard pulling up to a tattoo parlor with a note that says, "Tattoo: Fact Car License SG13 7IU".

Additional Changes:

- Created a new opening credits sequence, with glimpses of Leonard's long term memories in the background.
- Added "5 HOURS LATER" card when Leonard pulls up to the tatto parlor in what is now the first color segment.
- Used VFX to remove "6" from Leonard's note to "Tattoo: Fact 6," to fix plot hole where Leonard hadn't looked at his tattoos to see how many facts he had already tattooed on himself when he wrote that note.
- Cut "Giving you a load of crap about John G being some local drug dealer, Jimmy Grantz." from Teddy in the tattoo parlor. Since this scene is now near the beginning of the movie, what was part of a series of escalating hints in the theatrical cut would now be too obvious this early on.
- Cut Leonard meeting Natalie outside the bar and Natalie mistaking him for Jimmy, ditto.
- Cut "Your pocket?" from Natalie in the bar, ditto.
- Cut Leonard hanging up the phone and getting called back in the black and white plotline, to make it flow better.
- Cut Leonard picking the wrong room and accidentally knocking some random guy out at Dodd's motel. This keeps the pace up, removes some plot questions (wouldn't the guy call the police or something after he woke up?) and I also was never very comfortable with the movie playing something like this for laughs.
- Cut "But they weren't even looking for John G. The stuff they found in the car just fit it with what they believed had happened, so they didn't chase any of it up." from Leonard, in order to better stitch two black and white segments together.
- Cut Natalie asking Leonard to tell her about his wife at the diner. Now that this scene is late in the movie, this would just slow the pacing down unnecessarily.
- As Leonard is preparing to leave his room in the black and white plotline, remove "So this Jimmy Grantz deals drugs out of the bar where his girlfriend works? But he's not going to bring her along, he'll come by himself, right? I always figured the drugs angle to be the best way to get him." from Leonard, to maintain a bit of mystery until Jimmy shows up at the derelict building.
- Trimmed exposition about Leonard's condition when he talks to Burt in the motel lobby. In the theatrical cut, this was early and necessary exposition about Leonard's condition. In the new sequencing, it's just repeating things that the viewer already knows.
- Reversed backwards footage from the opening of the theatrical cut to show Leonard shooting Teddy and then taking a picture of the body.
- Used VFX to remove "6" from Leonard's note to "Tattoo: Fact 6" as he writes it, to fix plot hole and maintain continuity with the beginning of the edit.
- After Leonard takes a picture of Teddy's body, the movie cuts to Leonard driving away from the derelict building, using footage from the ending of the theatrical cut. This is in color, so it takes place after Leonard shot Teddy. To maintain continuity, some shots are cropped so that the intact driver's side window of the car isn't visible. The part where Leonard stops in front of the tattoo parlor is removed, and instead it cuts to credits as Leonard is driving along and looks at something up ahead, with his narration saying, "Now, where was I?"
- Inserted Fan Edit credits into the end credits.
- Added "Parallel Cut" to the title card at the end of the credits.
Cover art by INH5 (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image


Cover art by INH5 (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image

User reviews

9 reviews
 
100%
7-9 stars
 
0%
5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.9(9)
Audio Editing
 
10.0(9)
Visual Editing
 
10.0(9)
Narrative
 
9.8(9)
Enjoyment
 
9.5(9)
View all user reviews View most helpful
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
First of all, the editing is perfect.
The turning of an apparently simple idea (to create an alternative and more straightforward way to rewatch the film) into this finished fanedit must have been a lot of work.

This may be the best way to rewatch Memento.
For me, though, it also reinforced the issues I had with the original, mainly the oversimplistic story (after removing the formalist shenanigans) and the nonexistent character development.

Still, this fanedit, in itself, is impressive!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
The idea of a parallel cut sounds good on paper, but it is executed even better! The main part of the movie is clean and reasonable, much easier to understand the motivation behind all characters. And the finale is just astonishing putting a whole new perspective on this memory problem.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Blu-Ray
F
2 reviews
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Memento: Parallel Cut - INH5

Filesize = 4 GB, Video = 720 X 480p mpgv, Audio = 448 kbps 5.1 AC3, No subs.

Very interesting cut of a film I struggled with for a few viewings, before deciding it had no story.
I appreciate how the color follow chronologically, while black and white fill in backstory.
The film flirts with Noir, but never commits.
Hate to say it, I was just as frustrated with this edit as I am with the DVD.
Speaking of DVD, the filesize of this strikes me as largish for 480p.
Oh, the rendering is terrific, sharp in all details.
Nonetheless, this is fit on a standard DVD-R blank, for those who still burn.
Dialogue is often murky, especially in B/W scenes, and I wonder if Nolan did that deliberately.
Subs would have helped. Funny thing is, codecs indicate spu subtitles, two tracks. Could not work them on computer or BluRay.
The editing is superb, audio especially.
Truth to tell, I’m not a Nolan diehard. His films are generally overlong, and often empty of substance. I only like three films that came out right in a row.
Nolan fans (that’s you) pick this up, you should really enjoy.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
(Updated: March 02, 2022)
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I love Memento, and it's neck-and-neck for me as Nolan's masterwork (along with Dunkirk) but it occurs to me every time I watch it that its detractors may have a point - that it's too clever by half and doesn't have much to say once you strip away its formalism. My attempts to watch the strictly chronological version included on the 2-disc DVD didn't yield much in the way of insight, just a film that felt backwards even as it moved forwards.

Enter the Parallel Cut -- a new way to experience the film that might be the *best* way to rewatch Memento -- with the "surprises" out of the way, this edit is a fantastic way to maintain the structure while still observing causality between the colour sections. In short, it's propulsive in a way that the original cut, by definition, cannot be, and allows the viewer to appreciate just how airtight and nuanced the plot is, aside from the formalist tricks. Leonard lies to himself just as much as everyone else does to him, and with the back-masking out of the way, one feels the utter isolation and floating loneliness of his quest in this version more acutely than any other.

Not necessarily a shelf-replacer, but rather this is a version of the movie that the studio should reach out to the editor and include on future physical editions of Memento. With the care put into making the bookends of the film feel like legitimate starting-and-ending points, this is a great achievement and a completely, equally valid, even necessary, way to re-experience the film.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
R
Top 10 Reviewer 156 reviews
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 2 1
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Memento is one of my favorite movies of all time. This cut gave me the experience to visite it another time nearly fresh because of it's complete different structure. BUT it's still the same story and it puts the viewer just in diferent shoes so to speek. As if you listen to another witness accout of the same event. I loved that.

I specially liked the ending of the new cut. To have the start and the ending of the original movie cut inbetween is not only an awesome idea for this version but also verry well done. The whole cut of the movie is not only perfectly done on the tecnical side but also in terms of pacing and contend.

Overall this is a perfect Fan-Vision of a perfect movie to begin with. A second opinion so to speak. It won't replace the original (that's impossible) but gives us the chance to engage with it in a diferent way. Thanks a lot for that experience.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
View all user reviews