Memento: Parallel Cut

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.